During our visit to the Brecon Beacons, we decided to hire a boat at Brecon and whilst there I couldn’t resist a visit to my favourite bookshop. A necessity when visiting Brecon, Brecon Books has the best selection you could possibly find. I personally always head for the history and poetry sections, although this time I also stopped by the art shelves too.
The thing I also love about this store is the selection of books by The Folio Society. The owner has a great eye for older editions of the company’s books and they are prized so well. I always try to get one of two when I’m there -in fact, this store is actually how I first discovered The Folio Society.
I always love how crammed the store is. You truly have to watch where you’re stepping or you could find yourself nose-diving really quickly. This time around I got: Imperial Dancer: Mathilde Kschessinska and the Romanovs by Coryne Hall, History without the Boring Bits: A Curious Chronology of the World by Ian Crofton, Paris Spleen by Charles Baudelaire, At the Court of the Borgia (Folio Society) by Ohann Burchard, The Folio Society Book of the 100 Greatest Portraits by Martin Baley, and Wonders of the World by Simon Goldhill.
I have already cracked into a few of the books and I’m so in love with my selection this time around. I couldn’t ponder excitedly over my purchases though as we were quickly heading off to grab our boat for the next few hours.
We hired a boat for a couple of hours and with bearded boyfriend at the helm we set off! It was so peaceful and chilled, sailing along as we passed quaint cottages, flocks of ducks floating with us for sections, and just taking in the scenery. It was a little hair-raising in parts, especially when passing groups of kayakers and canal boats but for the most part we were fine – I even tried my hand at sailing for a while. Granted it did not last long -my anxiety simply couldn’t handle to fear of colliding with oncoming boats and us all reenacting titanic (in what was only 3 feet of water).
The weather was great too. It did try raining at one point but as our boat had a canopy it really didn’t bother us, if anything it was pretty nice. Seeing the droplets hit the waters surface as we glided on by.
I only wish there was a pub at the other end of the canal. There was a lock for canal boats to travel through but that was the cut-off point for us. We could’ve chilled there with a cold one for a little while but instead, we got out and stretched our legs for a moment before heading on back.
This was probably our most chilled out day. Simply relaxing and taking in the view whilst we went along was so lovely and I think we truly needed the breather.
Cheerio for now!
withsomejam 