07
Jul 18

Skerries & Wild Camping, Wales

Saturday, 7th July

Back in Christmas 2016, we got a lovely gift from our little nephew Eban – a RIB ride excursion to the Skerries, off the North coast of Anglesey, and back down to South Stack. Unfortunately, due to us living in London and bad weather when we were actually up in Wales, the trip was somewhat delayed. Thankfully, we planned a little break away to Wales for a long weekend, and the weather looked incredible – so, a year and a half after getting the gift – we were all booked in to go on the RIB ride.

Our trip started from the Holyhead marina. We were greeted by our skipper called Olly and after we were shown around the boat and the various health and safety tips, we were off – blasting through the waters, North bound towards Church Bay & Carmel Head, before venturing out to open sea, and The Skerries.

The Skerries, [are] a unique group of rocky islands with Trinity House lighthouse, built in 1716, on the highest point. In Welsh the islands are known as Ynysoedd y Moelrhoniaid, which means ‘the islands of the bald-headed grey seals’.

This Important Bird Area and SSSI has a very large Arctic Tern population (over 2,000 pairs), Common Terns and a smaller Roseate Tern population; it is also home to Puffins and Kittiwakes. This uninhabited group of islands has a distinctive cliff and maritime grassland environment.

Trinity House lighthouse

Trinity House lighthouse & the Terns

The first thing we noticed was just how many Terns there are out here, incredible! They kept swooping in and over the boat as we made our way towards Trinity House lighthouse to anchor and watch the wildlife around us. According to the internet, there’s over 2,000 pairs on the island. Just over the brow of the crags, we could also see a handful of Puffins just chilling and coming in to land from being out feeding.

Artic Tern (left) and Common Terns

A Puffin coming in to land

We spent about 15 mins anchored to a buoy just underneath the lighthouse, surrounded by crystal clear seas. All around us, chilling on the rocks, swimming casually and making the most amazing sounds were a whole lot of grey seals. So much wildlife, and never had we seen Wales to sunny!

A cheeky Seal

Look at that face!

As the RIB Ride website says; “We then begin the adventurous nine-mile open-sea crossing to the island of North Stack. Here we explore the caves and the dramatic 100m high sea cliffs of Gogarth Bay to reach the lighthouse on the island of South Stack. We will watch the Chough, Guillemot, Peregrine, Puffin and Razorbill at the RSPB South Stack Cliffs nature reserve before we return.” – which is exactly what we did.

Along the way, we spotted a circus of Puffins out at sea – Olly slowed down for us, so we could take some great snaps.

A circus of Puffins!

Startled Puffin

Being the sharped-eyed skipper that he was, Olly also spotted a few Porpoises out at sea. Down over underneath South Stack we were met by the massive cliffs, and a whole lot of guillemot and razorbills swimming casually in the sea.

A Porpoise

Guillemot (brownish) and Razorbill (black)

From here we dipped in and out of the sea caves, all while Olly was giving us the historical information about the lighthouse, and how they used to load goods onto the island before the steps were constructed etc – all super interesting. Then, we blasted over to Gogarth, a very popular bit of rock, where we could see climbers starting their climb up to the top.

Looking back towards South Stack

And that was it… we cruised back on over to the Holyhead marina – what a fantastic start to our day!

After a quick stop in sunny Rhosneigr for lunch, we cruised over to Tesco’s to pick what would be our dinner – as tonight, we were camping in the mountains.

We packed, and got dropped off at Pen y Gwryd by Dad, our destination was Llyn Caseg-fraith, inbetween Glyder Fach and Foel Goch, overlooking the mighty Tryfan in the Glyderau.

Gina in the Glyderau

Gina crossing Nant Y Gwryd

We headed on up, and had nothing but good times – the sun was blasting, the evening light was starting to fall, and it was looking lovely! We knew once we got to the top, we were in for a great night camping.

