![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
Holiday tales!
I could just sum this up in a really short post saying: “I loved North Wales and had a wonderful time!”
But since I actually bothered to keep a diary and everything whilst away, I think that’s probably not really enough...
I’ll try to do this on a day-to-day basis, including lots of links (because I’m lazy...). Only two pictures in this post - one of them a map! Hopefully this will be enjoyable reading.
First this map I mentioned:
It’s actually a postcard, but I liked it and it shows all the places we went.
ETA: It didn't come out as well as I'd hoped, so for a clearer map go here.
Set off Sunday (around midday, because who’s ready at 9 am?). The drive went really well (apart from one bit of awkwardness at the start) and although it took 6+ hours the children were very, very good! Strap them down so they can’t go anywhere and they just settle down (also partly due to the lovely activity books that![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
the_royal_anna sent them!).
The campsite was a few miles outside Porthmadog (just past Penrhyndeudraeth - try saying *that* when you’re drunk!) and absolutely lovely. Quite small (maybe 30 caravans) and surrounded by forrest. Also there were lots of children and the girls were off playing around 10 minutes after we got there! This also had something to do with the playground of course... Darcy then proceeded to put up the awning and other complicated things while I tried to sort things out inside the caravan. And I have to say, that although it was small and a bit cramped, I *loved* the caravan. Beats staying in a tent by miles and miles! I could go on about this for a long time, so I think I’ll just shut up and say that even being 8 months pregnant it was lovely. As long as I didn’t have to do any running/carrying of heavy things/pushing/pulling etc. Couldn’t ever have done it without Darcy - he’s very clever when it comes to all this. He even rewired the whole thing!
Monday afternoon we went to Portmeirion. Not sure how to describe it, except as a village-sized folly. Absolutely gorgeous - I really, really liked it. The houses are all wonderfully eccentric and fun although I almost loved the ‘gardens’ around it more. Perfectly whimsical, there were little gazebos dotted here and there as you walked along little winding paths amongst the trees. I almost expected to see fairies and elves - it was that kind of place.
Tuesday we went further afield. We drove up through Snowdonia (purdy pictures here, stopping at Beddgelert on the way (they have *incredible* ice cream there!!!! I had ‘Baileys’ and ‘Turkish Delight’) before continuing to Beaumaris.
It must be some of the most delightful landscape I’ve ever seen - little fields, gnarly trees, picturesque streams and tall mountains, covered in wood or heather. The most amazing thing though was the feel of the place. Never mind that we were driving on tarmac and came across old railway bridges etc, it all looked as though it had come straight out of a fairy tale. I wouldn’t have been the least surprised to see the travelling party from ‘The Canterbury Tales’ f.ex. or maybe Friar Tuck riding through the forest. It was a place where ‘The Lord of the Rings’ and ‘Narnia’ came to life! And it was like that everywhere. Most of the cottages we passed must have been used by Lilliput Lane as models. Everything just looked twee and cosy (and I mean that as a compliment!).
Beaumaris Castle was very interesting, but I think I’ll just point to the link and not go into any detail here. Really, the pictures speak for themselves. The children found a large (paddling) pool when we wanted to go home and had great fun splashing about in nothing but their underpants. :)
Wednesday was another castle day - only this time it was the one in Caernarfon. It has to be one of the most perfect castles I’ve ever seen - it’s *huge* with tons of passages and turrets and everything! And - thanks to the ever clever Darcy - there were ‘happenings’ on the day we went! A mediaeval group was doing lots of demonstrations and we watched a most excellent ‘fight’ with three knights - ‘Rubbish’, ‘’Robin’ and ‘Redcrest’ (I think it was...). You should have heard the children chanting “Ru-bbish! Ru-bbish!” Heee! (And I never knew how hot armour was... they had all these padded clothes underneath, poor things.)
On the way home, we went on a detour to Criccieth and had a lovely hour or so at the seaside. The children had a lot of fun ‘swimming’ in the ocean with Darcy and I had a very nice time sitting on my beach chair! *g*
Thursday we had a bit of a quiet day. We went to Porthmadog intending to go to the pottery that Darcy remembered from 10-15 years ago, but sadly it was no more. Instead we did a little shopping and played crazy golf. I even wrote a few postcards (*polishes halo*). I’m including a picture of the view as you drive out of Porthmadog along the Ffestiniog Railway. It’s one of the most incredible landscapes I’ve ever seen and the picture really doesn’t do it justice! It makes you believe in dragons...
