Wales Watching

We have heard that Wales is a very scenic country, so we thought we'd go hunting for CASTLES! We first drove up to Liverpool to stay the night (which was totally cool, more to come). We then woke up the next morning to drive through northern Wales. The coast was beautiful. No dramatic cliffs or anything, but large hills and lots of green.


There are lots of small islands around the coast which was very nice.


This is a typical view of the Wales countryside, but with more sheep. I don't think there was a single area where we could have stopped without seeing sheep. They are everywhere.


Here's some more.

Off the coast, there were quite a few windmills. Pretty cool I guess, until there is a huge wind leakage that plagues the entire gulf.


We drove by one castle that was pretty sweet looking near Rhuddlan. It was nestled up on the hill side. It wasn't on my list, so we didn't go see it. But I have now added it to the list for later visits. We got to our first castle at Conwy. It was awesome.


That is just a side shot. The castle is pretty big. As with most castles, there is a large wall going around the city with towers every so often for guards to stand watch. Then the castle itself is within those walls. We had to park, then walk along the wall to get to the castle. Very awesome.


This is me and a castle door. Awesome.


Here is a shot of one of the main towers from the front. It is right near the water, but the castle itself is built on some large jagged rocks which provide for stability and make it easier to create a foundation.


We walked through the front door and were in the main courtyard. Very pretty. The grass is a nice touch. The inside is broken into a lot of different ares. There is a kitchen, and dining hall, jousting areas (we assume), armory, etc.


As you climb to the top of any of the towers, you have a pretty good view of what the interior of the castle looks like. Not a ton going on, but still cool.


You also had a really good view of any oncoming invaders, pirates, or traveling salesmen. We were at the top of one tower completely alone, and the tower next to us was packed with tons of people. It was pretty amusing.


See, there I am just checking out the view. Alone. Pleasant.


The towers were actually really tall. Each were hollow in the middle and extended all the way to the ground with access through a spiral staircase. This shot isn't even from the top of the tower, just midway up.


When walking along the top of the walls, there is a lot of incredible architecture. The arches originally supported a wooden ceiling for the room below. Not many of the arches are left.


Another good view of the castle, but you can also see the rest of the city within the castle walls.


The coolest part was all the intricate pathways leading to each area. Each of the spiral staircases in each tower would have multiple landings where you could get off and access different areas. Then there were small passageways to get to other areas. Very cool.


Walking through the courtyard. This is a view right as you walk in the front door.


This is the back wall. Nuff said.


After the castle, we drove clear out to the north-western most part of Wales, Holyhead. From the tip, you should technically be able to see Ireland. It is a 3 1/2 Ferry ride to Dublin. There isn't really much out there. Small Village, nice beach type homes, etc. So we then drove along the southern side of the island and ran across a small beach. It was a really pretty beach. The wind was crazy, so it was creating a lot of churn.


There were surfers that were actually catching some pretty good waves. This one was actually small in comparison, but you get the idea.


Did I mention Tracy loves the beach?


Beautiful coastline.


I told ya. Sheep. And this one was not amused.


It was ridiculously windy out at the stretch of land sticking out into the ocean. It almost knocked us over. It was hurting my ears. My eyes were constantly tearing up. We had a headache afterwards. Totally worth it.


Since there was a lot of movement, the water would crash up against the rocks and splash everywhere. We loved it.


Ditto.


We finally made it back to the car and started driving back inland again to another castle, Beaumaris. It had a MOAT, how cool is that? Well, we were pretty hungry when we first got there, so we decided to go into this cafe and I had some fish pie which was really good. Tracy got some sort of sandwich. When we finished up, we walked back to the castle and it was closed. I was pretty bummed. We took our sweet time driving around the coast, then going to eat that we missed the actual castle. Well, here's the front door, which seemed nice.


Here's a shot of the outside.


And another. It was in a really pretty area. It was very green with lots of trees and a park right next to it. We'll be back.


So, even though we knew it would be closed, we had to go check out the last castle. It was probably the coolest one. It is called Caerfarnon (pronounced Kavernon). There was a wall going around the city, so we parked just on the outside and walked through. This was the main street leading to the castle itself. There were tons of little shops and restaurants and drunk guys that enjoy attention, most of which had closed by then (5:00 p.m. - sooo irritating).


This is a part of the outside castle wall that has not lasted the test of time, or people knocking it down, not sure which. That restaurant is called "Hole in the Wall Cafe" which I thought was clever.


This is a shot of the front door. This castle was easily the largest of the ones we'd seen. It was massive. It took a long time just to walk around it.


