Carol and Peter

Carol and Peter are from Llangollen, North Wales and have visited Cavtat several times. They have kindly offered us their thoughts on Cavtat, Llangollen, family, urbanization.

CP: Could you tell us a bit about yourself?
C:My name is Carol and I am married to Peter and we live in a small village in North Wales. We have two children, (not that they are children at 43 and 40! ). We have three grandchildren, one of which joined the British Army last January 2008. Charlotte, who has joined the army and is 17, Shannon, 16, who is sitting her big exams this summer and is hoping to go into the police force and Jordan who is 13 and wants to be a solicitor. I think he would rather be a footballer or cricketer. Who knows, he is excellent at both sports.

CP: What do you and Pete do?
C: Pete works in a factory about 4 miles away. The factory is quite a large concern and produces chipboard for all major kitchen and flooring outlets. The main factory is in Austria and there are many factories all over the world. Pete does not have to work weekends which means that we get to go out and about. I finished work last June. I was working in an office in Llangollen on our little railway. The railway was closed in the 1960's when a lot of main line railways were closed down in the UK. Our railway was restored during the 1970's and is now a tourist attraction. It does a 16 mile round trip through some of the most lovely scenery. It is a full gauge railway and we run full size engines along the track. I finished in June 2008 as there was new management and we all know that this sometimes does not work.

CP: Rather well said. Among many, Joseph Pieper wrote at lenght and quite superbly about the importance of leisure. In a few words, how do you spend yours?
C: I spend my time painting and decorating in my home and look forward to the summer months when hopefully, weather permitting, i will be able to get some gardening done and sit outside and read. Sounds good!!! Pete and I love to go walking at the weekends and bird watch. We also love to go to one of our hotels and sit outside and have a drink. (once again, weather permitting). We also read quite alot and spend time with the family. CP: You guys live in Llangollen, North Wales. I had a chance to see a photo or two of it and it's quite beautiful. Would you tell us a bit about it?
C: Llangollen does have quite alot of similarities with Cavtat. We are only a small village and we do get lots of tourists in the summer months. People are drawn to Llangollen for its beautiful scenery, its lovely river which runs through the middle of the valley, the old stone bridge over the river and the lovely canal which is usually full of canal boats. We have a lovely river-side park which is great for people coming to Llangollen with small children. We have three lovely hotels which are small and only two storeys high, in keeping with the town. It is a very old village and one or two of the hotels used to be coaching houses as Llangollen was a stopping place for people in the olden days traveling by horse and coach to and fro from London.

CP: This will be your sixth time visiting Cavtat, so obviously you like the place. A word to its people?
C: To all the people of Cavtat, thank you for being so lovely to us and we hope you prosper during 2009. Stay safe and healthy.

'My fear for your lovely Cavtat is that it might become over developed...
This is a problem that we have in Llangollen...
The heart seems to be slowly going out of the community'

CP: Much alike many small tourist resorts in Croatia, Cavtat has seen its share of rapid urbanization. Coming from Llangollen, which seems to share some common aspects with our little town, how do you view these relatively recent developments?
C: My fear for your lovely Cavtat is that it might become over developed. We have noticed over the last few years that more houses are being built on the approach into Cavtat. It is such a beautiful place that it would be so awful if more development went ahead. This is a problem that we have in Llangollen. People from nearby cities are buying land and building houses all over the place. This is going to ruin our village, if it has not already done so. The heart seems to be slowly going out of the community.

CP: What kind of Cavtat would you like to see in times to come?
C: My one bit of advice to the lovely people of Cavtat is to keep your very special place as it is. I know that hotels and shops etc. would all like to increase their profits, but to what cost !!! I know that when you live in a place all your life, you tend to forget how special it is until it is to late and you look around and all the magic has gone and there is nothing but houses, hotels etc. Keep it special and you will always have something so lovely that people will always want to come there.

CP: Thank you Carol, and Peter. Wish you both a great stay.

Related Resources

Wales
Llangollen
Urbanization