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Published: July 25th 2015
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Llandudno
A look along the main shopping street. Wednesday 22 July 2015
After the excitement of the last few days we feel the need for a slow day and the weather agrees with us. Beginning with a delicious slow breakfast, we prepared for a wander around the Victorian seaside town of Llandudno on this drizzly morning. The wide main streets of the town were designed with great foresight to let in as much sun as possible. Together with substantial Victorian buildings, this provides a gracious backdrop to the comings and goings of locals and at this time of the year, holiday makers in large numbers. This town has another most important feature: many shop verandahs provide shelter from rain and perhaps from sun at times. In our experience shop verandahs are a scarce commodity in the countries we have visited, so thank you Llandudno.
A leisurely stroll along the main shopping street eventually led us to a newish shopping centre packed with popular stores. Retail therapy is well recognised as a treatment for relieving the effects of too much rain, or so it seemed on this wet morning. Gradually the weather improved, so we explored some of the promenade with its substantial pier, as well as the
Llandudno
The stony beach. line up of Victorian hotels and guest houses. A broad paved pathway edged the stony foreshore which dropped to the water quite steeply in places. As the day improved, crowds of fresh air and sunshine seekers filled the promenade and pathway. Maybe some sandcastles would mark the places where sand was to be found.
As the sun grew stronger we left Llandudno to visit nearby Conwy. This town is famous for having the smallest house in the British Isles and we intend to find it. What an experience to suddenly see a large castle appear as we approached the town. This is definitely not the smallest house. Finding a car park was easy, then we turned into the tiny streets and walked towards the waterfront. There it was, painted Welsh red with a woman in national costume controlling the queue. Such a tiny place. We read that the last man to live here was 6 feet 3 inches. Not sure this is 100% correct. Time to inspect the crabbing catch that many children armed with buckets and lines had nabbed from the edge of the jetty. The crab harvest was large, but the crabs themselves were not. They would
Rhos-on-Sea
A rather sad looking beach pier. be thrown back to live another day.
The final treat of the day was a trip in the tram that climbs steeply up and up to the summit of the Great Orme, the huge bluff where Llandudno's low peninsula culminates. Think Mount Maunganui and the Mount, set at one end of a huge bay, with a large field of wind turbines out to sea and at the top a gale blowing that Wellington would be proud of. Here there is a feeling of being at the edge of the world. We resisted the call of the mini golf and other attractions at the summit and boarded the tram again for the descent. After so much fresh air and the added bonus of afternoon sun we were ready to find an evening meal and call it a day.
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