Wales

Wales is one of the four countries that make up the United Kingdom.  It is on the island of Great Britain, west of England.  Wales is a little smaller than New Jersey and is home to over 3 million people.  Cardiff is the capital and the largest city.




After the Norman invasion of England in 1066, Wales began to fall under English control.  The country was officially annexed by England in 1535.


Wales is partially devolved so some governing takes place in Cardiff while some things are decided in Westminster.  The Welsh do have representatives at the European Parliament.

Unlike Scotland and Northern Ireland, Wales does not issue its own banknotes.  Bank of England notes are used. 

Welsh Alphabet

Everyone in Cmyru speaks English.  However, Wales is officially bilingual.  More than 560,000, about 19% of the population speaks Cymraeg.  Two-thirds of the population live in south Wales but the majority of Welsh speakers reside in north Wales.

In a couple of weeks, Krasimir and I are going to visit Natalie.  We so miss our favorite Kiwi and we will be her first Brno guests since she moved back to London.  Cardiff is only a couple of hours from London so we plan to take a little day trip.

Some day I want to head up north to the island of Anglesey.  There's a village there with the longest place name in Europe.  The village is called... Llanfairpwllgwyngyllgogerychwyrndrobwllllantysiliogogogoch.  And I though that Czech had some tongue twisters.  Here's a video I found on YouTube that tells you how to pronounce it.

Update:  Due to the weather, and our little adventure at Robin Hood airport, we weren't able to make it to Wales.  The floods were so bad in Wales and east England that we opted to visit Cardiff some other time.