07
Aug 16

Rochester & Whitstable

Iest got a nice Escape London book for his b-day (among looooads of other things), so we went to test it with a sunny trip to Rochester and Whitstable.

Rochester turned out to be a nice little very English town with a pretty high street (including apparently the biggest second hand bookshop in England), cathedral and a castle. Had a yummy lunch of pancakes before heading out to Whitstable.

Rochester High street

Rochester High street

Baggins book bazaar

Baggins book bazaar

Rochester back street

Rochester back street

Castle

Castle

Lunchies

Lunchies

Whitstable was even sunnier, and probably the whole of London was in there (parking mission impossible!). We still had fun on the beach and eating some fresh seafood, and that’s about the extent of the things that can be done in that place. We also sketched a bit though, although that was just me i think.

Whitstable

Whitstable

Beach

Beach

Seafood

Seafood


03
Jul 16

Cardiff

Nice summer Saturday, Tafwyl 2016 in full swing, us being proper Welsh we decided to head out to the ‘diff to partake.

Cardiff

Cardiff

Weather couldn’t have been better, and the Cardiff castle was buzzing with welshness. We pottered around all kind of stuff in the market, I got me a pretty canvas shopping bag ‘Barod am antur’, and we got ourselves on a tour of the insides too (‘flamboyant fantasy world’ as our guidebook would call it).

Tafwyl 2016

Tafwyl 2016

Arab room ceiling

Arab room ceiling

Animal wall

Animal wall

Afterwards we made our way down to the Bay (through some dodgy ‘hoods tho), which was buzzing with summer life, welsh cakes, music and gentrification; all very lovely. We checked out the Senedd, the Pierhead and the new beautiful Millennium centre.

Pierhead & Senedd

Pierhead & Senedd

Millennium Centre

Millennium Centre

Overall a great welsh day!
(Plus, got Jon Jovi’s greatest hits in hmv for the trip back! (and many other future trips indeed))


06
Apr 15

Easter Wales

Thursday, April 2

We hadn’t been to Wales since new year’s, so we were all excited about going for Easter long weekend, even though the weather forecast was nothing special. Booked the tickets online as usual, and on Thursday after work we met up at Euston. Euston was jam-packed as obviously everyone was going away for the weekend but we didn’t worry as we had reservations and it was a direct train. But the train was so full with even the aisles crowded that there was no air and we were also sitting backwards, so overall the trip was quite harrowing. Sometimes I do miss Germany, and these times often coincide with any UK train trips. Nevertheless, we finally got to Bangor, about half hour later than scheduled (yes, half an hour delay on a three-hour direct train), got picked up by Iestyn’s dad, and crashed in bed soon after.

Friday, April 3

We woke up to a morning of incessant rain, but we didn’t mind and decided to go explore a new (for me) Welsh tower Dolwyddelan (or what Iest calls ‘Welsh castle’ but it’s one of those castles that are only like a tower, not like the one in Caernarfon, so it really is just a tower. OK, you might argue that wiki calls it a castle too, but then it shows a picture of a tower, so your call really. It’s a tower. Well built though, proper.). Wiki also adds that “It is thought to have been built in the early 13th century by Llywelyn the Great, Prince of Gwynedd and North Wales. Though the castle was then only one tower with two floors, a second tower was built in the late 13th century and a third floor was added to the first during the late 15th century repairs.” (*tower*, see?)

Tower Dolwyddelan

Tower Dolwyddelan

Up on the tower

Up on the tower

Anyway, the place was really nice, and thanks to bad weather we were there alone. We decided to do some sketching inside, which went great, and we had an awesome soundtrack of the rain and howling wind – very Welsh! It was also by a farm, which had a batch of beautiful new oen bachs, which is the great thing about Easter in Wales too.

Oen bach

Oen bach

Afterwards the weather actually started improving, and we had some great time exploring pretty Welsh places, including the little bit they cut out of the national park, which I wanted to see and it’s actually not as bad as it sounds. We had late lunch in a super old cottage cafe in Aberdaron, and even went to the beach for a bit. By then the sun was already almost blasting. Iest did’t tell me it was on the peninsula though.

Saturday, April 4

On Saturday morning the weather was already great, so we decided to get back on track with our hiking. We decided to do the Moel Hebog ridge, not from Beddgelert but from Cwm Pennant. It was a good choice because Cwm Pennant is very pretty and we also got to pet a cute little day-old one bach, courtesy of a local farm boy. Afterwards we were all ready and ran up via an old quarry to the first peak of the ridge, Moel Lefn (638m). By then the sun was blasting on full force and we had awesome views toward our fav Yr Aran and Snowdon.

Cwm Pennant

Cwm Pennant

Up Moel Lefn

Up Moel Lefn

Views from Moel Lefn

Views from Moel Lefn

From Moel Lefn we followed the ridge over to Moel yr Ogof (655m) and Moel Hebog (782m). Later on Iest remembered that he should have some sunscreen on, so he slapped a bit of my usual sparkly one but too late anyway, and he acquired his first burn of the season. Up on Moel Hebog peak it was a bit windy, so we sat just under the top with our delicious lunch enjoying the views towards Porthmadog and the sea. Since we had plenty time we also did a bit of sketching from that spot before heading back to Cwm Pennant through path down below the ridge. Altogether a beautiful day.