Gina on the gamfa

Fantastic evening light

We arrived at Llyn Caseg-fraith, a small lake that’s nicely located above Tryfan just as the sun had started entering its golden hour. Much to our surprise, we weren’t the only ones up there wild camping. There was another tent on the other side of the lake, and soon another guy arrived, hiding his tent behind the rocks nearby. Everyone minded their own business though, and it was very quiet all around. We pitched the tent without a bother – and began our plans of chilling to-the-max.

Our tent, overlooking Tryfan

Gina about to chill with a book

Iest, chillin’

And yeah, this was the scene pretty much for the whole evening. We ate our picnic, did some time-lapse photography with my iPhone, Gina read her book and hit the sack. It was super pleasant up there, not a whisper of wind – awesome.

The evening colours

 

Sunday, 8th July

We awoke to another beautiful, cloudless sky morning. We had a leisurely breakfast, chilled some more, before packing up the tent and sleeping stuff. The goal for this morning was to head up Glyder Fach, over to Glyder Fawr, and down into Nant Peris the other side of the mountains – where Dad would then pick us up in time for lunch.

Everything on the way up to the Glyderau went super well, we were cruising – enjoying the views.

Morning Gins!

Looking back at Llyn Caseg-fraith

Unfortunately, on the way down the slippery scree of Glyder Fawr, my knee (which I’d been having physiotherapy for for the past 3 weeks) totally gave way. I went down and yep, this was agony. It took me about 2 hours to get down, whereas it should have taken about 30mins – this wasn’t good – as Dad was down in the valley waiting for us. Dad suspected that something might have been up, but he continued to wait until Gina went ahead and met up with him, while I took my time getting down safely. Damn knee!

We got back home, I iced my knee for a few hours, and went over to meet the newest addition to the family; little baby Erain. Then headed over to Pant Du for some lunch and apple juice – which was great! We then decided to take a trip to our fave beach, Llanddwyn for the evening, to chill in the sea (legs only) whilst the sun gently went down.

All in all – a pretty awesome trip back home for the bank holiday!


29
Apr 12

Lake Constance, Liechtenstein & St. Gallen

It was going to be a glorious sunny weekend, so we decided to go for a little spin around Lake Constance, and pay a friendly visit to some neighboring countries. We set off very early in the morning on Saturday, so that we could enjoy our breakfast already on the sunny shores of the Lake in the Konstanz town. We pumped up Claude and punched the coordinates to Henry, and not even half seven we were already whizzing on the highway. We also decided that the weekend will be touristy and not hard core, so I was sporting my pretty green summer dress for the occasion, and even painted my toe nails for the first time this year. Everything was bound to be fun this weekend.

Less than two hour drive took us to the heart of Konstanz. We found a nice parking spot (even though a bit pricey, and definitely not price winning like the one in Scotland) in the center by the bahnhof, and Henry delivered us on foot the 200 meters to the “tourist information”. Unfortunately it turned out that the tourist information was only a board with the city plan and fun colored little lights, so we didn’t get a copy of the city plan, and were on our own for exploring the surrounds. First we got to see the old Rathaus and the rotating statue of Imperia basking in the morning sun.

Konstanz Rathaus

Imperia

That was all good fun but by then I was really hungry for breakfast, and it didn’t seem like there were any nice cafees/bakeries by the water, so we wandered off along the coast past the Pulver-turm and Rheintor-turm across the bridge over Rhein to the other side of town. That was even more dead though, so we decided old town would be out best bet and went to potter around the cathedral. The old town was really pretty, with beautiful old houses and churches and at the end we even managed to find a nice place to get coffees and muffins, which made us happy. By that time the town also filled up with people a bit, and it started to be very sunny and hot.

Iest by the Rhine bridge

Konstanz cathedral

Konstanz old house

Fountain Bird

Konstanz square

Old houses

We decided that we’ve seen enough of Konstanz after the breakfast, and went for our next stop, Marienschlucht – a deep, narrow gorge on the side of the Lake near Wallhausen. It was not so easy to find, as it is not particularly well promoted on the road signs to say the least, but we managed at last, and immersed ourselves deep into the rocks and lavish vegetation alongside a precipitous drop of a brook, onto wooden stairs and bridges. Down by the lake there was a little beach and a pier for ferries scheduled to get people to the other places on the lake, but since we had Claude waiting for us, we climbed those 200m in altitude (said some sweaty guy, was probably less than that) back up. It was a fun little stop on our trip.

