Conwy Calling

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What Day Is It ?

It’s June 5th but I am starting to lose track which day of the week it is. That is a sure sign of a good vacation. I find myself navigating the calendar by how many nights we have left in each B&B. The little boy in me has been focused on checking off the childhood wish list of things to see in the UK:
• Ancient stone circles - check;
• Roman ruins - check;
• King Arthur - check;
• Doctor Who - check;
• Castles - next!
Today we were driving to Conwy in northern Wales for 2 nights to visit its many castles with a stop at the Ironbridge Gorge, the birth place of the industrial revolution.

Driving is a Pain in the Arse

But first we had to drive there. Ugh, note to self - I am really tired of driving every other day. I need to plan vacations with less time in the car. The driving in the UK is not too difficult compared to Ireland. The Brits are unfailingly polite even on the road. Everyone gets out of the right fast lane to make room for others. Merging is never a problem because someone will always let you in. Even the lorries or trucks are smaller than the semis or tractor trailers at home which makes them less intimidating.

The real killer is time spent in the car. Even on the big “M” highways like the M1 it can take 2 minutes to travel 1 mile. A 60 mile drive can be 2 hours on the smaller “A” highways and that is with no traffic. At home I could drive 60 miles in 45 minutes. Hooray for big American interstate highways! The roundabouts are nice because you don’t have to wait for traffic lights, but why are they on some of the highways? Don’t they know what an overpass is?

Ironbridge Gorge - Birthplace of Iron Man

Note to readers: play the Black Sabbath song “Iron Man” while reading this section of the blog. It will be much more interesting. Along the way to north Wales is a place called Ironbridge gorge, where the industrial revolution was born. It’s a collection of museums that highlights life at the time, the iron smelting process and more. A recreated Victorian village from the time with re-enactors tries to show you everyday life in the 1800’s. It was sort of boring actually. The kids were sleep walking through the whole thing.

It’s also a very expensive ticket and as a result only gets 2 stars on the “meh” scale. I don’t know why Rick Steves gives it his top rating. The actual iron bridge itself is rather cool. It is the first all metal bridge of its kind in the world and was made with timber framing techniques instead of rivets. I suppose to appreciate that point you would have had to work with metal or wood before. A toll was charged to cross it, but not anymore. If you are in the area, stop for a view. But don’t waste your hard earned money or time for a long day here.

Conwy Calling

We finally arrived in Conwy that evening around 5 o’clock. Our B&B was just on the edge of town and had a great view of the harbor, the castle wall and castle itself. Conwy is one of the major castles that King Edward of England built to subdue the Welsh back in the 1200’s. Considering that the time was before the invention of the tooth brush, it’s pretty remarkable what they could build with stone. Conwy castle is situated on the bay, so King Edward could conveniently restock his castle by ship in the event the castle was besieged. Pretty clever I think, but today it all made for a grand view.

After we dropped all of our bags at the B&B, we took a walk around Conwy. It’s really a small town, totally contained inside the castle walls and lived in by real people, not just tourists. In fact, as we walked through one of the side passages in the wall I spotted a sign advertising JJ’s Car Booty - British for “yard sale”. I think I actually saw JJ, he was a young lad of about 9 or 10 selling some xbox games, books and other trinkets. Perhaps he was saving up for a new bicycle?

The castle itself was closed since 5pm, but we still enjoyed walking around the town soaking up the atmosphere. Alyssa had ants in her pants because she wanted to be back in the B&B by 6:40pm sharp to catch the premiere of the latest Doctor Who episode. One of the benefits of visiting the UK is that you get to see quality BBC programming before all the people in America.

With our weekly homage to Doctor Who complete, Alyssa and I decided to take a walk along the castle walls. When I say walk along the castle walls, I literally mean walk on the wall! That was so cool to walk on the castle walls like a medieval knight. And anyone in town could do it because the walls were open all the time. We could walk the entire circuit except for the stretch by the sea.

As you walked along the wall, you could peer down into everyone’s back garden, or the top of their roof. Many of the houses were so close to the wall you could jump across. Apparently someone must have thought of this before and done it, because some of the houses had barb wire blocking the way. This was one awesome town.


 

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Photos

Ironbridge Gorge
The only free attraction in town.

Inventions of the 19th Century
Thank goodness for this invention !!

Giant Blast Furnace
So big they built it into the side of a hill !!

Doctor Who Premiere
Alyssa can't miss Doctor Who on television.

Conwy Castle Walk
Walk along the castle walls in Conwy.