Last Weekend of Summer

A few weekends ago, my friend Helen was able to borrow her sister's car so we could explore the countryside. We decided to visit some National Trust sites. The Trust acts as a guardian for coastline, properties, and land across Britain. We drove about an hour outside London and visited Clandon Park.

We took a tour of the house, which is suppose to be the most complete example of a Palladian Mansion (whatever that means) in England! They are very protective about their sites and I was able to illegally get this photo shot in before I was yelled at. Other then this, I don't have any other photos of the inside!

Here is a picture from the outside with it's pretty gardens.

The place also had its own chapel.

After spending some time at the house, we drove down the road to another National Trust site, Hatchlands Park.
It houses the world's largest collection of composer-related keyboard instruments. Of course, I could not take any photos! Don't these people know I have a blog! :)

Afterwards, we walked around the beautiful parkland surrounding the house. They also had cattle!

I really liked this dead tree on the property that looked like it had been struck by lighting.

A garden shot around the house.

A view of the house before heading on our way.

Of course the beautiful summer day would not be complete without a pint....so we ended the day at a local pub. The joys of Britain!

Conwy - Wales (Part 2)

The second full day of our trip landed us in Conwy. We took a 15 minute bus ride to explore the world heritage site. This small medieval walled town has a 700 year old castle built by Edward I. We spent the morning exploring the castle.

Here is Rebecca walking up to the entrance. The castle sits right on the water (and roads)!

We were surprised that it was a ruin. Nothing like the castles I have been in so far.

We were allowed to wonder through the place. There were levels upon levels to explore.

Here is a shot of the wall that extends from the castle around the town.

Two nice women asked if they could take our photo for us. They said every time they travel, they forget to take photos of themselves together. Thus, here is a photo of Rebecca and me.

The great thing about the castle was climbing up all the towers. The steps were small (half your foot would fit on a step). And at the top, the wind was pretty bad and you felt like you might fly off! Here is a picture of Rebecca below one of the towers I am in.
A picture of the castle looking over the bay.

Me taking a photo of myself with the castle.

Rebecca doing the same. We looked rather funny to the other tourists!

The whole time, Rebecca and I were shocked by the access we had to the place. We thought a major lawsuit waiting to happen. This is the only warning sign we saw.

Looking up one of the towers.

Afterwards, we walked the town and headed down to the water.

The other claim to fame for this tiny town is it owns the smallest house in Great Britain! It measures 3 meters in height and 1.8 meters in width. It is also in the Guinness Book of Records. We found it funny that there was a woman dressed in weird clothes charging a pound to go inside.

After we walked around the town, we ended our afternoon sitting in a beer garden eating a Sunday roast.

It was a great trip. The next day, we spent the last few hours shopping and then headed back to London.

Llandudno - Wales (Part 1)

Last week, we had a bank holiday and I spent the 3 day weekend in Wales. My friend, Rebecca, joined me for the trip and we headed out Friday night to Llandudno. It is located on the northern part of Wales and is Wales' largest Victorian seaside coastal town.

We stayed at a great hostel only two blocks from the beach. We had our own private bedroom and bathroom. Nothing like the hostels I remember! :)


On Saturday, we walked the sights. The period architecture was beautiful. Here is a shot of all the houses/hotels that overlook the ocean.

There is a huge walkway in front the beach where people can sit and enjoy the views. We decided to take a morning stroll down to the other end of the bay.

As we walked, we started to notice all the signs. In Wales, ALL of their signs are written in Welsh AND English. I kept telling Rebecca that they must spend a bloody fortune on making huge signs!

After walking for about an hour (we really did not judge the distance correctly), we arrived at the end of the bay.

It was about 65 degrees and the water was very cold.

Here is a view as we started to walk back to town. We decided that we were going to head to the top of the hill in the distance. It had a cable car that took you to the top.

On the way back, they were giving donkey rides on the beach.

Of course, we were tired by this point and found a great little restaurant where we sat outside enjoying the weather.
We then headed up the side of the hill to find the cable car. Here is a shot of the pier below, the longest pier in Wales.

My pictures really can't do this place justice. It was extremely beautiful.

We stopped near the cable car stop to have ice cream. I told Rebecca that I now know why Britain has so many fantasy writers....with views like this!

We found out through the incredibly nice ice cream girl (who when asked which flavor was the best went through the qualities of each ice cream (about 16 of them) with such enthusiasm) that the cable car was not running because of the wind. She told us to take the cable train to the top of the hill.

So we did a small hike to find the train. We stopped here to take in the views.

We found the Great Orme Tramway which is the UK's only cable train still in operation after being opened over a hundred years ago. It was very much like being in San Francisco again. Here is the beginning of the journey as we wait for the train.

Here is Rebecca anticipating the journey with a big smile.

As we began to climb, it was surprising to see that we could practically see into people's homes. We were so close! How would you like to see a train run by your doorstep every 20 minutes?

Up and up we went. At one point, we actually got off and got another train that took us to the top. The ride was over a mile in total.

Here is another train coming down the hill. It was strange to see all the trees disappear with tons of wildflowers.

And we still climbed.

We finally reached the top which is actually a national park of sorts. There are trails for walking the two-mile long headland. Rebecca and I were not anticipating how cold it would be. We both had jackets on, but there was also about a 70 mph wind at the top. You could not stand upright! There were sheep and cattle grazing at the top.

Surprising, you could see the town's cemetery on the top of the hill as well. From the visitors center information, this big hill had been inhabited for over 1,000 years and many believed it had special meaning. Many people from around the area, even if they do not live in the town below, want to be buried here. I would say.....not a bad resting place.

Of course, my favorite view was the wonderful wind turbines. Go wind! And they didn't even spoil my view.

We were not on top of the hill for long as we were freezing. Here is me snapping a photo of us as we blow away.

We had a wonderful day and heading back down the mountain. We ended the day with a nap and a nice dinner at a local restaurant.