Colwyn Bay - Sunday

Sunday, 3 July, 2016

As usual I haven't been able to keep up with writing my logs but.... it's a good reason to condense the week a bit, but I'm still going to split up the posts over a few days.

On Sunday Chris and Sal took me out again on a sightseeing trip, this time via
Llanfair­pwllgwyngyll­gogery­chwyrn­drobwll­llan­tysilio­gogo­goch (!) and Penmon on Anglesey, just off the coast of North Wales. 

The aforementioned (I am not going to repeat this name) is the longest place name in the world which British weatherman Liam Dutton had no problem pronouncing in his weather report.  See youtube for this. ;-)

On the way to Anglesey

Proof that I was here ;-)

Chris and Dylan wait in the car while Sal and I take pictures

It was quite a drive to Penmon, but Chris appeared to be an excellent tour guide and provided me with a lot of back ground information. 

At Penmon we first walked to the water's edge from where we could see Puffin Island and Trwyn Du Lighthouse.  

Trwyn Du lighthouse and Puffin Island with Chris and Sal in the foreground

On the way back we stopped at Penmon Priory where Sal and I went on a discovery tour while Chris and Dylan patiently waited in the car. 

Dovecot of Penmon Priory

Dovecot copula and nesting boxes

St Seiriol's Well inside

Penmon cross inside church

The Priory House

View from the Cloister

On the way back Chris takes us through Snowdonia national park.  I can't remember in which order, but we passed Bethesda and slate mines in the area and we visited Llyn Padarn and Vivian Quarry at Llanberis.

Vivian Quarry - Llanberis

 

Vivian Quarry - Llanberis

That must have been all for the trip, as I am mainly going by the pictures I have taken.  Senior moments abound....

When I am looking at all the places where we have been during the past two days I discover that there was a plethora of geocaches everywhere we went.  Ah well, this was only a trip to familiarise myself with the surroundings and I can go where ever I like during the week.  

Colwyn Bay - Saturday

Saturday, July 2, 2016

In the morning I wake up in time to join Chris and Dylan, the dog, for their morning walk, and after breakfast and morning tea Sal and Chris take me on a tour to show me places worth a visit when I will be on my own during the week.  (They will both be at work)

Colwyn Bay must be the easiest of names in Wales, because for me it’s probably the only one I can pronounce, making it hard to remember the names of the places I’ll be visiting, but I’ll do my best.

I am off to a marvellous start. Our morning walk took place on a hill (Bryn Euryn), which I can see from my bedroom window, near Rhos on Sea. We meet and talk to various people who are also walking their dogs.  

On top of Bryn Euryn

View from Bryn Euryn

Our trip later in the day leads to Llandudno, from where you can see Ireland and the Isle of Man on a clear day (which to-day certainly is not!). Chris drives all the way around Great Orme, the coastal limestone headland at Llandudno.  We pass the cable-hauled tramway and various other points of interest.  The story goes that Lewis Caroll was inspired here in Llandudno to write his ‘Alice in Wonderland’. 

From Llandudno the trip goes to Conwy, where Chris and Sal point out the castle and Britain's smallest house, worthy of a visit later in the week. 

From what I remember we next drove along and across the Conwy River for a while which borders on Snowdonia National Park.  We have coffee and scones at a little restaurant (Tu-Hwnt-I'r Bont) at Lanrwst on the river and pass through Betws-y-Coed where I take some pictures of the rapids.

Tu-Hwnt-I'r Bont

A little Robin in the restaurant garden

 

The 'rapids' at Betws-y-Coed and Dylan near the tree

On the way back we visit one of Britain's oldest yew trees in a church yard at Llangernyw.  The tree is estimated to be a mind-boggling 4,000 or 5,000 years old!

The ancient yew tree

Next we make our way back to Colwyn Bay via Abergele and so far I think I have done pretty well with remembering so many names. 

In the afternoon Chris takes Dylan for a walk at Little Orme and Angel Bay and what is becoming a habit, I come along.

At the foot of Little Orme

Angel Bay where we regularly see seals

As Sal has a dinner date with two of her friends Chris decides to take me out for dinner at the local pub, The White Lion Inn at Llanelian yn Rhos, just outside Colwyn Bay. It can’t get any better than that, can it?  All I needed now is a roaring fire, but.... it’s summer in Wales.  Not that I had reason to notice, having walked around in the rain and the ice cold wind most of the day. Haha...  Anyway, we had a great time as we met friends of Chris’ and were asked to join them at their table. The meal, I went for a traditional roast, was great too.

Just after we arrived home Sal followed with her friends Judy an Yvonne.  I had a brief chat with Yvonne, who had lost her husband under similar circumstances as I had lost Frank, for her only six weeks ago. The time when you’re still numb to the pain that follows.  However, the brave woman told me she was taking her strength from me as she was encouraged by my smiling again after three long years. 