On the back side, we walked across a bridge and had to back up to take this shot. This is just one tower, which is about 4 - 5 times the width of the towers we climbed up in Conwy.


Very Majestic along the water.


It was amazing to see them in person. They are all a little different and have their own character. It was still difficult to imagine how they were used and to to picture regular life here centuries ago. They were built by the English to oppress the Welsh people. While it's a nice place to visit... There's nowhere to plug in the tv.


On the way home, we drove through the middle of the country rather than the coast. It was beautiful. Very scenic. Snowdonia is the national park that covers a good chunk of ground there. It was a little late so we didn't have much daylight left. It was pretty though. It soon got so dark and there was nothing around so it was pitch black with a small gleam of light on the horizon. It was kinda creepy, but fun.




Wales, we like you. We shall return.

London Traffic Light

I promise this isn't a random video. One of our very favorite things in England is the traffic lights. Instead of the light going from red to green, the light goes from red to yellow to green. It makes you feel like you're in a drag race. Every time we are at a light, we always yell "Go, Go, Go!!" whenever it turns green. People start creeping out into the intersection once it turns yellow.

Changing of the Guard

This is at the Changing of the Guard. These were the new soldiers coming in.

London Birds

While we were eating lunch in front of the Tower of London, there were some really aggressive birds. Gavin is tossing them parts of his hamburger bun and they would fly up and catch it in their beaks before the bread hit the ground. It was highly amusing to us.

I See London...

At the end of September, we spent the weekend in London. We took the train from Bristol to London Paddington, which was a really nice ride. It took just under 2 hours to get there and only had 5 or 6 stops along the way.

The Parliament Building and Big Ben. This was my favorite building there. It's really impressive in person. Our hotel was really close by, too. We were just across the river and around a corner.

The Westminster Bridge. The Thames River was moving very fast that day.

The London Eye and the Aquarium (to the right).

The Ministry of Defense, which is where Gavin is working out here.

One of the buildings by the Horseman Guard.

One of the Horseman Guards.

Admiralty Arch leading to Buckingham Palace. The center arch has a gate that is closed. It is only used for the Queen to go through as she goes to Buckingham Palace.

Piccadilly Circus, which reminded us of Times Square.

We ate lunch/dinner at the little cafe, which had the best hot chocolate.

China Town, near Piccadilly Circus.

We really wanted to see a West End play, but were too late to get tickets to most of them. However, we were able to get incredible tickets to Les Mis for really good price about 2 minutes before they closed the doors. This show was incredible. Easily the best version I have seen of it.

Piccadilly Circus was the place to be. It was insanely crowded.

After the play, we walked past Westminster Abbey and the Parliament Building at night. They were so pretty lit up.

Big Ben.

The London Eye.

The Parliament Building. I don't know why that corner isn't lit up like the rest, but it wasn't lit up in all of the post cards, either.

The next morning, we had tickets to tour the State Rooms at Buckingham Palace. Gavin told me an earlier time than the tickets were there, so I would get him there on time. I wasn't very happy about that when I found out because he's the one who is usually late, not me, and we were cutting it down to the wire. Since we had some extra time before our tickets, we walked around the front of the palace for a bit.

The solider at the front.

The gates.

The gates had a huge key hole, but only space for a tiny key.

These gates are to the right of the Palace. They aren't connected to anything. I'm not sure what they are used for.

You couldn't take any pictures during the tour, but it was incredible. We saw the entrance where visitors are welcomes in, we saw the sword she uses to knight people, the ball room, the music room, the knighting room, and the Throne Room. One of the meeting rooms has a secret entrance that connects directly to her office. Everything is very grand and opulent. There are several pieces of art work, including some by Rembrandt. Although, my favorite part was the guy who was video taping everything and when asked by the workers to hand over his camera so they could delete the footage, he pretended he couldn't speak English.

After the tour, you leave through the back towards the garden where they hold the big garden parties. There is a cafe there you can get some snacks at. I got some hot chocolate.

The back of the Palace.

Notice the Bath Stone...

To leave the property, you wind through the garden for about 10 minutes. It's very pretty.

The security around the palace and garden.

Around the front courtyard of the Palace, there are these things. I thought they were light posts at first, but they aren't. They line the roundabout in front and the street leading to the palace. I like the crown on top.

We walked through St. James Park, which is next to the Palace. Gavin was teasing the swans there.

The birds were not afraid to get what they wanted.

I love how that pigeon is sitting on the sign.