Gina in the Schlucht

Iest in the Schlucht

On the pier

I made some artsy pictures too.

Artsy I

Artsy II

Artsy III

After the wilderness of Marienschlucht it was time to see some manicured gardens and fine architecture. The Salem monastery and palace has all that and even more – as our guide says,

The former Cistercian abbey at Salem is one of the most important cultural heritage sites in the Lake Constance region – and one of the most beautiful. Salem Monastery and Palace is a singular combination of Gothic solemnity and Baroque splendor.”

Indeed. To be honest though, we didn’t really go inside, we had enough to do for the day, so we just had a look around, and packed away for the next touristy thing to do, though not before we bought a nice panoramic map of the lake region and finally got a plan of Konstanz for our next visit too.

Salem

Salem

Our next stop was the pink pilgrim church of Birnau, beautifully set by the lake with a killer view of the Alps. It was one fine church on the inside as well, one of the prettiest we’ve seen. Unfortunately it was forbidden to take any pictures inside, and also some kind of religious ritual was in progress, so we didn’t linger for long, got back into the sun and bought some fresh strawberries too.

Birnau

Birnau

By now all the tourists made it to the Lake for the weekend, it was blazing hot in the scorching sun, and it was impossible to park anywhere, especially not in Meersburg, the gem of the Lake. But we managed eventually to find a spot, and enjoyed all the medieval splurge of the town. We also enjoyed the old castle, the swing band by the new castle, the water mill, the ice cream, the views of the Lake, and the stone dogs.

Rathaus

Hotel Weinstube Löven

Old town

New castle

Water mill

Grumpy dog

After all this we are already mighty tired and went to our selected campsite with Alpenview. To our big surprise it was all full though, and not even our tiny tent was accepted for the night. We continued along the Lake to the east, and were turned away a couple more times before finding one last spot of grass in a campsite by Fischbach. While we were pitching our tent there, between two parties of douches, the wind picked up and the cloudy front came, and the Lake showed us some big waves. We had curry wurst with pommes and beer for dinner (some of us without the wurst of course), and went to sleep real early. We also figured out why the camps were so full and the mystery of the high douchebag concentration – the “Tuning world” fair was going on in the area. Duh!

Gina & waves

In the morning we got up early, dressed prettily (we have plans for the capital city today!), and continued our tour around the Lake on the northern shores, soon reaching Austria, enjoying the lovely views but not really stopping until we reached Liechtenstein. Liechtenstein is a tiny country of only 160 km2, squeezed between Austria and Switzerland, and lying in the Alps. The weather was funky, it was very windy and some very dark clouds were lingering over the mountains on the horizon but somehow we managed to stay in the sun for the entire time in Liechtenstein. Our first port of call was of course the Vaduz castle, which is not open to the public as the prince still lives there, but it’s beautiful also from the outside, together with the mountain view. From the castle viewpoint we also had a rather good overview of the whole principality. We then drove even more up to get a nice photoshoot of the local beauty.

Vaduz

Vaduz Castle

Liechtenstein

Vaduz, the capital, is very tiny to match the vibe of the whole country, so there was not much to do. But we enjoyed some art (and it needs to be said that Vaduz understands the point of statues in the streets, and Freiburg has a lot to learn in this area – the eyesores of Freiburg shall have a special post on their own one day), some architecture, and some awesome ideas. One of them was a small steel&glass box of book shelves on the street – free to deposit your finished books or to take one to read! And on top of that there was a stamp in there to mark your acquired book(s) with “freies buch – Offener Bücherschrank Liechenstein”, which makes it an awesome souvenir indeed. I found an old edition of Erle Stanley Gardner’s “The Case of the Drowsy Mosquito” paperback, which I took, stamped and was very happy with.

