NORTHERN WALES

Northern Wales

Llandudno

Rosedene B&B

Day 127 - 128

Wales is a place we know is in the UK. We've both been there, we both wanted to go back because the previous times were SO many years ago..and we both didn't quite know what we were wanting to see there..

So we researched.

We wanted to see the Bronzed ages mines in the Great Orme, and we wanted to see the wonderful castles we'd heard about, that King Edward 1 built and rebuilt..and we both wanted to go to the Centre for Alternatative Technology in mid Wales.

Apart from that...we just wanted to go there to see why the Brits go there for their summer holidays..and have done so for centuries!

So off we headed.

We got a taxi in Dublin (oh my GAWD! Catching taxis are bliss after we've been walking, bussing or training everywhere!) SO EASY!!!) to the ferry terminal and ferried to Holyhead in North Wales. After that we caught a train to the Junction where we headed to Llandudno (where the copper mine was!).

And we found this town is a-b-s-o-l-u-t-l-y GORGEOUS!!!!! Talk about beautiful scenery...Wales is simply lovely! The pier..ohhhhh....it's just quaint and wonderful. We didn't find this out until we found our B&B and went for a walk..at first, after heading from the train station to the nearest B&B we thought it was just a cosy little town with a lot of retired people about. It did seem like that..and even in the windows were fashions that were..well, not quite Paris or London!! It looked old fashioned..

Even the restaurants and pubs were advertising really welsh hearty meals. Like faggots hahaha...and Black puddings........and welsh rarebit and other menus. I couldn't resist buying 2 little books from the Tourist Centre on Welsh dishes. They really did look like they served all the traditional dishes according to the blackboards on the outside of hte local pubs.

We ended up going to one as well..called The ALbert where we had a roast! (Again)

Oh yeah, there was this big weighing scale on the pier when we were down there going for a walk...and yes, we're BOTH 8kg's OVER our normal weights!

Is that bad or what???

Here we are, getting fitter, yet getting fatter as well!

One compensation is...our clothes, we think, weighed at least 3...crikey.

I'm not going to go on about that again..but i tell ya, it's problem. Travelling and trying to maintain a healthy eating regime. If you could call it that...well ok, not a regime, but a healthy diet at least. Its VERY HARD to get veges. And when you're staying in B&B's which is the cheapest way to go, apart from hostels, there are no facilities so we have to eat out. And most of the time..the only supermarket food you can by is either fruit or bread. But what do you put on the bread??? You either have to have it plain, or buy a block of cheese or something....and veges. We both LOVE our veges but we either have to buy them and eat them raw or have them in restaurants and honesly this is no mean feat. They're usually full of cream or fried or baked. YOu can't seem to just get a LARGE plate of steamed veges. Which i'm dying for!

Salads are easier to have as an aside. Which seems to be just tomato and lettuce.

IT can be SO frustrating.

Even to the point i just am at a loss to be able to get veges in our diet at all.

And consequently, we really do have a very unbalanced diet. With lots of bread. And even though i love bread. YOu can only eat so much bread...and oh, eggs for breakfast. Where's the fruit. Aarrghhh...complain, whinge, sook. That's me. I usually love my soups and vegetable casseroles and lentils and rice and more veges so i'm almost ready to just LOSE MY HEAD¬!!!!

haha

OK. Just to warn you, yes, we're fatties now.

Ok, that's off my chest.

Wales...

Yes, we loved Llandudno....and managed to get up and see the copper mine by tram.

This copper mine is something we've read about. IT's a bronze age mine that was originally thought to be a roman civilisation but when the communiy decided to build a car park on top of the ruins..they got some archaeologists in to come and check out the stability of the ground...

And walah, they found a bronze age copper mine..4000 years old!! THis was in 1987 so for the last 20 years archaeologist have been examining and exploring the area. The mine is so far about 8km's long! They've blasted it out so tourists can go in and see all the tunnels. And the tunnels are so small. They say little kids of 5 and 6 must have worked these mines..

IT was very exciting to see it..

Another thing we did from Llandudno was to catch a bus to Conwy Castle...and to Caenarfon Castle. Two castles that Edward 1 built in the 13th Century. Conwy was an amazing town. IT has a fortified wall around the whole place. All intact too. We felt quite honoured to be there...and to look around the castle.

The castle itself is perched on a big rock jutting out onto the river.

We had a pot of tea a the Castle cafe after and this was special as it was built into the town's wall and from it we could see the estuary which led out onto the sea. QUite spectacular.

As was the Caenarfon Castle in Caenarfon. That had a castle with a mote all around it..all intact. The most amazing castles. ANd i thought Scotland had wonderful castles. NOT as wonderful as Northern Wales. I guess because they were British ones..they weren't destroyed!!!

There was a statue of Lord Carnarvon in the town and i realised Caenarfon was Welsh. And that's where our WA town was named after. As was Conwy...in English it's Conway Castle.

So beautiful is North Wales. IT's green, and mountainous. And the mountains now, in summer, are without the snow so they're green and have purple hether all over them...very magical. Lovely, lovely place...

And the people at the B&B were so lovely as well! They greeted us with, 'Would you like a pot of tea?'

Oh yesssssssssssssssssssssss

A POT OF TEA. How wonderful:-)