Chepstow

A friend told me that Chepstow, Wales had a really cool castle, so I decided to make a day trip out there. Chepstow is basically across the river from Bristol.

Since it was in the middle of the week and really cold, I had the castle to myself.

The entrance.

The castle was built in 1067 A. D.

This is the big dinning room. You can see the where the second story was.

The river Wye and Chepstow.




I love the Welch countryside.

After the castle, I walked along the main street and checked out some of the antique shops there.

Chepstow City Gate, which dates back to the 13th century.

Part of the Port Wall. It wasn't built so much for defense of the city, but to control who could get in and out of the city. The only entrance was the city gate.

I found this out after I visited, but J.K. Rowling actually attended a primary school there.

Caerphilly Castle.

After we toured Gloucester, we raced over to Caerphilly to tour the castle there. We barely made it before they closed and begged to be let in with several promises that we would be quick. We were actually able to see most of the castle (we were really out of breath, though).

The entrance to the castle

Walking along the inside of the outer defense wall.

Part of a tower that is now in ruins.

The dinning room.

You can see that this room was once two stories. In the middle of the wall, you can see the supports for the old floor.

Gavin pounding on the doors to get out.

The back entrance to the castle.

It's set on a lake and has a moat around it. It's really pretty.

The catapults.

The city of Caerphilly.

The outer fence of the castle and the moat.

This picture was difficult to get. I was taking a picture of Gavin and a guy who was fishing with his buddies (and drinking a lot by the smell of him) offered to take our picture. He put himself in the most awkward position to take our picture and the first few had his leg or hand in the shot.

The whole castle.

There is a park surrounding the lake and someone had carved this out of a tree. At first, I thought it was a dragon, but it's a squirrel.

In Wales, all of the signs are in English and in Welsh.

There was the most beautiful sunset that night as we were heading home. I didn't get a great picture, but the colors were so intense.

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.