Books, books and guess what more books. (Hay-on-Wye in general)

Member Name: welshwolf

Product:	Hay-on-Wye in general
Date:	09/10/01 (144 review reads)
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I've been to Hay on a number of occasions before for one reason only , books, books and more books. Hay is surprisingly on the River Wye and situated close to the English border, can't give the English to many books!! It's only some half an hour from Brecon and about the same from Hereford.

We decided to do something with the one night in two weeks that we are children free and go somewhere we love hence Hay. A market town its famous for its books and antiques with there being thirty seven book stores in total, and all with in easy walking distance. There are all sorts of bookshops selling old dusty books that quite bluntly do not interest me to stores selling what seem like new books for the fraction of the price on the cover.

The streets are narrow and the town feels as if it has not changed for years. Housing in the area is silly money with a little cottage costing at least £100,000 just because of where it is although it is lovely countryside that is ideal for long walks.

In May of this year the Sunday Times Literature Festival was held in Hay and the Offas Dyke run starts in June.

We decided to stay up in Hay for the night and mix with what looks like a number of eccentric locals. We stayed in the 'Swan on Hay' for £70 a night for the both of us and were quite disappointed. The room was small and the walls paper-thin but the bed was comfy and it was on suite.

In the night we went to the local French restaurant 'The Penny Bun' which was packed. The food and cost was quite reasonable, I had homemade pate to start followed by Pigeon done in a gorgeous sauce for £20. The only drawback was the length of time we had to wait, a bottle of red for the main course to be served.

On Sunday morning we had the cooked breakfast which was reasonable and took a walk along the Wye to get rid of the cobwebs. The bookshops then started to open at 10am and we wondered around the ones we did n
ot have a chance the day before.

If you love books this is the place for you between Jackie and myself we bought twenty four books, her's mostly cookery. Even if you don't like books and idilic place for a weekend break if a bit expensive.

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