Blogs from Isle of Anglesey, Wales, United Kingdom, Europe

The car with no name needed a trip out . We had tried earlier in the week to get over to Anglesey. Ynys Mon - a smallish island about one hour and forty five minutes drive from home. The home known as the mother of Wales and home to the Druids pushed back over the years. But that was thousands of years ago. The A55 North Wales Expressway runs from near where we live and we can join just south of Chester and travel right along the coast with the Irish Sea to one side and pretty welsh villages and towns to the other . There is always a lot of traffic on the Expressway as it runs from east to west taking traffic from and to the port of Holyhead and then on to or ... read more

On this Saturday in Wales our original plan was to go to ironbridge gorge and a historic farm. However, the group was quite happy to find out during our 7 am breakfast that we were going to cancel the day's plans and just have a free day in the middle of nowhere. I decided to catch up on sleep while some people decided to go out for an early morning hike. They did not have a goal originally but ended up reaching the top of a summit before turning back. Many other groups took their free morning to hike or chill around the hostel. After a short nap, I finished reading a game of thrones and ate a quick lunch before going out on the trails with Jennifer. We decided to not go very far, so ... read more

Travelled by the ferry Ulysses across the Irish Sea to Holyhead - accompanied by many Manchester United fans for a midweek Euro game against Rangers in Manchester. Full house unfortunately. Visited the town with the longest name -LLANFAIRPWLLGWYNGYLLGOGERYCHWYRNDROBWLLLLANTYSILIOGOGOGOCH. Gogo for short !!! It does have a Gaelic meaning- "The Church of Mary in the Hollow of the White Hazel near the fierce whirlpool and the Church of Tysilio by the Red Cave". Visited the scenic old Roman town of Chester. a very old city showing evidence of the Roman, Norman, Victorian and Tudor occupation - the "Pics" ate a whole legion as the story goes. Many, many shops. Off to the the City of Manchester (Population ¾ million)- Man U fans everywhere. Watched the game on the big screen - disappointing.... read more

Week Monday 16th August to Sunday 22nd August 2010. Monday 16th August 2010. Up and went for a bike ride - along the coast road, about 16kms for Gaye. I stopped and asked about a sheet metal shop, talked to a couple of workers laying pavers. I then proceeded to chase down Gaye. Missed the turn off so back and forwards till I got my bearings, did about 25kms and by the time I got back, Gaye was resting in the sunshine and laughed when I told her. We then packed up and found the sheet metal shop and purchased some metal. He showed us a good example of Welsh dry humour as I tried to pay with a Bank of Scotland £5 note - he said it was no good and only took the £5 ... read more

Geo: 53.2167, -4.2WalesWe landed at Holyhead and drove for about 30 minutes and stopped in the town that has the longest railroad station name in Europe: (Llanfairpwllgwyngyllgogerychwyrndrobwllllantysiliogogogoch which means The Church of Mary in the Hollow of the White Hazel near the Fierce Whirlpool and the Church of Tysilio by the Red Cave). This place also just happened to have one of the largest rest stops I have ever seen. There was a supermarket, clothing, bedding, and jewelry departments as well as the gift shops and restaurant. I picked up a few things and some nice sweaters for Mom. The road signs officially have to be in Welsh first and then in English, so some of the names of the towns are really hard to pronounce! After leaving this town, we skirted the coastal town of ... read more