This beautifully-appointed, four-star hotel has been newly refurbished and is perfectly situated on the edge of the town centre, a few miles down the road from its big sister, the grand country house hotel Llangoed Hall.\u00a0![\"\"](\"http:\/\/newclone.retiremove.co.uk\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/07\/33032209756_d18afb9555_z.jpg\")
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Boasting a two-rosette restaurant and two bars, the menu at the Swan prides itself on creative uses of locally-sourced ingredients and serving seasonal Welsh dishes; so expect Welsh sausage, fresh vegetables from neighbouring farms, smoked salmon caught in the Severn and Wye rivers, and scrumptious Coedcanlas<\/a> honey.<\/p>\n We enjoyed dinner on the terrace, overlooking a garden that would be perfect for a quick round of croquet. We watched swifts swooping and pirouetting through the evening sky, chasing their own dinner of (locally-sourced) insects.<\/p>\n Ideally located for walkers being on the edge of the Brecon Beacons National Park, Hay is a delightful market town that has found a way to survive in the 21st<\/sup> century: and become known as the \u201cTown of Books.\u201d<\/p>\n Unlike many small towns and villages in the US and UK that have succumbed to the promised convenience of chain stores, only to have their local family-owned businesses go under, Hay has planted a firm foot in the \u2018no, thank you\u2019 camp.<\/p>\n According to my new friend, Jonathan Buck, owner of Forge Framing & Gallery<\/a>, Hay residents were offered a Tesco store nearby but wisely voted it down, opting instead to support their neighbours. \u00a0On my walks around town, I found inviting displays of fresh produce at greengrocers and a bustling trade at the butcher’s.<\/p>\n I was also heartened to find a hardware store that still sells everything from a handful of nails to rolls of chicken wire, and see visitors and locals enjoying lunch at local eateries.\u00a0 Even on a sleepy summer morning, there was still lots of browsing being done at every bookshop I entered\u00a0\u2013 which was, I confess, nearly all of them! \u00a0In addition to promoting a culture of books, Hay also hosts the renowned annual Hay Festival of Literature and the Arts<\/a>, bringing writers, performers and celebrated speakers together in late May from all over the world.<\/p>\n After 30 years of building the festival\u2019s profile and presence, the organisers report that ticket sales now hover around 250,000, an amazing feat for this modest town.\u00a0 We booked our visit just after the festival so we could enjoy a more typical weekend without the hustle and bustle.<\/p>\n As for those fabled bookshops, we found something, quite literally and literarily, for everyone.\u00a0 I tried to estimate how many linear feet of shelf space it must take to support this cottage industry but lost track after a couple of miles.<\/p>\n Try cooking, the Himalayas, fly fishing, mythology, period costumes, aviation, political theory and, as Bedlam Books enigmatically lists it, \u201cobscurities.\u201d \u00a0My musical travelling companion found so much sheet music for viola at Hancock & Monks Music<\/a>, she had to make two trips.<\/p>\n Fleur de Lys, in quintessentially English fashion despite their French name, focuses on books on transportation, the railways and rail memorabilia.\u00a0 For rare and out-of-print children\u2019s books, you must visit the flower-bedecked Rose\u2019s Books<\/a>.<\/p>\n These people clearly love their books and want to share that love with one and all. My only word to the wise: don\u2019t expect the inventory to be computerised.<\/p>\n Most of the shops I visited simply had too many volumes coming in and going out, plus shared consignment display space with smaller vendors, so computer tracking just wasn\u2019t feasible.<\/p>\n On our last day, after I\u2019d visited Hay Cinema Bookshop<\/a> and come away with a new volume on the battle of Bosworth Field and one on Llywelyn ap Gruffydd, the last king of Wales, I celebrated with a visit to The Fudge Shop<\/a>.\u00a0 A sweet end to a decidedly tasty visit!<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"http:\/\/newclone.retiremove.co.uk\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/07\/32574490932_1cd1e7d461_z.jpg\")
The grade-II -listed Swan has 19 spacious bedrooms but no lift, which may be a challenge for the less fit. However the fresh, stylish decor ranging from powder blues and pinks in the comfy bedrooms to bold cerise in the dining room makes it cooling for stays in summer and warm and cosy in winter.<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"http:\/\/newclone.retiremove.co.uk\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/07\/IMG_4422-e1499684696835-200x300.jpg\")
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With an estimated one million books at any one time in this tiny town, you can find everything from those green (or orange)-and-white Penguin Classics to breezy new best sellers to venerable antique volumes bound in fine leather. \u00a0Every genre of prose and every iamb of poetry is on display. And non-fiction subject matter?<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"http:\/\/newclone.retiremove.co.uk\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/07\/33923202093_2293c49470_z.jpg\")
And then there was my personal favourite, Murder and Mayhem<\/a>, specializing in hmmm, let\u2019s guess! Oh, and the books aren\u2019t only on shelves, they\u2019re stacked in teetering piles on every flat surface imaginable:\u00a0 floors, benches, stair treads.\u00a0 The sheer acreage of books in these shops can seem overwhelming and yet the displays are often playful and, at times, ingenious.<\/p>\n