Weekend in Wales

So I didn't really spend the weekend in Wales per say, but I did spend two days, so it was like a weekend. And "Weekend in Wales" sounds was better than "Wednesday and Thursday in Wales."

Anyway, Susan and Ray were kind enough to take me to Wales to see my first castles! We left around 10 in the morning, and our first stop was Conwy Castle.

Conwy was built for Edward I between 1283 and 1289. The castle has a total of eight huge round towers (but we only climbed up a couple) and the views from the battlements are amazing. They look out across both the mountains and the sea. From the top of the tower, we could see Conwy's whole ring of town walls. Conwy is the classic walled town. Its circuit of walls are almost a mile long and guarded by 22 towers.

That's me, wishing for a castle of my own...

The best photo I took of Conwy, from atop one of the towers.

After Conwy, we took a slight detour to see the smallest house in Britain. It's so tiny; only one room (a kitchen I think) and a ladder to a loft as a bedroom. It doesn't look all that bad in the first picture, so I included the neighbor house in the second one for scale.

We also saw this lovely lady dressed in traditional Welsh dress. 

The nest stop was this lighthouse on the coast by the name of South Stack. This is the same place that they took my Aunt Stacey when she came to visit years ago. We didn't actually go down to the lighthouse, because the weather was horrible. It was cold and raining, and the wind was the worst of all. I would have loved it had the weather been nicer, because it was so beautiful. Susan said that when the weather is nicer, you can sometimes see the seals playing around here. And had it not been so foggy across the water, I would have been able to see the coast of Ireland.

South Stack Lighthouse

A beautiful picture of the Coast. I could definitely live around here. 

The last stop of the day was Llanfair­pwllgwyngyll­gogery­chwyrn­drobwll­llan­tysilio­gogo­goch. Yes, that's actually the name of the town. It means "St Mary's church in the hollow of the white hazel near to the fierce whirlpool and the church of St Tysilio of the red cave" in Welsh. Locals call it Llanfair PG for short, and I don't blame them. I wouldn't call it by the actually name either. It is in the Guinness Book of Records for being the place with the longest name in Britain. With 58 characters, it is the longest place name in Europe and the second longest official one-word place name in the world (the winner being Taumatawhakatangihangakoauauotamateaturipukakapikimaungahoron-ukupokaiwhenuakitanatahu in New Zealand).

The next day we got up and had a nice breakfast at a local pub before heading to our second castle in as many days: Caernarfon. the construction of Caernarfon be can in 1283, and was completed in 1330. Interior buildings no longer survive and many of the building plans were never finished. After the English Civil War, Caernarfon Castle was allowed to fall into ruin, until the 19th century when the state funded repairs. In 1911, Caernarfon Castle was used for the investiture of the Prince of Wales, and again in 1969 with the investiture of Prince Charles.

The castle was a labyrinth of passageways and tight spiral stairs. Many corridors led to dead ends and I had to turn around. The stairs were a nightmare; all of the stairs were the steep and spiral variety. They were also uneven, and one had to be careful when placing one's feet. The way down was twice as difficult as the way up. We only climbed to the top of one tower because of this.

This is the view when you first walk in.

And this is the view of the castle from atop the tower we climbed. 

Guys, I want a castle. Look how at home I look!

I also made a friend. This is the resident castle cat, who was very friendly, and we became quite a pair. I pet her once, and picked her up and set her on my lap, and from that moment on we were best friends. But then she wouldn't leave me alone. My jeans have cat prints all over them now, but that's ok, because I was having cuddly animal withdrawals. Castle Cat helped me a little.

Isn't she pretty? 

One last view of the castle walls, from the outside.

Then we went to the beach!!! We went to a rocky beach first, which I absolutely loved. Rocky beaches aren't nearly as messy as sandy beaches, and the rocks all look so pretty. I'm a fan. 

That island in the background is Puffin Island. :)

Another picture of the coastline

Susan and Ray and I found some pretty seashells. I kept them.

One more picture of the coast :) I just loved it so much!

On the way home, we took a roundabout way through Snowdonia, the mountain range in Wales. It was gorgeous, and it made me want to go climb a mountain! Which is weird, because I don't do that. But maybe I should start, because look at this view: