Category: Snowdonia

Early morning.

Midday

Evening

Like I said – stunning.

…. 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?

Amazing NT gardens only a few miles from where we’re staying, and well worth a couple of hours.

And a couple of posers!

A 5 hour drive home including being stuck on the M6 for an hour or so. Ho hum. And the virus seems to be getting worse, so who knows where and when next.

When it’s sunny in North Wales it’s an amazing place to be. Here’s our last place:

With a terrific view from the terrace

So really just enjoyed staying local today. This was the view from the early walk above the hotel

And Lake Crafnant was as far as we ventured

On the move again. View of where we stayed which was terrific apart from the worst coffee ever.

As per yesterday, had to plan ahead and book. Conwy castle looking very fine.

Believe it or not, preceded by a glorious mountain drive in bright sunlight!

And the merchant’s house. It is another theme that places have gone to incredible lengths to organise themselves to keep everyone safe. The merchant’s house is very cramped, so it was organised with volunteers and a one-way system so no mixing of people in the same room.

Well worth it.

And another glorious place to stay for the final two nights. More of that tomorrow when the sun comes out again.

Talk about first-world problems (privileged class) but the new world means that just about everything has to be planned and booked ahead. Hey ho – today we had really done that with Caernarfon Castle and Snowdonia.

Guess which this is! (And the big circle on the ground is where HRH was investitured)

And then on to Snowdon – glorious drives in the sunshine.

Yup – we walked all the way ………. to the train!

Fabulous views – who knew???

Even found a friend – goodness knows what he was doing here.

And then happened upon Borth-y-Gest

Finished off with squeezing (without booking) into a brilliant restaurant in Porthmadog – a good day!

Bit of a surprise from North Wales – we had a bit of a heatwave today which was fabulous.

Said our farewells and moved on

And on to Criccieth

And were able to sit on the beach (found some shade!) and get ice-cream

Then on to our next place

Maps are easier than place names in this part of Wales!

An old education centre in Snowdonia that has just opened as a B&B to survive in the current climate.

Fabulous place with a room bigger than most flats! And a view from the terrace

And some terrific walks in the grounds

So there you go. Who needs Tuscany????????