söndag 22 juli 2018

A WEEK OF WALES, part 2


Shwmae!  (= Hello in Welsh language)!
Hope you are all having a nice/fun/relaxing Sunday.

I will continue writing about our trip in Wales earlier this week. As I told in the blog yesterday we left Llangollen Sunday morning, and drove to the famous Pontcysyllte Aqueduct across the river Dee.

(If you are reading this on an iPad or a mobile phone, click on the photos and they will enlarge

Om du läser bloggen på en surfplatta eller mobiltelefon kan du klicka på bilderna så förstoras de).




Akvedukten är 307 meter lång




You can travel on the aqueduct on one of the canal boat, takes about an hour. We chose not to, since we wanted to carry on driving.





The lovely view from standing by the aqueduct



North east Wales





Stunning views from up there!



Wales is very hilly (kuperat)!




The aqueduct was completed in 1805, and it took ten years to design & build. Very impressive indeed. Beats me how they could build something this spectacular so long ago. It is the highest aqueduct in the world!




If you're going to Wales and want to see the majestic aqueduct, make sure to book the canal boat ride days before you actually get to Wrexham county - PONTCYSYLLTE is a very popular spot amongst tourists!




So you've just learned what 'tourist information' is in the Welsh language!!  😜




We said goodbye to Wrexham county and drove on with the rental car to......




.......!?! Have no idea how they pronounce this village name (apparently you can listen to it on Youtube!). This village is also known as Llanfair, think I prefer that version, ha ha!

As you can se underneath on the sign the village name it means:

"St Mary's church in the hollow (= betyder vanligen ihålig) of the white hazel near to the fierce (häftiga) whirlpool (strömvirvel) of St Tysilio of the red cave". Phew!!

The village has 3.100 inhabitants, and is on the island of Anglesey on the north west coast. 
I found the place quite boring, was nothing there apart from the long village name. The nice little café across the road from this shopping mall was closed this Sunday. Disappointed!! Things sure didn't get better when I was hit by a migraine attack again. Bummer!

We left and drove on south, ended up in the small town of Barmouth (2.522 invånare) northwest.  
It seemed like a tourist spot, since it was right on the coast, and we were wondering if it would be possible to find somewhere to stay for the night. Found a very nice room right away at B&B Seascape, owned by a very friendly couple.



Little town of Barmouth





Watched the second part of the football final in our room, where my #1 favourite country, Croatia, won the silver.

Then we went out to find a restaurant. Very surprising this was like Mission Impossible!?! How on earth could this be in a tourist spot?! 
In the end we found Min Y Mor hotel (not in the town centre), where we had our dinner outside, overlooking the sea.




Seaside resort Barmouth





The Min Y Mor restaurant is the building to the left

I was brutally tired (migraine does that to you), and slept very well in our cozy room at Seascape.


At the time there was no breakfast at Seascape, so I had a lovely cup of Nescafé (that is what I drink at home aswell - couldn't live without it!) in our room, to make me wake up properly 
(when you suffer from Ehlers-Danlos you're always tired anyway, so I really need the caffeine). 

A very good thing in all B&B's, guesthouses, etc, is there's always instant coffee and tea in the rooms. Great!   😋

This Monday I had a very special goal! I'm a subscriber to Louise on Loulou Purple on Youtube, so I knew very well that there was a craft store in Dollgelau. I had also seen adverts in the English craft magazines that I sometimes read (tack tack, Ulrika!). 
So market town Dolgellau was a planned stop long before we left Sweden. I will write a separate blog about the goodies I bought in Loulou Purple!





A bit of heaven!!

How we WISH that we'd known beforehand what a wonderful little old town  Dolgellau is, then of course we would have stayed there.  Absolutely lovely and charming in all ways. 
Apparently only 2.434 inhabitants in this town that oozes charm. 

Since we had not had any breakfast we went to a gorgeous café after leaving Loulou Purple.  Name of this special café is Y Sospan.




This place dates back to 1606(!), and used to be a prison!!!





Y Sospan is full of character! Very friendly staff aswell.





Check out the ceiling. I just love beams!


With a bit of a sad heart, we had to leave Dolgellau. We drove for several hours, but couldn't seem to find a cozy place to stay. 
Finally we ended up in the city of Swansea, in the souh of Wales. I did not like it, but we were getting really tired after the long ride.

Quite a big city, has got 179.485 inhabitants. I really prefer B&B's in small charming towns, but what do you do when you cannot find any in the area you happen to be in, and you're getting fed up sitting in the car. Also tiresome for my dear husband doing all the driving, in left-hand traffic.

Swansea seemed 'messy' so we didn't bother long to look for a B&B, but checked into the Dragon hotel. The room was really nice, and for the first time we got aircondition - yay! Many nights were so hot I'd trouble falling asleep.




Inside the Dragon hotel in Swansea!





A nice spot, Swansea castle




Love the color burst of the flowers. They seem to have lots of these beautiful arrangements in United Kingdom.

Had a delicious dinner at 'Las Iguanas', a south american restaurang!! 
Went back to the Dragon hotel, watched an episode of the Swedish criminal story 'Morden' (the Murders!), then I was out like a light. End of Monday the 16th of July!


Thought I would finish the blog about Wales today, but the intense heat upstairs in our house is getting unbearable. Hope there're not too many spelling or grammatical errors, but my brain is frying...!!


Next stop after Swansea was Cardiff, that's what's coming up next time.
Bye for now!


Look after yourselves out there, friends!

P.S. The hedgehogs had eaten all cat food that I put out on a plate last night! The poor things has a tough time in the awful heat.



Bit of greenery in Cardiff!










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