Wednesday 6^th August                SHREWSBURY  -  CHIRK  -  LLANDUDNO  -  WAUNFAWR

Another moving day today, not without its share of hassles, but not too bad, really. We are now in Wales (you can probably tell by the spelling of the place names) and settled into our amazing new home for the next 3 nights.

We slept in until after 7.30 today, which was lovely. We went down to the Royalist Restaurant for another Prince Rupert breakfast, and Danny and Cait called just after we got there. He was most impressed to see the suits of armour (‘Just like Sir Gadabout!’) and the medieval weaponry that adorns the walls. We both had porridge for breakfast for a change, and it was very nice and filling. That and fruit made a good change from a cooked breakfast. I was sad to be leaving the Prince Rupert; it’s such a lovely place to stay. According to the internet, it is haunted, but I can say that none of the spookier types of guests bothered us at all (or if they did, we slept through it all!)

                                    The dashing Prince Rupert. He really was a bit of a looker!

It took us a while to get everything organised and packed, then for Lex to go and fetch the car from its parking area several blocks away (driving one block in Shrewsbury can take up to ten minutes because of the winding and one-way streets…) Anyway, by about 10, we were navigating our way out of there and towards Caernarfon, on the coast of north Wales. We chose the route that would take us north, nearly back to Chester, then along the coastal roads.

                                    Definitely late summer vibes here - they are baling their hay.

By about eleven, we were looking for morning tea. We were close to Chirk, so rather than call into a services on the motorway, we headed into the town. On the way, we passed the Chirk aqueduct and viaduct we’d seen in 2014 when we were on our canal boat adventure with Glen and Carol, so we just had to stop and take photos! Then we carried on into town and had a lovely morning tea at the Cake Kitchen, a nice little café. Unfortunately, the young lass who worked there was really bad at giving directions – they had no toilet so we asked for directions – I wandered up and down for ten minutes or so, looking everywhere, but no toilets did I see. In the end, we pulled into the next services anyway!

                                                Chirk aqueduct and viaduct     

                                                        The Cake Kitchen, in Chirk

We drove along the coastal road, enjoying the views of the beach and the mountains. Because we couldn’t check into our accommodation until 4, we decided we’d go to Llandudno for lunch along the way. It’s a big city, located right at the end of the Creuddyn Peninsula which juts out into the Irish Sea, and as we drove through, we could tell that it’s a VERY popular tourist destination. The sun was shining so the place was thronged with tourists determined to enjoy it. Beyond it, though, we could see mountains with a cable car. I love cable cars, so we decided we’d go on one of those and have lunch at the restaurant up there. We navigated our way up a steep, narrow, winding road, and discovered that they also have trams that go up and down (all packed). We finally got to the top, and discovered tourists swarming all over the mountain, the car park packed, and decided that cable cars are probably overrated, anyway. I took some photos of the view from the Great Orme, as it’s called, and we navigated our way back to the town centre to look for lunch there instead.

                                            Driving through Llandudno towards the Great Orme

                                               Views from the Great Orme

                                               Trams and cable cars!

                                            Fun driving on mountain roads!

However, there were now even more tourists than there had been before, and as it was now after one, they were all hungry, and there were lines out of most of the cafes we could see. And no parks at all! We kept driving on.

                                        It's definitely the Welsh summer!

                                   The pier did look delightful (except for the hordes of tourists).

Then I had a brainwave, and googled ‘garden centres near me’. We struck gold with a lovely garden centre only 4 miles out of town. Plenty of parking, pretty things to look at, toilets, and a delightful café called The Lavender Tearoom where we got served quickly. We shared a big pot of tea, and both had the Welsh Rarebit for a late lunch (when in Wales…..) Garden centres here are just lovely, and the big ones all have cafes with very reasonable prices. And they’re undercover for rainy days. We felt much better after this, and navigated our way to the Tesco’s in Caernarfon to get groceries. After stocking up for the next three nights, it was only a ten-minute drive to our house, Bryn Derwen, in the little Welsh town of Waunfaur.

                                                      The Lavender Tearoom

                                                             Welsh Rarebit with Bacon - yum!

After waiting out in front for ten minutes, we discovered that the door was actually open, so came in and made ourselves at home. Gordon, our host, turned up later to show us how everything works. All the lights are remote controlled and on timers, and it’s all very high tech! The house is incredible – it’s got four bedrooms, two living areas, two dining areas (one of them is a beautifully set table for 8 in the conservatory in case we want to make a lot of new friends and have them over for a dinner party!) We had a chat with Gordon about the area, and he made some suggestions for things to do. He and his partner Paul live next door, so are handy if we need to ask them anything.

                                                       Conservatory with mountain views

                            Our house, Bryn Derwen. That's Myndd Mawr behind it (mountain)

Lex had a nap after we arrived, and I was glad to have a lie down and start the blog. With four bedrooms to choose from, we are spoilt for choice! Tomorrow I’m going to attack the huge pile of washing we have accumulated over the last few days, and thankfully there is a large laundry with a washer AND a drier, so this should go okay. Lex went for a walk before tea down to the railway station – one of the things we’re looking at is a steam train trip on Friday, hopefully. It’s really nice to be back in Wales!