Friday was rather dark and grey, so it seemed the perfect time to go to the Electric Mountain in Llanberis. Essentially this is a power station built inside a mountain and quite extraordinary. Little Miss M was very keen on going, but to me it only proved how few of my father’s engineering genes I’ve inherited (I love maths, but when it comes to physics I couldn’t care less!).
Saturday the weather was beautiful again and we went to Abersoch to the Maize Maze. This was quite good fun, although walking isn’t really my favourite activity at the moment. You pick up a long pole with a flag at the top as you enter and equipped with that and a map you can wander about (there were ‘posts’ to find and quizzes etc, but we just walked about - the children are a bit small for ‘organised’ stuff. We came across several teenagers shouting to their mates and obviously having a brilliant time as well as other small family groups, always being led by the patriarch, map in hand, saying things like: “This way! Come on!” This amused me rather a lot! :)
Went down to Abersoch beach afterwards, but it was windy and we didn’t stay long.
Evenings in the caravan were lovely. The children usually played outside until it was dark (and we yelled at them to come in) and Darcy and I had lots of nice, quiet, peaceful time together. We brought The Sunday Times & a book each (‘Captain Corelli’ for him, ‘A brief history of nearly everything’ for me) and this lasted all week (as a matter of fact I’m only half way through, but then it *is* a very dense book. Very interesting though).
Sunday we packed up and set off home, but after an hour we got stuck in a traffic jam on a hill (in hot sunshine) and a very nasty smell came from the bonnet. When Darcy turned off down a side road at the top (because it was bound to be quicker) the clutch died. Completely. So we spent a good while sitting in the caravan as the afternoon went. But thankfully we have a most amazing family, and by 6 o'clock Darcy’s parents arrived to ferry me and the children home (it’s only a 3 hour drive from West Yorkshire when not towing a caravan...). So the three of us finally got home late last night (cue the extreme tiredness) and Darcy stayed down in Wales (near Bangor, btw) for the night. But the car is now fixed and he should be home around 8-9 pm. Thank goodness he took a few extra days off work!
Not much else to say, except that Welsh is a very funny language and just by looking at road signs I learned a good few words. Here are some of them:
araf = slow
llath = yards
milltir = miles
ysgol = school
henoed = elderly people
siop = shop
heddlu = police
cwrs golff = golf course
dim = no
parcio = parking (those familiar with ‘The Fast Show’ might understand why this one always made me chuckle!)
I think that’s about it... must go make tea (=dinner) now. I hope that was interesting and not tedious...
But since I actually bothered to keep a diary and everything whilst away, I think that’s probably not really enough...
I’ll try to do this on a day-to-day basis, including lots of links (because I’m lazy...). Only two pictures in this post - one of them a map! Hopefully this will be enjoyable reading.
First this map I mentioned:
It’s actually a postcard, but I liked it and it shows all the places we went.
ETA: It didn't come out as well as I'd hoped, so for a clearer map go here.
Set off Sunday (around midday, because who’s ready at 9 am?). The drive went really well (apart from one bit of awkwardness at the start) and although it took 6+ hours the children were very, very good! Strap them down so they can’t go anywhere and they just settle down (also partly due to the lovely activity books that
the_royal_anna sent them!).The campsite was a few miles outside Porthmadog (just past Penrhyndeudraeth - try saying *that* when you’re drunk!) and absolutely lovely. Quite small (maybe 30 caravans) and surrounded by forrest. Also there were lots of children and the girls were off playing around 10 minutes after we got there! This also had something to do with the playground of course... Darcy then proceeded to put up the awning and other complicated things while I tried to sort things out inside the caravan. And I have to say, that although it was small and a bit cramped, I *loved* the caravan. Beats staying in a tent by miles and miles! I could go on about this for a long time, so I think I’ll just shut up and say that even being 8 months pregnant it was lovely. As long as I didn’t have to do any running/carrying of heavy things/pushing/pulling etc. Couldn’t ever have done it without Darcy - he’s very clever when it comes to all this. He even rewired the whole thing!
Monday afternoon we went to Portmeirion. Not sure how to describe it, except as a village-sized folly. Absolutely gorgeous - I really, really liked it. The houses are all wonderfully eccentric and fun although I almost loved the ‘gardens’ around it more. Perfectly whimsical, there were little gazebos dotted here and there as you walked along little winding paths amongst the trees. I almost expected to see fairies and elves - it was that kind of place.
Tuesday we went further afield. We drove up through Snowdonia (purdy pictures here, stopping at Beddgelert on the way (they have *incredible* ice cream there!!!! I had ‘Baileys’ and ‘Turkish Delight’) before continuing to Beaumaris.
