North Wales

When we were in Bath we looked at the upcoming weather forecast for North Wales and it didn’t look good – rain every day we planned to be there.  We seriously considered bailing on the UK and just hopping a ferry to France for better weather.  But that would have taken more work than we were willing to take on so after a rather disappointing trip to the Cotswolds we started our drive to Llandudno (pronounced clan-di-dno) near the walled city of Conwy on the north coast of Wales.  I knew almost nothing about the town except that the B&B we were going to stay at was very well rated on TripAdvisor and it was reasonably close to all of the major sites that we wanted to see in the area.  As soon as we drove into town we knew that we had made the right decision.  Llandudno is actually a beautiful Victorian era seaside resort town that is nestled in a bay below a mountain on peninsula called the Great Orme.  Interestingly it has almost no foreign tourists and we heard nothing but a wide variety of English accents the entire time we were there.  There is a big carnival area that stretches about half a mile down a long pier that sits high above the ocean.  The kids were immediately drawn to the variety of, admittedly cheesy, carnival rides and arcade games.  It was sort of the English version of the Santa Monica pier.  It just had a great vibe and the sea air and squawking seagulls reminded us of home.

After our uneven track record with TripAdvisor recommendations we were a bit apprehensive about the B&B we had chosen, but after being met at the door by the cheery owner Steve and shown to our rooms, relief set it.  The rooms were spotless, tastefully decorated, uncluttered and roomy with 14 foot ceilings.  We felt immediately at home.

The next morning I took Bodie and Cracker out on adventure while Keeks and Jen enjoyed some much needed alone time.  We hopped on a 19th century rack-and-pinion tram car which brought us up to the top of the Great Orme (at the time we didn’t even know where it went – we just liked the idea of getting on a tram).  Much to our delight at the top of the Orme there was a really cool playground and the boys played happily while I soaked in the views.  And what views they were!  I really don’t think my pictures can do it justice but I tried my best to capture the magnificence of the location.  The top of the Orme is about 700 feet above sea level and due to the lack of trees (grass, shrubs and wildflowers are the only things that grow on it) you can see for miles in every direction.  The sun breaking though the billowing clouds and illuminating distant coastlines just added to the effect.  It was amazing.

After meeting up again for lunch we all spent the afternoon walking around the pier and beachcombing for sea glass.  Keeks and Bodie also got donkey rides along the beach.  Good fun.

The next day we tried to dive up to the top of the Orme so that Keeks could have a go at the playground but couldn’t find our way up there.  In the process of getting lost we stumbled upon a welsh “ski area” (basically a big hill covered in white plastic carpet) that had a fun looking “toboggan” run (we know them as alpine slides).   We took a couple of runs down on the shiny stainless steel track and we all thoroughly enjoyed ourselves.  Wales was definitely treating us well.

Jen was pretty much done with touring and wanted to chill out in town and I really wanted to see some of the sites so we decided to divide and conquer.  I took Keeks and Bodie out searching for adventure while Jen and Cracker went shopping and tried to book a room in York.  We did the circle trip recommend by Rick Steves and drove to the nearby town of Bets-y-Coed and then up to the pass below Mt. Snowdon into Llanbens where we hoped to catch the train to the summit.  This was 45 minutes of the some of most beautiful countryside I have ever seen.  Lush valleys flooded by lakes and rushing rivers which are fed by water cascading from the grass covered mountains above.  It was truly breathtaking.  Unfortunately the train was sold out for the day so we consoled ourselves with ice cream (a surefire way to ease the disappointment of small boys) and moved on to our 2^nd choice destination – Caernarfon Castle.   Caernarfon is a truly amazing castle and walled city on the Welsh coast and is the place of the investiture of the Prince of Wales.  It is completely different than Warwick castle in so many ways and is defintely a more authentic castle experience.  After paying the entrance fee you pretty much have free reign of the place and can wonder though the castle’s elaborate passages and climb claustrophobia inducing spiral staircases to the gut wrenching heights of highest towers.  Keeks, who had been adamant about not wanting to go to a castle, was in heaven.  He led us all around the place for a good hour and a half until we heard the bells announcing that we had overstayed our welcome.  When the bells rang we were literally at the top of the highest tower in the castle and the boys began to panic that we would be locked in and bounded down the stairs towards the exit.  When we entered the courtyard we realized we were the only people in the whole complex and I was able to capture the cool shot below of us in a completely empty castle.  We capped the day off with some good pizza and watched local kids crabbing off of the wharf (they used raw liver in a net to attract small crabs and then pulled them out and put them in a bucket – no real purpose – just for fun).

The next day, August 6^th, we packed our bags (we’re getting pretty efficient at this point and can fully pack and vacate in under an hour) and left for York.  On the way we stopped at Conwy Castle so that Cracker could get in on some of the castle romping fun that the other boys had gotten the day before.  Conwy didn’t disappoint and the boys had a blast leading us though the dark passages and tight stair cases up to the top of every tower.  We ended up having to drag them out of there so that we could get out on the road again.

North Wales was the highlight of our trip so far and I would go back in a heartbeat.