Aberaeron

I'd never stopped at Aberaeron before, but thought we'd call there for half an hour before visiting New Quay. First impressions were not good. When we stepped out of the car, there was a bit of rebuilding going on around the promenade:
Apparently they're spending £6,000,000 and using 80,000 tonnes of granite to stop the sea turning Aberaeron into part of Cardigan Bay!

However we soon fell in love with Aberaeron and found out why it is described as the jewel of the Welsh coast. So over four hours later we were still in Aberaeron.

In search of good food, we took to the seas

and went into Cardigan Bay.

I would like to pretend that I caught this spider crab myself:

but the truth is we went on a boat trip looking for Bottlenose Dolphins. We didn't actually see any, but we did see a porpoise and a seal. The skipper would also have a chat with fisherman we passed who would show us their catches, including lobsters:

and edible crabs:

I would recommend the trip, we had a marine biologist who would tell us about what was happening in the bay.

If you're thinking of visiting Aberaeron, tomorrow (29th August 2009) there's a Mackerel Fiesta and also the Welsh Open Tin Bath Regatta! I'll deal with the food shops in the next posts.