 

And well, that was the end of my first day amongst the Welsh.  Happy people, by the way, after their win from Belgium by 3-1 which places them against Portugal in the semi-final of Euro 2016.

Colwyn Bay - arrival

Thursday, June 30, 2016

Friday, July 1, 2016

The start of yet another journey.  This time to Colwyn Bay in North Wales.  I have already said goodbye to children and grandchildren and Kevin drops me of at the airport.  After two uneventful and rather boring long flights, with a brief stop in Abu Dhabi, I arrive at Heathrow airport in London.

I catch the bus to the car rental place where I pick up my hire car, which has been upgraded from a humble manual Opel Corsa, which I had booked, to a brand new (16 miles on the clock!) automatic Peugeot 308 with built-in GPS and hands-free for the mobile phone. Sheer luxury! (I have yet to find out if I have been charged extra for that, because it sounds too good to be true!)

I was facing a 4 hour drive, which ended up lasting 6 hours.  The traffic, like anywhere else on a Friday afternoon, is horrendous.  Peak hour traffic and accidents have me crawl along sometimes, even on the M6 toll road.  The toll road was a surprise in itself.  I was on it before I realised it and thought I would get into trouble, because I had not yet picked up local currency.  At the toll boots I made a little detour to the office where I asked if ‘paying by card’ meant a dedicated toll-card (which I didn’t have) or just a credit card. Luckily the latter was the case, so I went through the ‘wide loads’ boom gate, paid my toll and was on my way again.

During my various stops in the traffic I managed to connect my mobile phone to the hands-free so I could ring my hosts that I was on my way, but would be arriving a lot later than expected.  My travel SIM was apparently working. Hurray.

By 8 o’clock I arrived at Sal and Chris’ place in Colwyn Bay, with Chris arriving 5 minutes after me. He’d made the same trip that afternoon from London and was aware of the traffic situation.  Anyway, I received a very warm welcome and felt almost instantly at home with these lovely people and their dog Dylan.

As you might not yet have been aware, this is not an ordinary house exchange, but a hospitality exchange, which means that I will be staying with these lovely people for three weeks and will receive them at a later stage in my own home in Australia.  

We have dinner and a tour of the house, after which I am dying to go to bed, because it’s been a very long day. 

No pictures yet as I have hardly had time to breathe... ;-)

Interim

As much as I enjoyed keeping a holiday logbook through my blog, I have been very remiss and skipped almost a year, which I now regret.  Life got in the way of writing! ;-) 

However, here is a brief overview:  Three weeks after my trip to the Netherlands friends Patricia and Dianne (not Patricia’s daughter this time, but a geocaching friend from Brisbane) joined me on a trip to Christchurch, New Zealand.  The aim was to visit a MEGA (geocaching) event, which I so very fortunately could combine with a house exchange of a fortnight. This trip also was a great success and most certainly one that I would love to repeat.

At the New Zealand MEGA in Christchurch

We now had gotten hooked and wanted to visit yet another MEGA event.  This time in Melbourne. 

At the Melbourne MEGA

Dianne had to make the trip by herself for personal reasons and Patricia and I had a wonderful journey again in her camper.   

Patricia cooking at our campsite

 

On the way back we managed to visit her friend in Victoria again, and a long-lost friend/colleague of mine in New South Wales, about whom I will tell you a bit more shortly.

Learning all about geocaching

After that it was time to stay home for a while and re-connect with friends and family on the home front.  My planned trip to Penang unfortunately did not take place (for a second time) through circumstances, nor did another planned trip.  The latter being a journey on the trans-Mongolian Express. Perhaps regrettable, but one can’t have everything in life and soon I was making new plans, which did come to fruition this time. 

In February I did something I had never ever expected that I would do: I bought a motorhome.  It’s a Toyota Coaster, and in May I made my first trip.  

With the coaster at a free campsite

I had joined the CMCA (Campervan and Motorhome Club of Australia) and went to two of their meetings, one at the beginning and one at the end of my short trip to Bathurst, NSW. 

How appropriate to find this on my rest from a walk at Kalbar (CMCA meeting)

 
In Bathurst I visited friend Vivienne, whom I had paid a visit the year before with Patricia on our way back home.  I went with the intention to stay a fortnight, during which I would conduct a few workshops (miniatures and card making), but in the end the fourteen days became three weeks and certainly something that I may repeat in the future.

Card making workshop

It was rather cold at Bathurst!

Playing games with the CMCA members, and yes, that's a Tequila Sunrise! ;-)

 
Then, at the end of June, after my new plans had taken shape, I flew to England.  This particular holiday I will try and document again if time permits.

Between all my journeys, and lots of visitors earlier in the year, I have seen fit to go out geocaching as well on a number of occasions, although not as often as I would have like to. There are, after all, only 24 hours in a day... ;-)  However, my total number of finds now stands at 1377 and I hope to find many more.