Donaldson Crew Adventures

(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!

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.

A wonderful afternoon excursion, with great weather - one of those days that makes you glad to be alive! 

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!

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!

Over the Jubilee holiday, there were lots of events going on at the local historic sites and one of them was a re-enactment of a castle siege at Caerphilly castle just north of Cardiff in the Village of Caerphilly.  Caerphilly is a massive castle (biggest in Wales and second biggest in Britian next to Windsor castle) complete with round towers and a moat! A great example of military architecture of the times. Also, unlike many of the other large castles in Wales this one was not built by the English to repress those pesky welsh from uprising.  It was built by a weathly Norman to defend his lands.

 

There was also some interesting demonstrations of the larger siege engines and some of the smaller weapons.  These demonstrations were on because of the holiday and not normally there.  The cross bow is the new favorite weapon for the boys.

 

They also learned how money was made back in the day - each coin hammered out by hand.

Noah had his first birthday party invite this weekend at a classmates house in the village of St. Donat's  He wanted Hunter to stay with him at the party, so Kelly, Abbie, Preston and I went exploring.  We first walked down and checked out St. Donat's church which dates back to the 11 century based on the exterior sign.  In some of the pictures you can see St. Donat's castle in the background.  There is also a picture of nice victorian stained glass inside the church.

Next we threaded our way down to a somewhat hidden beach below St. Donat's Castle which now houses Atlantic College.  It is difficult to find and we only found it after some advice from other parents of children at the birthday party.  Since the college is now out for the summer, it was quiet.  

 

 

St Donats Castle itself is very beautiful.  It was actually purchased by William Hearst - the newspaper baren in 1925.  He spent a fortune renovating the castle, and supposedly held lavish parties when he was visiting the site.  If you have ever been to Hearst Castle on the coast in central California, it had a similar feel - at least the parts we could see.  It is only open to the public once a year I believe.  A couple shots below of the castle pool area overlooking the sea.

 

After a week back in the US, my dad flew back with me on my return trip May 19th to visit us for 3 weeks!  His first international trip out of North America.

Saturday, after our arrival we had a cake and ice cream to celebrate Pappie's retirement!

The weather in Wales the past couple of weeks has been spectacular, so on Sunday we took the opportunity to visit Cardiff Castle.  I had visited it over a year ago, but it was the first time for my dad, Kelly and the kids.  During our visit we happened to catch 'Roman' day with displays and activities. The first few pictures are from the castle, and the last few are from the streets near the castle.

In the late afternoon, Hunter had a birthday party up in the village of Pontyclun.  We decided to try a pub in the local area so we ate at the Boars Head pub in Pontyclun.  Good pump ale, good atmosphere and good eats!

 

More exploration of fun things close to our house.  Ogmore Castle which is believed to have started construnction in 1106 is an interesting set of ruins on the banks of a river about 10 minutes from our house.   If offered fun scrambles for the kids and a little bit of sheep chasing as they roam the castle grounds as well.  It could be a good place to come back for a picnic on a nice day.  

Our kids love the movie Tangled so this past weekend I thought it might be fun to visit Castle Coch just north of Cardiff.  It is a 19th-century Gothic Revival castle built on the remains of a genuine 13th-century fortification.  It rests up on a hillside overlooking the surrounding small village of Tongwynlais.  It is a beautiful fairytale style castle that was restored and reconstructed in the late 1800's, and is now maintained by CADW which maintains many of these historic sites in Wales.

The kids enjoyed exploring the towers and the surrounding grounds.  It was also fun for us as well - It was Kelly and Sue's first castle!  There was actually a wedding being held in the castle the day we were there. The little cathedral inside the castle holds about 30 people.  A few more pictures below.  Of note - Abbies secret door thats just her size. Also on the exterior shots see if you can notice the kids at the base of the wall.

While Kelly and her mom were out running errands, I took the kids out to their first (of many) castle ruins today.  St. Quentin's Castle is very close to our house in the town of Cowbridge.  It is the remains of an early 14 century courtyard castle with a massive twin tower gate house that is still standing. Kids had a good time climbing around and exploring the ruins. 

Notice the white stains on the side?  Here's an interesting fact - While it may look like bird poop its actually not.  Its lime coming out of the walls.  In fact when we see castles in movies these days that look like standard stone walls - thats not how they would have looked - they actually would have been brilliantly white with their walls completely covered in their hey day due to the lime leaching out and down the walls.  Common houses would be stone, and because only the weathly could afford lime for the grout (holds together better), castles would have been white.