Anglesey, a few days away

 We live in the middle of England so a jaunt to the seaside is a good two or three hours away but as I was still feeling a bit meh and Mark is away in Scotland for a couple weeks I decided to take myself off to one of my favourite part of Wales for a few days.

I'd made a quick stop at Beaumaris the last time I went away, so I settled on booking a room there for two nights.  I made a pit stop at Menai Bridge on the way to stretch my legs - the original Welsh name of the town standing on the Menai Straits was Porthaethwy, but after the construction of the bridge in 1826 it became common to use the English name.  Standing at 98 feet the views from the bridge across the Menai Strait are stunning.

Beaumaris is such a pretty town, there is a small pier, lots of independent shops and lovely streets with colourful houses.  I'm glad I chose to stay there, it was such a peaceful place, and I could just about see the sea from my window.

Holyhead was 45 minutes drive away so on Tuesday I visited South Stack Lighthouse.

There are 400 steps down to the lighthouse, I have to say that walking down them is much easier than walking back them up, ha ha.

Again the views and the area in general was stunning, so glad I went.

Of course I couldn't come home without a trip to my favourite sea side place, Llandudno, I had to pass right by on my way home anyway so I thought I might as well make the most of my time away and spend the day there.

I'd been lucky with the weather for two days but Wednesday was definitely cooler, you can tell now the change the change in the air.

To round off my few days away I treated myself to fish and chips, they taste so much better when you're by the sea don't they 😁 

I really enjoyed my few days away, a change of scenery can do wonders.

-X-

A drive out

 I took a drive out yesterday.  The Menai Strait separating the mainland of Wales and the island of Anglesey and it's famous suspension bridge is only thirty minutes from Llandudno.  I had never seen it, so something to cross of my list of things to see while i'm here.  

Designed by Thomas Telford it was the worlds first major suspension bridge.  Work started in 1819 and was completed in 1826, it still carries road traffic and is a Grade I listed structure.   Before the bridge was built crossing to the mainland was difficult as this particular stretch of water has strong currents and whirlpools created by the four tidal flows each day and the twice a day tides.   These kind of structures always amaze me, built without modern day tools and machinery, (and all the risk assessments and method statements needed to do anything today,) they managed to build something that not only looks good but is serviceable and has stood for almost 200 years.

I didn't visit the town instead I drove a few miles down the road to the Hidden Gardens and spent a lovely couple of hours walking through this hidden valley garden.

(playing around with my phone, i'm quite impressed, lol)

I can highly recommend a visit if you are in the area.

 I couldn't visit Anglesey without seeing the station with the longest name in Wales and perhaps the world?

The name is 58 letters long and the translation is -

"Church of St. Mary in the hollow of the white hazel near the rapid whirlpool and the church of St. Tysilio near the red cave"

That's a bit of a mouth full to say, instead the village name is shortened to Llanfairpwllgwyngyll, still unpronounceable in my case, as are most Welsh words 😄

-X-

Mountain walks and steam train rides

We're back home, rested and raring to go, well, sort of, lol  

It doesn't take long to get back to normal routine after a holiday does it.

We unpacked as soon as we got in, before we even put the kettle on, and I had some washing on the line in the afternoon, the rest of the washing was done and hung out on Sunday morning, and as Mark put it, stretched as far as the eye could see, lol

And so normal service was resumed.

We had a great week though and visited some lovely places, the scenery in Wales is just stunning and I think even though Mark would have liked to go somewhere warmer that involved getting on a plane, he enjoyed it and was able to have a proper rest from working.

We were quite lucky with the weather really, we did have one day when it rained more or less all day, but we just stayed in the flat that day and watched films, (something we don't really do) and I got a whole day's uninteruptedbyhousework, stitching done, which is unheard of!

We saw and did everything that we intended t, Snowdon is 1,085 metres (3559 feet) above sea level and is the highest point in the British Isles, it has been on my list of things to do for a while, I would love to try walking up Snowdon but Mark wouldn't be up for that so I booked us on the Snowdon Mountain train.

Actually when I booked this trip It didn't register how far it was from where we were staying, which turned out to be a 90 minute drive, Ops!  Still the drive there was through the most beautiful scenery and it was a lovely day, so that was ok.

I only found out about Talyllyn Railway through a google search and although neither me or Mark are steam train enthusiasts we thought it would be a nice trip out.  The trip takes you through some of the wonderful Welsh valleys and some beautiful scenery.  You can get off at a couple of the stops and we had intended to get off at Dolgoch and walk the falls, but then decided to just go to the end of the line and then do the return journey and have something to eat in the station cafe.

We decided to drive to Dolgoch Falls in the afternoon, it wasn't far and we would be able to spend more time than if we had got off at the train stop.
This is such a beautiful place, neither google images or my photos do this place justice, it was a lovely sunny day and the light through the trees was just amazing.
Surprisingly we only saw three other people while we were walking.

Looks like someones been having fun building a camp :-)

When I post about holidays or trips out I'm doing it for my own record to look back on more than anything else but even so, I hope you have enjoyed a little bit of the Welsh scenery too :-)

See you soon

-X-

The view from here

Were having a week away in Aberdovey, Wales, this week.  We drove down yesterday and are staying in a flat overlooking the estuary.  The flat is absolutely lovely and the view from the window is just perfect.

I've bought along some stitching and the socks I started last week, I got to the heel on the first sock but I want to do both heels together, so I started on the second sock, I'm almost done with the leg on the second one now.

Maybe this time I will get socks :-)

Over the last week I only stitched a couple of times, I got Suznnah's hair done.

We haven't gone very far today, had a lazy morning then walked to the pub and had a lovely Sunday roast followed by a long walk on the beach while the tide was out.

Looking out towards the Irish sea.

Looking back at how far we walked

I loved looking at the patterns the tide made in the sand

And we saw quite a few jelly fish

 And looking back towards the colourful houses.

We are staying in the last coloured house (next to the block of white ones) on the right as you look at the photo

 We might take a trip out tomorrow, we'll see what the weather is like when we get up as to how far we venture.

That's all for now folks, see you soon.

-X-