The weather spurred us on to go through the normal morning Brunnehilda motions in double quick time and were out the campsite before noon - which given a post 10am rise wasn’t bad going.
We thought we would head for Anglesey and a beach called Llanddwyn that got very good write ups on line. It was about a 45 minute journey - mostly down the wonderful North Wales Expressway which seems to give us a quick journey to wherever we want to go!
As soon as we passed Llandudno and got closer to the mountains the weather changed dramatically. We were embellished with a thick fog for most of the journey. In fact when we crossed the bridge over the Menai Straits we literally couldn’t see the water let alone the other side! When we arrived at the beach, the other side of Newborough Forest, the temperature was down to 7 degrees and the fog was not only thick but damp and cold as well - all in the space of 30 miles!
The car park was relatively busy but the beach was so vast (we timed the tide well again!) you only occasionally saw other people. They would suddenly appear out the fog and then disappear again - it was very atmospheric.
Of course the dogs loved it! We had planned to walk on to the Island (only accessible at low tide) and see the lighthouse but .... as we both seem to have started colds again (can you bloody believe it!!) we didn’t feel up to the extra yomp.
We were back to the car by 2.30pm. We made the short journey up to Beaumaris for a wee walk round. It wasn’t as big / pretty as I remember - might have been the freezing cold damp fog though! The gorgeous views across to Snowdonia were only to be imagined - as was the other side of the water! We walked through the village to visit the Gaol - l like a good gaol tour - but it was shut! We considered the castle but as the current Mrs Pitts says ... “once you’ve seen one castle you’ve seen them all!”. Reminded me of the George Bush quote when he sanctioned the destruction of thousands of acres of ancient Alaskan forests to build pipelines. His infamous retort to the criticism was “once you’ve seen one tree you’ve seen them all”. Obviously Mrs Pitts and President Bush have the same simple way of cutting through the bull!
We did buy a coffee and a roll from a local bakery and sat on a bench for a few minutes before hitting the road. I have to say Beaumaris wasn’t a hit!
We decided to go into Caernarfon on the way home. The damp fog was still around so it wasn’t as nice as it could have been. However we spent a very pleasant hour walking round the foggy castle walled lanes.
We were looking for a pub we stayed at with Laura when she was a toddler and Kim was pregnant with Thom. After a lot of near misses we found it ... the un-PC named Black Boy.
No where was open to eat so we headed back to Llandudno.Kim consulted Trip Advisor and she found us a fabulous Chinese Restaurant called Tops. The people were fantastic and the food was first class - I had a very tasty king prawn in batter with honey and chilli sauce. Never seen it anywhere before but it was smashing. A bit of embarrassment at the end... one of the very nice Chinese waitresses came over to take our payment and asked if this was our first visit. The current Mrs Pitts said yes, and it’ll be our last! The look on the girls face was a picture of pain and disappointment. Kim followed up quickly with an explanation that we don’t live around here so, as much as we’ve enjoyed it, we wouldn’t be back. The Chinese lady smiled sweetly but I could tell she was crushed by the original comment. We gave them a big tip and hurried out...
Back to Brunnehilda for the usual evening of The Waltons, Backgammon and The Wire. All Norman castle builders and Chinese waitresses will be delighted to know that I soundly beat the current Mrs Pitts at backgammon!
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