Moel Ogof

Moel Ogof

Moel Ogof ridge

Moel Ogof ridge

Moel Hebog peak

Moel Hebog peak

Moel Hebog sketching

Moel Hebog sketching

Sunday, April 5
Another great day, Iest is burned but that did not stop us from selecting the Nantlle ridge for our day hike as we had not been on that one for years, literally, and it’s a pity because it’s one of the best. Early in the morning (early for us anyway), Iestyn’s dad gave us a lift to Nebo from which we started our trip. The clouds were laying low, sort of lazily snaking and rolling through the valley but we knew the sun was awaiting us just a little hike up the hill. We started our ascent from the lake Llyn Cwm Dulyn and by the time we made it up Mynydd Graig Goch (610m) we were down to the t-shirts. Happily merrily above the clouds we hopped over (yeah there was this almost vertical bit which we thoroughly enjoyed in the blasting sun) to Craig Cwm Silyn (734m).

Llyn Cwm Dulyn

Llyn Cwm Dulyn

 

Mynydd Graig Goch - Iest bottom left

Mynydd Graig Goch – Iest bottom left

Craig Cwm Silyn

Craig Cwm Silyn

From there it was already the usual deal – Mynydd Tal-y-Mignedd (653m) with the obelisk on top, and Trum y Ddysgl (709m), Mynydd Drws-y-Coed (695m) and Y Garn (633m). Then just down to Rhyd Ddu, where we were being picked up again, to make it to the Easter dinner. We were really quite tired from the day, may be not so much from the hike but more so from the day of sun, to which we are not used after the long and dark winter. It was all really nice though.

Looking toward the obelisk

Looking toward the obelisk

Finishing up

Finishing up

Finishing up

Finishing up

Monday, April 6
On Monday we still had a good half day for some family visits and a short stop at Dinas Dinlle, before heading down to the train station. For this trip we did not have any reservations (we had open tickets), we expected the trains to be packed again, and we also knew that due to Euston being under construction, we had to take the long connection via Birmingham. The trip was truly awful, from B’ham onwards we were lucky to be sitting on a half-cheek in the corridor with no oxygen again. Many people in the later stations just plainly did not get on the train. It is really quite strange how the British people insist on the rail services being private in the face of absolutely massive market failures every single time one needs to make a train journey. It is quite obvious that even an incompetent, corrupted, lazy and drunk bureaucrat would central-plan the whole system better than it is run now. Nevertheless, we managed to get safely to Marleybone and then home, super tired but really happy with our Easter weekend.


22
Jan 12

Beaumaris

Beaumaris Castle

“The town is the capital of Anglesey. It has a promenade Pier (admission 2d.) and provides facilities for bathing, boating, bowls and golf. Near the Castle are the Corporation Baths. Mixed bathing is allowed.

The chief object of interest is Beaumaris Castle (admission 2d.), which no visitor should miss seeing. It covers a large extent, but is not of great height. It is now under the care of H.M. Office Works. There is an outer wall with ten low towers, and an advanced work called the Gunners’ Walk. On the outside of it’s walls are rings for mooring the vessels that came up to it by a marine canal. The main structure is nearly quadrangular in form, with a large round tower at each angle. The banqueting hall, the state rooms, the domestic apartments, and a small chapel reached by a wooden ladder near the site of the old racquet court, may all be distinctly traced.

The castle was built by Edward I, who then changed the name of the place from Bonover to Beaumaris, a French word descriptive of it’s pleasant situation on low ground. The only event of importance in the history of the Castle was it’s surrender to the Parliament in 1646.

The grounds are tastefully laid out and contain tennis courts.

The Church (Sunday services 8, 11, and 6:30; daily service, 10) was erected in the latter part of the thirteenth century, but the chancel dates only from the sixteenth century. It contains some ancient stalls, which finely carved misericords, monuments to members of the Bulkeley family (the best is in the vestry), a stone, on the south side of the communion table, in memory of the father of Sir Philip Sydney (d. 1563), and a tablet in memory of David Hughes, a native of the island, through whose beneficence the town possesses a Grammar School, erected in 1603, and Almshouses. The north door is secured by a stout wooden bar drawn from a cavity in the wall. (One of the two gates of the churchyard is kept unlocked for the admission of visitors.)

A curious custom, the origin of which in unknown, annually in November marks the close of the Anglesey Hunt. A quantiy of hot pennies is shoveled from the balcony of the Bulkeley Arms Hotel into the waiting crowd below, and they scramble for the coins to the accompaniment of music played by a local band.”

Banks.-Lloyds, National Provincial, Midland.
Concerts and entertainments in the Pier Pavilion.
Early Closing Day – Wednesday
Ferry.-The Bangor Corporation steamer plies houerly between Bangor pier and Beaumaris pier, Fare, 8d.; 1s Return (children, 4d and 6d. Weekly, 4s. (children 2s.).
Golf.-A capital nine-hole course about a mile and a half fom the town. Fees, 2/- day 10/- week.
Lawn Tennis, Bowls etc in the Castle Pleasure Grounds
Motor-buses run from Bangor Station several times daily all the year round via Garth Ferry and Menai Bridge. The buses also run between Beaumaris and Llangoed.
There is a steam ferry between Beaumaris and Garth Point, Bangor, in the summer months.
The Liverpool and North Wales Steamers call daily during the season.
Population.- 1.839

Beaumaris is still a lovely wee town, with a very beautiful promenade and an epic vista of the Snowdonia mountains over the Menai Straits. The castle has always fascinated me, as it’s moat still pretty much surrounds the castle today, which gives it a lovely feel. I do love the old retro photograph of the castle with all the Ivy on it.