Visit Wales

In this beautifully filmed and informative travelogue visit to Wales—a part of the United Kingdom, but officially bilingual (Welsh and English)—former BBC presenter Rachel Hicks takes viewers on a guided tour of sites ranging from ancient dwellings to huge castles and modern marvels. While the Egyptians were building the pyramids, settlers in Wales were constructing burial monuments resembling Stonehenge, with multi-ton rocks intricately placed one atop another in a remarkable feat of engineering. The Welsh castles, of course, offer rugged reminders of how lords and kings relied on a show of might to keep the populace in order, yet today, some of these crumbling remains are used for tourists and residents to don wetsuits and take a plunge into the cold ocean waters. Remnants of the Industrial Age also live on, with steam-powered trains (perfectly restored and transporting passengers), museums dedicated to the early mining industry, and aqueducts still in operation. Wales is also known as the land of song, and for arguably its most famous son—writer and poet (and inspiration-to-Bob) Dylan Thomas. Here, viewers will see the boathouse in Laugharne, Carmarthenshire where Thomas wrote Under Milk Wood, a play chronicling a day in the life of an imaginary Welsh seaside village. A fine addition for travel collections, this is recommended. Aud: P. (C. Block)