Do I miss travelling abroad....not at all

Last August DH and I together with our daughter, son in law and two very excited grandsons, took a cottage in Wales for a week. We had all sorts of plans to explore this beautiful place (for me reliving holidays from my teens) and guess what! The sun came out and sea and sand won over castles and water falls and so we had to file away our 'to do' list for another time.

Well that other time came a couple of months ago. Renting a converted barn near to Bala, we set off with our sister and brother in law and apart from choosing the worst day of our week to do Snowdon, we had an amazing time.

It doesn't matter how many times I visit this beautiful area there is always something to take your breath away.

We managed to fit in so much we needed another holiday to recover, but it was all worth it.

We visited beautiful Chirk Castle, Erdigg House,

 spent a lovely day exploring Bodnant gardens again and meandered through the lanes at Portmeirion,

stunned to realise that it is 50 years since 'the Prisoner' was filmed here. I can see it quite clearly and know that we watched it regularly, though I never did understand it!!

Our non event of walking up Snowdon was our only disappointment. We set off in a bit of drizzle, but by the time we got to the PYG track it was raining and blowing up a real storm.

 The road we drove up on had almost disappeared in the mist and you couldn't see more than a few feet up. Well we are wrinklies and do have a modicum of common sense and so apart from walking up the track a few feet to be able to say 'I was there', we abandoned our plans and headed for stunning Bettws y Coed instead. 

To say this was a fortunate detour is an understatement as the mornings rain had turned a lovely tourist attraction into a phenomenal sight. I can truly say I have not seen such a stunning waterfall ever! ( Never having seen the delights of either Niagara or the Victoria falls) Just awesome, and my pictures do it no justice at all.

We finished off our week with a trip on the Welsh Highland Railway, from Porthmadog to Caernafon and back. It was a beautiful day and we got to spend a couple of hours stretching our legs before the return journey. Caernafon Castle was most impressive, but to be honest apart from that and the harbour the town was very much the same sad site as so many of our towns in the UK. Empty shops, crumbling buildings or cheap bargain basement retailers. Such a shame!

Altogether it was a brilliant break and although we got to see so much, we still want to return to explore other parts around Conwy and Anglesey, but before that we have a lovely holiday booked for later in the year in glorious Somerset......can't wait........

Enjoy the summer break, wherever you are.

TTFN

Jenny xx