Trip to Wales in August

Well, I'm back again. Sorry, the pictures are in reverse order. But I'm probably the only one that knew that. So in August we went to North Wales. The kids wanted to see castles. And they had to be big castles and not the pretty little things they had seen so far. So off to Wales we went.



This is Harlech Castle. It was made famous in the song "Men of Harlech". I bet Tom is the only one to know that.







North Wales has some pretty scenery. This is a waterfall we found in the south part of Snowdonia.



On the path up to the waterfall we found some caves and a few mine shafts. Most had flooded but this one wasn't to bad.



This is a World War II crash site. The plane was a P-47 that was on a training mission to RAF Valley in 1943. The pilot was caught in low cloud and flew into the mountain and was killed. The site is rather remote so the wreckage was not recovered.

This is the mountain above the bunkhouse we stayed at. Mid Wales is very different from the north. It has hedges and no stone walls. Apparently they just started getting TV reception in the 1980's.

This is the village of Beddgelert. It is the site of the grave of Gelert the dog. If you don't know then Wikipedia. It is a very pretty village. You can guess what the next stop is...

This is the bridge in Beddgelert. The hotel on the other side has a meteor inside that crashed through the roof in 1949. No one was hurt but I might think twice about staying there.

No one in a castle was ever in a hurry. If they were they would break their necks running down these stairs.

The inside of Caernarfon Castle. Most of the large castles in Wales were built by Edward I(Longshanks) to subdue the Welsh. This is where the Prince of Wales is invested so the castle is in pretty good shape. This is to follow the tradition of Edward I making sure his son was born here so the Welsh would have a prince.

This is outside Caernarfon Castle in the town. See the signs, they are all in Welsh and English. Most people in North Wales speak Welsh as their primary language. You will hear it everywhere you go. This is amazing considering not too long ago it was almost lost like the Cornish language.

Love those bakeries. Unfortunately in Northamptonshire we don't seem to have too many good bakeries. But Wales has some wonderful places to get your sugar fix.

Some of the scenery on the south side of Mount Snowdon.

Stuart hoping he's going to get to drive down this little road.

Some wonderful scenery in North Wales. It's no wonder it has so many legends like
King Arthur and Branwen, Daughter of Llyr.

This is on the Isle of Anglesey at South Stack. These flowers went as far as you could see.

These are flowers that came from South Africa called crocosmia. They grow all over Wales and Cornwall. We tried growing them in Idaho and got blooms one year but that was it. They grow wild on the sides of the roads here.

This is South Stack Lighthouse or in Welsh Ynys Lawd. The light house was completed in 1809. Not far from here was a Roman sentry station and and a iron age settlement.

Us at South Stack.

Lots of pretty flowers.

In Conwy we found this shop selling armour and swords among other things. So if you decide to go on crusade or go viking, after you stop at the "Ole Trip to Jerusalem" pub you need to talk to this guy. He can kit you out in anything you need from early greek to late medieval.

Here we are down at the harbour in Conwy. Lots of boats here. We saw a bunch of kids trying to catch crabs on the side of the dock.

OK, try to figure this out. The average size of a house in England is about the size of your shed back home. (and you think I'm kidding) So what do we have, some morbid competition to be the smallest of the small. I know of at least two other "Smallest House in Britian" houses. Of course the other end of the spectrum is equally as entertaining. Most large houses would be larger than a warehouse. But what the heck are you going to see in the smallest house? "Here is the bedroom, and if you just squeeze past the Loo you will pop out the backdoor".

Don't get me going on the water pressure.

Stuart on the dock on Conwy

No, not a troll or a gremlin. It's Madison at one of the doors to the towers at the city walls around Conwy. Conwy has most of its city wall still in place. The only thing I can figure out is that this part of Wales has enough rocks on the ground that no one felt inclined to pull down the walls to build their house.

Us on the city wall at Conwy. You can see Conwy castle behind us.