(For some reason the video above doesn't seem to show up on Ipad's so if you cannot see it try this link)
We spent a week up in North Wales for summer vacation this year. We rented a cottage on the Lleyn peninsula near the village of Cricceith (pronounced Crick-eth) in the Snowdonia Region that we used as our home base. While the distance from our house to the vacation spot was only about 165 miles, it was about a 4.5 hour trip as there is no real direct high speed road to get to this area.
North Wales is a beautiful region of the UK. It suprises us how few people from South Wales have ever been up there considering how close it is. We had a great week visiting villages, beaches, mountains and castles. Some highlights that you will see in the video.
- We travelled 4 miles by steam engine on the only rack and pinion railway in Britian, to the top of the highest peak in Wales - Mt Snowdon at 1085M (3560ft). The train must use rack and pinion due to the steepness of the tracks!
- We visted the village and castle of Beaumaris on the Island of Anglesey. (We also got drenched here in a sudden downpour that caught us off guard:)
- We visited the village and castle of Caernarfon. One of Edward I mightiest castles. This is also where the original 'Prince of Wales' was born hence the start of a standing tradition where the eldest son of the king/queen is given this title (currently held by Prince Charles).
- We visited the north coast resort village of Llandudno with its victorian inspired downtown, spectacular waterfront, and the Great Orme Peninsula - a massive headland that overlooks the village and gives great views of the snowdonia mountains.
- We visited the walled village and castle of Conwy - another great castle built by Edward I to keep wales under control.
- While most days were not perfect beach weather we were able to spend some time at the beach in Llandudno as well as the beach below our cottage at Black Rock Sands, which is one of the few places that allow you to drive your car right onto the beach!
The weather was looking good so we headed west to Pembrokshire in southwest wales. Our target for today was St. David's Cathedral. St. David was born in the year 500 and died in 589. He is the patron saint of Wales and there has been a monstary/church of some sort at this site where the current cathedral sits since the 6th century. It is also the largest cathedral in Wales. The town around is a small and quaint tucked away on the western tip of wales.
After exploring St David's village and cathedral, we headed to the beach. The Pembrokshire coast in south-west wales was ranked the Number two coastline in the world by National Geographic, so it seemed that we could hardly go wrong. I picked a small beach very close to St. David's called Caerfai and it turned out to be everything we had hoped for an afternoon of fun in the sun. Kelly was kicking herself for not bringing shorts/swim suit on this trip but had fun testing out the new telephoto zoom lens on the camera. (see some of the great shots below)
From Caerfai, we looped up around north Pembrokshire to take a different way home. Not being sure I would be in that general vacinity again, I wanted to stop by an ancient megalithic monument called Pentre Ifan. It is what remains of a burial chamber believed to have been contructed around 3500 BC. Amazing rock formation with a 16 ton capstone balancing on 3 points under it. A little off the beaten path to get there but it was worthwhile and a nice break to get out of the car and enjoy the late afternoon sun.
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With White puffy clouds floating around south wales Sunday, we decided to take the afternoon and drive up to the Brecon Beacon. This is a mountain region in south Wales that is also 1 of 3 national parks in Wales. Here are some shots as we drove through the the region to and from the village of Brecon. A couple of the pictures feature the mountain Pen y Fan - the highest point in south wales, and southern Britain.
Or main goal for the afternoon was a visit to the market village of Brecon at the northern edge of the park. A great village to explore. We wandered some of the streets and visited St. Johns Cathedral, where we also had a late lunch on the greens. The river that you see in the pictures is the river Usk.
We decided to take a different way home and on the way I stopped to find and take a photo of Tretower castle. Kids were tired so we didn't stay, but there is an apple festival here in mid September that we want to go to. Now know how to get there!
The Gower Peninsula is about 70 Sq miles in size and sticks out from South Wales into the Bristol channel. It is classified as an 'Area of Outstanding National Beauty' within the UK and in fact was the first area to receive this designation in 1956. The weather took a turn for the better this past week and with a 'Proper British Summer' in swing (at least for a few days) we decided to take trip to the Gower.
As is often the case, I overplanned and had too many 'options' identified for the day - at least too many for a family with 4 young kids in a car on the first nice weekend in a while that also co-incided with the first weekend off school. (everyone was out and there was a lot of traffic) I am also not as adept as Kelly in planning car rides (snacks, in car entertainment) so unfortunately while the weather started off great, the atmosphere inside the car was stormy.
We drove through Swansea, and then toured through a small seaside village called Mumbles. From there we drove further down the peninsula and settled on going to a beach at Port Eynon Bay. It is one of 4 Blue Flag beaches (rating for quality beaches) on the Gower. We spent a good amount of time here having lunch, playing in the sand and water at very low tide. (see pictures below). A very good beach for kids as the car park is only about a minute walk to the beach.
Here is a video. Excuse my miss-pronouciation of 'Port EYnon (as in Eye).
From here, I wanted to go down and check out what many consider to be the crown Jewel beach of the Gower - Rhossili Bay. We found it, but due to the lateness of the day, and drive home we decided to skip actually going down to the beach on this trip. I definitely want to come back to this place again at some point.
Picture below is the view of Rhossili Bay. The second picture is the church that sits just above the bay, and overlooks it.
You know the weather is bad this summer when Welsh people are complaining about how much rain we have been getting:) Therefor when there is a chance of a nice day on a weekend we try and get out and do something as a family. This past weekend Sunday was looking good so we decided to go exploring and check out another somewhat obscure local ruins that is open to the public, but a little more off the beaten path: Old Beaupre Castle
It was a fun 20 min drive from our house along overgrown country lanes. The structure was a medival home first built around 1300 and then retrofitted into a Tudor manor house in the 1600's. Like many castles in Wales it is managed by CADW, however it isn't accessible or visited like many of the more prominenent castles. It is accessed via the Welsh public footpath system that networks across England and Wales. The castle was about a 1/4 mile walk from the access point at the road, through green grassy fields of grazing cattle.
A video:
After the castle, we decided to meander in a not so direct path back to our house. We ended up heading down to Llantwit Major beach. You might recall that we posted about this beach here on a somewhat rainy and dismal day in early May. This is what it looks like when the weather is nice! The boys loved the wind surfers!
Since Noah's birthday was officially on a monday/school day, we decided to do the main part of the celebration this past weekend on Saturday. Our luck with the weather was good and it stayed dry for our day trip up to The National Showcaves Center for Wales about an hours drive from our house. Noah brough along his friend Emrys as well. We spent the day here - exploring the tourist caves and the large dinasour park. After we got home we opened presents and had cake!
Today on his actual birthday, the weather cleared up after lunch so after the kids got off school, Kelly took them down to Southerndown beach for an hour or so to play before we had a birthday dinner of pancakes - Noah's favorite food!