Vaduz art

Rolex street clockery

Gina & Drowsy mosquito

Iest & Vaduz main (only?) street

Welcome to Liechtenstein

After that there was really not much else to do, so we decided to follow the scenic route back to Switzerland, to our last big destination for the trip, St. Gallen. St. Gallen is a city famous for its rich history and beautiful abbey/medieval library complex, which is on the UNESCO World Heritage List. When we got to St. Gallen town, we were a bit pessimistic about the whole thing – the streets were completely deserted (which made the place feel like after a zombie apocalypse, this impression even exacerbated by the wind chasing a lonely empty coke can, rattling with an echo down the street). Clearly, this was not a place to be even for the locals. So we were a little disheartened, but only until we actually got to the abbey. There we finally found out what the fuss was al about because the place truly is beautiful. This is what UNESCO has to say about it:

The Convent of St Gall, a perfect example of a great Carolingian monastery, was, from the 8th century to its secularization in 1805, one of the most important in Europe. Its library is one of the richest and oldest in the world and contains precious manuscripts such as the earliest-known architectural plan drawn on parchment. From 1755 to 1768, the conventual area was rebuilt in Baroque style. The cathedral and the library are the main features of this remarkable architectural complex, reflecting 12 centuries of continuous activity.

The interior of the cathedral is magnificent (and we were lucky enough to come in the middle of an organ concert, which added to the grandeur of the place), even better than the Birnau church we saw the day before, so we were not so sorry we could not take pictures there, and made it all up in taking pictures here. We also visited part of the medieval library, and found another treasure there – the Book of Kells! probably only on a loan from Ireland, the awesome coolness was on display behind a glass. So we were eventually very happy about our St. Gallen visit and enjoyed it a lot, adding a funky church roof and a historical weather station to the list of sights of the day.

Old town St. Gallen

Old town St. Gallen II

Inside St. Gallen Abbey

Huge fitted closets for multi-colored robes

St. Gallen Abbey

Book of Kells

Funky roofs

Weather station – Iestyn discombobulated

From St. Gallen we pretty much already headed home, didn’t stop in Konstanz on the way back any more but instead stopped for food and a little stroll in another historical town on the Lake, Radolfzell. We also went to dip our toes in the cool waters of the Lake for the last time, took one last picture of some fine sculpture art, and after that, sadly, we were really heading home for the night.

Radolfzell – Iest checking out his weekend ‘sunburn’

Dipping toes

Bye-bye, Lake Constance


03
Sep 11

Canoeing in the Rhine Valley

A group of friends invited us on an epic Canoe ride, down one of the inlets that feed the Rhine river. We left home bright and early, and met up with everyone. We were a total of 9 people – most of which had never been on a Canoe before – but that didn’t stop anyone from having some awesome fun.

We drove to a small town called Breisach, which is located right on the border of Germany and France, with the Rhine river separating the two countries. We had three inflatable Canoes. We set off from Breisach, heading North along the wee inlet. The wildlife was fantastic, the sun was shining, the river was surprisingly very warm, and everyone was in a good mood.

Gina Canoeing

The river

Gina took some really lovely pictures of the wildlife, such as the dragonflies, which were this fantastic sapphire colour, but, as the rest of the gang just wanted to throw people in the water, the camera had to be packed away for most of the journey. Around half way through the epic journey, we came across a really nice lake. The colour of the water was immense. I went swimming for most of the break here – it was good to swim, as I haven’t done so in many ‘a year.

Half way lake

Dragonfly

From the lake, we continued North, through some very dense forest – but the river was still flowing strong. There was a few maneuvers that had to be done on the canoe, as trees had fallen into the river. After a few hours of paddling, we came to where we dropped off the cars, a small village called Sasbach am Kaiserstuhl, right on the Rhine.

Canoeing

We both really enjoyed the day – although it was very tiring! I really wish we can get out on more days like these in the future, as I really like being in a canoe or a kayak!