After our encounter with The Birds (hat tip, Joe), we visited the Tenby museum which was in the white building on the top of the bluff near the old Norman tower. Inside, I took this picture of a painting that shows the old, walled city of Tenby as it existed in the late 1400s. The view in this picture is from the west, looking east, with St. Catherine’s Island just off shore (at the top, center) and the old Norman tower on the bluff (top, left, above the harbor). The church spire in the middle still stands today and is good to use for orientation while walking around the town.

Tenby was (and probably still is) one of the very few natural harbors on the southern coast of Wales which is why the Normans fortified the city. As you will see, most of the city wall still stands and much of the town still lies within it.

After visiting the museum in order to get a better understanding of the place and its history, we hiked up to the top of the bluff where we looked back, again, at St. Catherine’s Island…

…then turned to see the remains of the original Norman tower…

…we then over the top past the tower and down the harbor side of the bluff…

…until we reached a point overlooking the harbor. The tide here must fall nearly 15 to 20 feet, like it does in Eastbourne.

We continued around the harbor…

…to the other side.

Most of the buildings inside the walled city today are restaurants, pubs, shops and lodgings. It’s very quaint. You can tell from the pictures that they paint the buildings in pastel colors: pinks, yellows and light blues. Charming.

We wound our way through the streets and little alleys…

And next to the old Tudor Merchant House (above, built in the 1400s), we found the most amazing little book store – that’s it on the left.

The place was no more than eight feet wide and was stacked floor to ceiling with books; and I do mean “stacked.” The proprietor claimed that he knew where every book was, but I could discern very little order or method. Yet, when Dale asked if he had any novels set in medieval England, he pulled several out without hesitation.

After digging our way out, we headed to see the city wall, first going out the Five Arches Gate:

…and then walking along the wall…

…back to the waterfront.

And, ultimately, back to the hotel.

We were lucky: the weather cooperated this morning. We’ve been told that April is the month of four seasons, but we think you could almost say that about every day in the month of April. You can have sun, rain, cold, warmth, all in one day. It’s a challenge for us to dress here. In the Keys we live all year in shorts, T-shirts and shoeless.