Blogs from Gwynedd, Wales, United Kingdom, Europe

31st August 2023 Llanberis Pass We set off in the opposite direction to yesterday heading for Llanberis. langollen. Didn’t intend to but went by way of Betys-Y-Coed as the Sat Nav decided that was the way to go. Fortunate really as Sat Nav took us down a road, to save ¼ mile, which we absolutely do not want to take tomorrow with the caravan behind. We should have followed the A5 but took one of Wale’s goat track aka roads instead. The caravan would not have fitted over the bridge at the end before we got onto the A5. Straight through Betys which was full of tourists, some looking a bit miserable as the Welsh drizzle was the wet sort. Then we took a turn to Llanberis as we were nearing some quite dramatic and scenic ... read more

More beach exploration today. This time the West coast of this little peninsula. It isn’t very big, not many miles long and in several spots we have been able to see the sea on both sides and at the foot. But getting along the roads is a different matter. 5 miles can easily take 25 minutes. There are no straight roads and we laugh when the Sat Nav says follow this road straight for the next two miles 😊. Plus, many stretches of road are, if not actually single track, not wide enough for a line down the middle. We have spent many minutes since arriving here, sitting patiently squished into a hedge to let another perfectly normal sized car get past. We are a little disappointed not to find pretty little villages in this area. ... read more

Moved on today a little further along North Wales. Not a long drive. Up the few miles to the coast then followed it along via the Menai Straits past Anglesey and down what I always refer to as the Pig’s Ear of Wales, the Lynn Peninsula. Can’t be specific as to where we are as really we are just somewhere surrounded by fields and quite lovely views, including to the sea about 2 miles away. This is a CL, Gwyn Tawel and we are nicely set up with fully hooked up water again. We decided to try attaching the awning and after only a couple of wrong moves managed quite well. We were told it takes 10 minutes and maybe it took us that plus an hour but now we know what we are doing will ... read more

There was little to suggest we had crossed the border, as we skirted Wrexham. The scenery remained unchanged. The Hollywood A listers might have changed the landscape at the nearby football club, but it remains to be seen whether a Netflix documentary and a sniff of success can change things in the long term in this neck of the woods. I note a shirt sponsorship with United Airlines and a new category of membership - the International Dragon - suggests a confused influx of Americans might be just around the corner. Well 75 of them each home game to be precise .... the number of tickets set aside each match for this international brigade. I will watch with interest to see if they are also scrambling for the away trip to Mansfield on a Tuesday night ... read more

After our early night last night we got a pretty good sleep despite the stag and stagette parties roaming the streets. The church bells counting the quarter hour all night were both reassuring (it’s only 2:00 am - no need to get up) and distracting (why are the bells ringing at 2:00 am?). We learned that we have too much luggage so spent some time repack if so we only need to haul one bag in for the next couple of night. We wanted to hit the road early so we could get to our stop tonight to enjoy the facilities. We took a brief bypass down the coast to see saint govan’s chapel. It’s a 13th century chapel built in honour of a 6th century hermit who may have been a knight of the round ... read more