US Vice President JD Vance has described a life-changing moment he experienced in Wales, detailed in his upcoming book about rediscovering faith. In excerpts published by The Sunday Times, Vance recounts a 2013 trip to the UK with his wife Usha, who had previously lived there.
Near Crash and Castle Visit
Upon landing, Vance nearly crashed their car half a mile from the airport due to unfamiliarity with driving on the left. The couple traveled to north Wales, visiting Caernarfon, where he saw an "extraordinarily old and beautiful castle." He writes: "Its massive exterior walls have survived largely unchanged from the original construction about seven centuries ago. The castle sits on a small peninsula that juts out into the River Seiont. We climbed to the top of the walls and looked down at the docked boats jostling in the water and at the medieval town below."
Vance contrasts the castle's age with his home in Cincinnati, built 150 years ago, and Yale's oldest building from the mid-18th century. "This castle, by contrast, was already hundreds of years old when English settlers first landed in the United States. For nearly a millennium, young men had climbed the castle walls and watched the sun reflected on the surrounding water," he writes.
Scale of Time
He adds: "People sometimes talk about the size of the universe and how small they feel compared to the infinite stars many light-years away. I had never shared that feeling. But here, on the banks of a river I’d never heard of, in a castle we selected as a cool tourist stop, I felt for the first time something similar: the scale of time, and how little of the life of the world we’d ever see."
After Caernarfon, they stopped at a local pub, where Usha introduced him to a "full English breakfast" despite being in Wales. When she asked his thoughts on the castle, he replied: "Blown away. The coolest thing I’ve ever seen, and it’s not particularly close." They also visited Conwy, which he noted "also had a very impressive castle."
Encounter with Local Conservatives
Vance shares another story: "Back in Wales, a couple of utility workers near a downed power line had stopped us as we walked from a pub. 'We’ve never seen you two around here. Where are you from?' 'We’re Americans, just taking a walk.' 'Are you on holiday?' 'Yes.' 'Not sure why you’d want to visit this place!' Hilariously, the utility workers were dedicated conservatives who’d read some of the articles I’d written in National Review. They were Englishmen living in the Welsh countryside who read American conservative periodicals. The world is a strange place, I thought."
The trip shaped their future holidays, encouraging them to "go to the places other tourists don’t." Vance's book, Communion: Finding My Way Back to Faith (William Collins, £20), will be published on July 7.
