Day 6: A day of rest….

A day of rest from riding, a day walking around Hay-On-Wye and browsing bookshops.

It's the first time i've been to Hay-on-Wye and I have to say, from a book collectors/dealers perspective it's a bit disappointing, but it does reflect the UK Book Shop industry. There used to be 39 bookshops in Hay but now about 20, almost half have closed and been replaced by cafes or boutiques. Quite a lot also have modern books only and I struggled to find many (maybe 4 or 5) that had reasonable antiquarian sections but alas nothing that fitted my wants, which are a bit specialised, so I'll be leaving empty handed. I also found quite a few were (IMHO) over priced for what they were or condition the books were in.

We have high rental and business rates in the UK which pushes up the prices of books and especially rare antiquarian books, the more modern books are there to bring in the turnover required for the shops to stay afloat 😪

Dinner in The Blue Boar, great little pub, food & beer very good although a bit pricey but everywhere seems to be these days….. but the staff were exceptional, very friendly and attentive.