Today was a longish walk 21 miles. However it did include a visit to Aberystwyth. Walking into Aberystwyth from the south is a bit odd. You’ve been looking at the town for a while as you walk and it looks quite big and exciting.
Walking in from the South you find a harbour, the justice centre and sod all else. No shops, no pubs , just streets of houses.
However once you turn the corner onto the North beach you’ve got a pier, arcades and more food shops than you can shake a stick at.
Come in from the South and it’s a mile and a half before you can eat😞.
One reason perhaps for the concentration of shops on the North side is the tradition of walking the length of the promenade and then kicking the railings at the north end. This was started to get students at the new Aberystwyth university in the nineteenth century to take more exercise. They could have just moved the students to the South of Aberystwyth then they’d have had to walk to get anything at all.
Further up the coast is Borth , Borth is a very popular area for holiday homes. As the landlord of the Railway pub described it, Wolverhampton-on-sea. A two up, two down in Borth can sell for four hundred thousand. Hence no locals and the pubs have to get their staff from Aberystwyth 8 miles away.