James' in the UK

Didn't we have a lovely time the day we went to Bangor.

As mum and dad were touring around England and Wales they kind of ran out of time so after they returned to motor home I organised a overnight trip to Wales, staying in the seaside town of Bangor. Part of the reason for the trip was to go and find a canal boat for mum. She has always been fascinated by canal boats and we knew there were 2 or 3 hour trips you could do from Llangollen. So we got up early on Saturday, packed a lunch and headed for Llangollen to track down the canal.

Llangollen

Llangollen is a nice little place. We walked along the river and found the tourist information office who pointed us in the right direction of the canal. You would think would be easy to find but it was actually up the top of the hill - the last place we would have looked. We got our tickets for the canal boat, ate our lunch and boarded the boat. There were a few different experiences on the canal boat that I wasn't expecting. Like when the water got shallower the boat just scrapes along the bottom sounding likes it's about to loose a panel. And when you go around a sharper corner and come across another boat you just bang into the side of the canal or the other boat at full force. Almost gave some of the old dears on the boats heart attacks.

Canal boat on Llangollen Canal

The highlight of the trip was the aqueduct. The level of the canal water is much higher than the level of the naturally occuring water (the river) and at one point the canal needs to cross the path of the river. Now I've never thought of this before but when a canal crosses over a river or valley or road or whatever, they need to build a bridge that has the canal water at the correct level running accross it. So the Froncysyllte Aqueduct was a really big version of that. It was pretty weird being in a boat so high up in the air, being in a boat and crossing a river that was way way down below you and not the water you are in at the time. The canal going over the aqueduct was only just wide enough for 1 boat so you really did see everything.

Froncysyllte Aqueduct

Over the aqueduct we jumped on a bus and headed into town. We decided we wanted to see the aqueduct from somewhere other than on it so me jumped in the car and drove back to it. By that time we needed to keep moving so we drove on to Betws-y-coed. When Adrian and I had been here before it was a bank holiday weekend and the place was jam packed with walkers and other tourists. This time it was still busy but much less so and we could find a park and walk around the town. Despite beng super touristy, Betws-y-coed is a very nice town with a very nice setting along the river. We walked around for a bit and then drove through the Snowdonia National Park towards Bangor.

Betws-y-coed

We got to the peir in Bangor (the significant feature there) as the sun was getting low in the sky and the sea was very calm. We spend a bit of time wandering along the peir seeing what the fisherman are catching and generally enjoying the late afternoon light.

From Bangor Pier

First port of call the next day was to Caernarfon. We took a bit of a wander around the sea wall and the inlet near the castle, then headed on into the castle. We had tried to visit the castle once before and got there on closing time so we were finally going to get in there. We had fun running around the castle for awhile but we didn't have much time so soon we were back in the car heading for the Isle of Anglesea.

Dad wanted to go to Holyhead so we drove there, but it was thoroughly unexciting so we turned around and wetn back to the place with the really long train station name. When we got there we couldn't believe how many tourist buses there were, and we were also dissappointed to find out that there was no place by that name, it was totally made up to attract tourists. It was getting close to lunch time to we headed to Beaumaris and had lunch and a bit of a look around.

As is to be expected our next stop was another town with a castle - Conwy. Again we parked and went for a walk around the town, past the castle and over the suspension bridge, then back to the harbour/sea wall area.

Next stop, Llandudno where we did the mandatory walk on the beach and admired the victorian seaside buildings, and the even more mandatory drive around the Great Orme.

Llandudno

I'm pleased to say for a second time running we managed to escape the Great Orme without being abducted by aliens but we decided not to push our luck and started heading back to Derby.

Food of choice in Wales: Lamb Shanks from the pub

Northern Wales was very spectacular. I didn't have many expectations of Wales because I don't think I've seen many other peoples photos or heard others stories about visiting Wales so it was a good surprise. We did have fun trying to pronounce the names of the towns, or more accurately making up our own pronunciations which were in no way close to real names.

Rather than hitting the M6 towards Wales on the Friday night of a Bank Holiday weekend, we set off on Saturday morning. We headed towards Llandudno and lunch there, or should I say drove through it at lunch time. Llandudno is a classic Welsh seaside town and it had some festival on so it was crammed with people. We couldn't find a park anywhere in the town so we ended up parking on the Great Orme. We found out that the Great Orme is one of the most likely places in the UK to get abducted by aliens but we managed to escaped without an anal probe - it was a close thing though I'd expect.

Next we headed to Conwy, a small walled town with a castle. We asked the satnav to take us to the castle and that it did....smack bang of the middle of the castle, inside the castle walls. When Warwick Moss (our name for the satnav) said 'you have reached your destination' it was never more true. We went for a bit of a walk around the castle but didn't pay to go inside.

Conwy Castle

As it was already after lunch we didn't want to hang around to much before heading to Cricceth where we were staying. But we did pass through Caernarfon (Carnivore) which was an interesting little town. There was a castle (very common in these parts) which was in the strategic position of next to the mouth of a tidal inlet. This meant you could walk around a get views of the castle over water. There was a pub right next to the castle which Adrian liked the look of. You could literally sit on the outside tables at the pub and go fishing. The ultimate fishing where you can walk a few feet and get a round of cold pints.

Caernarfon Castle

Cricceith was a small coastal village with (no surprise) a castle. The castle was on a headland and there were little rocky beaches on either side of it. Apparently from here you could see another castle that is on the other side of a large bay, but it was to wet and hazy for that.

Cricceith Castle

On recommendation of my friend we headed out onto the Isle of Anglesey and went to Beaumaris, which (you guessed it) had a castle, and this one actually had a moat. We spend a bit of time running around this castle before heading back onto the 'mainland' and going back through some of the towns that we'd passed through quickly the day before. Well this went OK until we got back to Conwy, we parked the car and went into the town, had some lunch, looked around a bit more then went back to the car and tried to start it. Absolutely dead. There was no way it was going to make even a small noise. So we called our trusty RAC guy and 2 hours later he got there and fixed it in 5 seconds.

Having lost a fair bit of time we heading straight inland to Snowdonia National Park. Now unlike most of the National Parks we'd been to since arriving in the UK, this one had trees and no farms - yay. The national park and the mountains were very spectacular. There were people camping everywhere which was unfortunate for them because it was raining. But I guess that is what a lot of UK camping is all about. We stopped in a pretty little town called Beddgelert which from memory had a shop that sold fudge.

Bridge in Beddgelert

We started heading back toward Cricceith via Pwllheli (said with a lot of enthusiasum and a french accent). Pwllheli was supposed to be the good beach in this part of Wales, but We were a less impressed with the rocks as far as you could see and the freezing cold.

Monday morning we knew we had to head home but we did it the long way. First we headed to Porthmadog (Port my dog, Fork my dog, Pork my dog) and went on a steam train. Now there are a few narrow guage train lines in northern Wales and that bought with it a different breed a person - the train nerd. These people got so excited about the steam train operating and knew all the different types of engines and talked about the day they spend 5 hours each way travelling to see a rare whats-a-me-call-it train from outer Mongolia, and relentlessly taking photos. And when the gravity powered slate truck went past - train nerd heaven. Anyway we went up to Blaenau-Ffestiniog (Festinog, said with a german accent) a thouroughly underwelming destination but the trip was very scenic.

Ffestiniog Steam Train

After the train we headed south along the coast. We got down as far as Barmouth where we stopped and had lunch, and then continued home through Shropshire, which I still can't say with a straight face......Shropshire, really!

Food of Choice in Wales: Welsh Lamb