Author: simon

…. slowly cus of the space saver tyre but ok. Penrhyn Castle, just outside Bangor, was, as always, a great NT diversion. Slaves in sugar plantations in Jamaica effectively funded this pile.

And then Llandudno which looked mighty fine on a glorious day.

And job done – relief.

Thence to The Great Orme, which is a great lump of rock next to Llandudno, and for £3.70 you can drive up and round it.

Who knew? And you can get tea and cake at the top!

And then finally to Anglesey. Managed to get fish and chips in the local pub with a decent view.

A mixture of delightful and frustration, although only a little of the latter.

Ruthin is only a couple of miles from us and a lovely little market town. Here’s sunrise over Ruthin.

But not a lot is open before 10.30, and we were a bit early.

Headed off to the lake at Bala and were stuck behind a BMW doing 20mph on the windy bits of the road and then 60 on the straight so no one could overtake. Hhrmph.

Anyway, Bala was a lovely place for a walk (although couldn’t see much of the lake) and lunch and a read (and a bit of a snooze in the deckchair 😃).

And not far away was Lake Brenig which was definitely worth a detour.

Apart from having a daft satnav which took us on the craziest narrow lanes to get back. Unfortunately via a pothole …

Top tip. If you need to call out the AA make it a nice sunny evening in a quiet market square right nexr to a Wetherspoons. They were there in less than 20 minutes!

Wifi is a bit extremely slow, so had to curtail yesterday’s blog. Anyway after Chirk we popped over to see the world famous aqueduct with the unpronounceable name near Llangollen. Was fun. Were reminded of when we’d hired a narrowboat but can’t remember when that was.

Home over the famous(?) horseshoe pass – certainly very scenic.

And the terrace back at the house was looking very fine again.

Here we go again. Likelihood of getting on an aeroplane has diminished and so taking the chance to explore closer to home. Managed to find places to stay in North Wales, and with a decent weather forecast, off we go. And it’s not exactly stressful – just throw everything in the car and there in 3 hours.

Unlike Jo packing for her second trip to Greenland – flight to Iceland to quarantine in hotel before boarding a boat for the 5 day trip across the North Atlantic. So not even a chance of buying stuff if you forget something.

Anyway, Powys Castle, which has become our gateway to North Wales. Just as good as last year.

Then to Ruthin. House with a lovely view of Welsh mizzle. But we’re hopeful for tomorrow.

And here’s tomorrow in Llangollen. Sunny and colourful, but no Eisteddford even though it’s meant to be on this week.

View from lunch.

Then to Chirk Castle – where would we be without the National Trust?