One Day in Wales

Martin on Conwy city walls

 To see our Wales photos, click here

As my country list grew to 48 with the recent addition of Iceland, I realized that there is an easy one I hadn't yet added, and it is right under my nose so to speak.  We HAD to make a drive to Wales.  So, after a visit with Michelle's friend Vida in Liverpool, we drove from the Wirral across into Northern Wales.  It was a cold, crisp morning with a nice layer of frost, but the sun was shining.  We had decided that we would aim for Conwy, a short drive along the coast.  On the way, of course, we past a few castles including Bodelwydan.  This one seemed to be a relatively new castle (last 100 years or so), and there was a hotel and spa residing in it now.   Another few kilometres down the road we past this massive castle on the hillside, but we couldn't find the way to get in.  Turned out it was a private castle........ A PRIVATE CASTLE!!!
We found Conwy, parked up and proceeded to climb up on the city walls.  You are able to walk almost the entire circle of the walls and you get some great views over the town, towards the castle and over the River Conwy.
We picked up some take-away fish and chips and climbed back on the wall to have lunch with a view over town.  

Smallest House in the UK

After lunch, and a few steps around the corner, we found a funny sight - The Smallest House in the UK.  With dimensions of 3.05 metres x 1.8 metres, it was in continuous occupation from the 16th century (and was even inhabited by a family at one point) until 1900 when the owner a (6 ft fisherman – Robert Jones) was forced to move out on the grounds of hygiene. The rooms were too small for him to stand up in fully.  The place made me look like a giant, which is nice for a change!!!
We followed the waterfront and went into Conwy castle.  The castle is still in pretty good shape and you are able to climb up some of the
towers to get a great view over the River Conwy and the town.  We enjoyed winding our way through all the nooks and crannys of the castle, even down to the old dungeon and kitchen areas.

On our drive back to Birmingham we cruised through the elegant resort town of Llandudno, with big Victorian buildings lining the rocky waterfront and a long pier out into the water.  A great little day trip out to Wales and another country checked off my list.   *Stub

Conwy Castle and River Conwy

River Conwy

England's Pubs

To see more England photos, click here!
It seems like it's become a tradition, but in England we seem to make it down to Shakespeare's

Stratford-Upon-Avon Pub Crawl

Stratford-Upon-Avon for a pub crawl with my old friends J-Lo and Biscuit.  We bounce around from pub to pub, visiting the famous Shakespeare sights in between, but not stopping long as there is another pub to get to.  Always a good time, and Michelle had another female this time, as Amanda joined us.
We also spent a few days down in London staying with both J-Lo and Amanda, then Biscuit.  J-Lo and Amanda live in a fancy place at Canada Water, with views over the whole city.  Pretty impressive.  We then crashed at Biscuit's place, and were pretty impressed with his first home purchase.  Just down from the fun pub too, that we celebrated his birthday.  A bit turnout of friends, that far outdid our reservation numbers.

England's Smallest Pub - The Nutshell

In keeping with the pub theme, we planned a trip up to see my Mum's best friend Barbara in Bury St. Edmunds.  We were happy to help out with her and Philip packing to move into a newer and smaller place after 30 years in their present house.  We always get treated so well at theirs, it was nice to be able to help them out too.  Since we were in Bury, we HAD to spend some time with our traveling friend Sarah.  We met her in Thailand and traveled to Laos.  She took us on a pub crawl of Bury, including the Smallest Pub in England called the Nutshell.  The place was PACKED!!  There must have been at least 10 people in there and things were tight.  I have heard that they sometimes have a band and back in the 80's, they actually fit 102 people in there to set a record.  Pretty cramped indeed for a pub that is only 7ft by 15 ft!!   *Stub