While we were there, they were filming a movie with Rowan Atkinson (Mr. Bean!!) called Johnny English 2. We missed Rowan Atkinson, but we were able to watch them do a couple of takes.

There are tiny cars everywhere in Europe, but I think this is the smallest we have seen.

A view of a London street.

This is the London Museum. They were having a fair that day.

We also did a bus tour in London. It was nice to have it take us around, but it wasn't a great tour. We had several problems with it.

Westminister Abbey.

Our hotel. :)

The London skyline.

The Royal Courts of Justice.

The back of St. Paul's Cathedral.

The Gherkin Building in the financial district of London.

The Tower of London, which was created about 1066 A.D. The White Tower was designed and built by William the Conqueror in 1078 A.D. Starting in 1100 A.D., it was used as a prison and several prominent figures where held there, including Elizabeth I before she became Queen. Public executions where also held there.

The public bathrooms near the Tower of London were paid toilets.

We tried to get something to eat at one of the cafes near the Tower but either the food looked disgusting or they were too crowded. We finally decided on this one place, but it was jammed packed. We asked how long the wait would be and the server immediately took us to a table that another couple was sitting at. We sat down and decided what we wanted. When the server finally came back, after about 15 minutes, we told him we wanted some sandwiches that were listed on the menu on the wall. He gave us a funny look and told us that we would only order what was on the printed menu. After about another 20 minutes, he still hadn't come back, so we got up and started to walk off. As we were leaving, we noticed a empty table and thought we would give it another try. Within a few minutes, another server came and asked us what we wanted. We decided this time to order a pizza, but when we told her this, she told us that we didn't want that and to order something else. We got up and left after that.

We finally ended up at this stand by the Tower, where we got a hamburger and some fish and chips. While ordering, the workers thought that Gavin was from Poland.

London City Hall.

The Tower Bridge.

Parliament

Protesters outside of the Parliament building.

The famous spinning New Scotland Yard sign.

Wellington Arch. We were told on the tour that the guy who designed the statue on top held a huge party in one of the horses heads, but we aren't buying it. It used to be the entrance to London, but got moved to corner of Hyde Park.

This is one of the gates at Hyde Park. We love the lion fighting the unicorn. We are going to adopt it as our family crest.

A weird statue by the Marble Arch.

Sherlock Holmes at Baker Street.

The BBC Building. U2 preformed on the roof not too long ago.

The BBC Building.

Oxford Street. It is one of the main shopping areas in London. So crowded!

While riding the bus, Gavin decided to sit under the roof because it was cold and I stayed behind so I could take pictures. Some girl came and sat down next to him. He wasn't happy about it. He said that she was eating a candy bar and got chocolate all over her face.

The giant ship in a bottle at Trafalger Square.

While walking around that night, we passed a couple of storm troopers.

A Tudor style building that Gavin loved.

In the summer months, they do the changing of the guard every day. However, during the winter months, they only do it every other day. We didn't get there in time to get a spot where we could see what was going on in front of the palace, however, we were able to see the guards entering and leaving the palace.

One thing that stood out was who much they love pageantry.

We decided to leave since we couldn't see anything and the people near us were annoying. On our way, we were able to get a side view of the ceremony. We couldn't hear what they were saying, but a lot was going on.

This is across from the Palace. Those are actual plants on the building.

Berkeley Street, where all of the buildings have to be painted magnolia white. It's a very ritzy area.

The Animals in Service memorial, which is dedicated to the animals who serve in the wars.

The American Embassy. It's really kind of funny. It's this huge house at the end of a park with the other embassies around it.

The Marble Arch.

Nicky Clarke Hair Salon. He did Princess Diana's hair. It's a three month waiting list for an appointment.

Harrods


Harrods food market.

The Egyptian Escalators.

Harrods.

When we got back on the bus tour, it was raining. We decided to be brave and sit on the top still. It didn't last very long.

Gavin really wanted to check out Portobello Road, since he loved Bedknobs and Broomsticks, where anything and everything of ages are sold.

It was a really cute area. There were some cute shops and stalls along the road.

Before we left on our train, we really wanted to check out King's Cross station. We were cutting it close, but we were able to get there and over to Paddington Station in time.

We found the gateway to Platform 9 3/4. We decided that we wanted to go to Hogwarts instead. See ya!

Gavin means business here.

Here's Padding Station right before we boarded the train.

London is a wonderful town and we loved our trip there. It is so busy and crowded and fun. We can't wait to go back again. It was unfortunate that I had a nasty cold during the trip, but I still enjoyed every minute.