Swansea, Wales

PoppySwansea, Wales is generally not a tourist destination town, no tour buses, no cruise ships.  More than once, we were told by those familiar with the town to not go.  It is mostly a working class town with no major sites to see.  The nearby town of Mumbles has an arcade and pier which seemed to be a vacation spot for many UK families with children.  We selected Wales simply since we thought we would not wish to drive further from Chipping Campden, England, working our way to Ireland.  We found Swansea to be refreshingly very much like a US city.  We saw stop lights at intersections instead of roundabouts, large grocery stores, motels with breakfast included and wider roads in town.  Since eating the local foods is a large part of experiencing the region, I was treated to kippers (smoked herring);  laverbread (seaweed puree) and cockles (shelled muscles) at our hotel breakfasts.
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