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Published: June 10th 2010
Erin the Explorer
Erin explores Caernarfon Castle.Double Castle Day
The nice weather we had experienced the last few days was starting to slip away. Although the morning started out with a brief period of sunshine, it quickly reverted to clouds and a light rain which thwarted my desire to visit Mount Snowden. There is a special train that takes you to the top of Mount Snowden for incredible views of this part of Wales but we’ll have to save it for another trip. Today would be double castle day - Caernarfon and Conwy.
Caernarfon Castle
Caernarfon was a short 15 minute drive away, keeping with King Edward’s desire to have all his castles close together to protect against invaders. This is also nice for the modern day tourist, which some might consider another type of invader. Thank goodness it was Sunday, because as we approached Caernarfon I found myself driving down tiny medieval streets dodging parked cars and hoping that there was no oncoming traffic. We eventually stumbled upon the parking lot, which was right next to the castle. I don’t think medieval engineers had cars in mind when they designed these streets.
We decided to take a guided tour which was very
informative and interesting. Caernarfon is a really large castle, with many more embellishments and decorations than Conwy. For example, we learned that Caernarfon actually had hot and cold running water thanks to the kitchen fires that burned 24x7. We also learned that nobility always lived above the ground floor in the castle towers and covered their floors in thresh, which could be freshly cut hay or grass. If someone left a window open in the tower, the wind would blow all the thresh out the door, so someone invented the threshold to keep it all in. The origination of words in the English language can be fascinating!
One of the reasons Caernarfon is so big and ornate was because it was lived in by the King from time to time. In fact, the castle is still owned by Queen Elizabeth even today. It must be nice to own a spare castle or two! Imagine meeting the Queen and bragging about the property you own. You might say, “We just bought a condo in Florida.” And the Queen would reply, “That’s nice. I have a bunch of old moldy castles I never visit anymore. You want to trade?”
Erin
the Explorer
By the end of the tour, the rain was pretty steady. Erin apparently really enjoyed the castle, and decided to take off like rabbit exploring the various passageways and climbing the towers. I decided to try and keep up with her, following her up, then down the towers, walking the ramparts and scaring away the occasional pigeon. We had a lot of fun, despite the rain.
Back to Conwy and a Spot of Lunch
After walking briefly around the town of Caernarfon and deciding that it was boring compared to the castle, we got in the car and returned to Conwy. Needing to refuel on food before visiting the next castle we stopped at a local tea room for lunch. Big mistake. At least 3 different people complained about their food being slow before our lunch finally arrived. I got the distinct impression that there was only one solitary chef in the kitchen preparing food frantically. Everyone had warned us about how bad English food could be, but our food was very good despite the long wait. I felt sympathetic to the chef for trying to make a good meal even if they were slow.
Town of Caernarfon
View of the town of Caernarfon from the castle wall. Maybe they just needed a visit from Gordon Ramsey to speed things up!
Conwy Castle
The castle in Conwy is substantially smaller than Caernarfon, but much more imposing. It is set up on a hill, and the tightly packed towers give the impression, “don’t mess with me”. It was also never a royal residence, which made its appearance more business like. This time Erin played explorer with Tiffany, and I went around the castle towers with Alyssa. Since Conwy was pretty small, we could track each other from tower to tower, waving to each other when we spotted someone.
From the castle walls you could see the whole town and the harbor front. The local kids were down by the water with their strings and nets to catch tiny crabs for fun. Apparently “teasing” the crabs is a local pastime, and many stores sold the line, net and bait for anyone who wanted to participate. I guess xbox, playstation and the Wii haven’t made inroads in Conwy yet except maybe at JJ’s house. Somewhere on the waterfront was Britain’s smallest house, coming in at 72 inches wide and 122 inches high. No wonder Alyssa and I missed
it on our walk the other night!
To cap the evening, we decided to take a stroll along the outer castle walls guarding the town (the same one Alyssa and I partially walked our first night in Conwy). We were making pretty good progress until we rounded the corner by one of the towers and saw the path take a steep incline up. That was just too much for Tiffany’s knees so she returned to the B&B with Erin while Alyssa and I kept going. Like the previous places we had visited, there was still so much more to see and do in Conwy and north Wales, but just not enough time. Two castles in one day was still quite an achievement in my book, and the 8 year old boy inside me was quite happy with that.
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Jaffe
non-member comment
Sammy says, "Look! It's Ms. Tiffany and those other people."