It must be some of the most delightful landscape I’ve ever seen - little fields, gnarly trees, picturesque streams and tall mountains, covered in wood or heather. The most amazing thing though was the feel of the place. Never mind that we were driving on tarmac and came across old railway bridges etc, it all looked as though it had come straight out of a fairy tale. I wouldn’t have been the least surprised to see the travelling party from ‘The Canterbury Tales’ f.ex. or maybe Friar Tuck riding through the forest. It was a place where ‘The Lord of the Rings’ and ‘Narnia’ came to life! And it was like that everywhere. Most of the cottages we passed must have been used by Lilliput Lane as models. Everything just looked twee and cosy (and I mean that as a compliment!).
Beaumaris Castle was very interesting, but I think I’ll just point to the link and not go into any detail here. Really, the pictures speak for themselves. The children found a large (paddling) pool when we wanted to go home and had great fun splashing about in nothing but their underpants. :)
Wednesday was another castle day - only this time it was the one in Caernarfon. It has to be one of the most perfect castles I’ve ever seen - it’s *huge* with tons of passages and turrets and everything! And - thanks to the ever clever Darcy - there were ‘happenings’ on the day we went! A mediaeval group was doing lots of demonstrations and we watched a most excellent ‘fight’ with three knights - ‘Rubbish’, ‘’Robin’ and ‘Redcrest’ (I think it was...). You should have heard the children chanting “Ru-bbish! Ru-bbish!” Heee! (And I never knew how hot armour was... they had all these padded clothes underneath, poor things.)
On the way home, we went on a detour to Criccieth and had a lovely hour or so at the seaside. The children had a lot of fun ‘swimming’ in the ocean with Darcy and I had a very nice time sitting on my beach chair! *g*
Thursday we had a bit of a quiet day. We went to Porthmadog intending to go to the pottery that Darcy remembered from 10-15 years ago, but sadly it was no more. Instead we did a little shopping and played crazy golf. I even wrote a few postcards (*polishes halo*). I’m including a picture of the view as you drive out of Porthmadog along the Ffestiniog Railway. It’s one of the most incredible landscapes I’ve ever seen and the picture really doesn’t do it justice! It makes you believe in dragons...
Friday was rather dark and grey, so it seemed the perfect time to go to the Electric Mountain in Llanberis. Essentially this is a power station built inside a mountain and quite extraordinary. Little Miss M was very keen on going, but to me it only proved how few of my father’s engineering genes I’ve inherited (I love maths, but when it comes to physics I couldn’t care less!).
Saturday the weather was beautiful again and we went to Abersoch to the Maize Maze. This was quite good fun, although walking isn’t really my favourite activity at the moment. You pick up a long pole with a flag at the top as you enter and equipped with that and a map you can wander about (there were ‘posts’ to find and quizzes etc, but we just walked about - the children are a bit small for ‘organised’ stuff. We came across several teenagers shouting to their mates and obviously having a brilliant time as well as other small family groups, always being led by the patriarch, map in hand, saying things like: “This way! Come on!” This amused me rather a lot! :)
Went down to Abersoch beach afterwards, but it was windy and we didn’t stay long.
Evenings in the caravan were lovely. The children usually played outside until it was dark (and we yelled at them to come in) and Darcy and I had lots of nice, quiet, peaceful time together. We brought The Sunday Times & a book each (‘Captain Corelli’ for him, ‘A brief history of nearly everything’ for me) and this lasted all week (as a matter of fact I’m only half way through, but then it *is* a very dense book. Very interesting though).
Sunday we packed up and set off home, but after an hour we got stuck in a traffic jam on a hill (in hot sunshine) and a very nasty smell came from the bonnet. When Darcy turned off down a side road at the top (because it was bound to be quicker) the clutch died. Completely. So we spent a good while sitting in the caravan as the afternoon went. But thankfully we have a most amazing family, and by 6 o'clock Darcy’s parents arrived to ferry me and the children home (it’s only a 3 hour drive from West Yorkshire when not towing a caravan...). So the three of us finally got home late last night (cue the extreme tiredness) and Darcy stayed down in Wales (near Bangor, btw) for the night. But the car is now fixed and he should be home around 8-9 pm. Thank goodness he took a few extra days off work!
Not much else to say, except that Welsh is a very funny language and just by looking at road signs I learned a good few words. Here are some of them:
araf = slow
llath = yards
milltir = miles
ysgol = school
henoed = elderly people
siop = shop
heddlu = police
cwrs golff = golf course
dim = no
parcio = parking (those familiar with ‘The Fast Show’ might understand why this one always made me chuckle!)
I think that’s about it... must go make tea (=dinner) now. I hope that was interesting and not tedious...
no subject