Ynys Mon & Caernarfon - 23rd Jan ‘20

A day of contrasts - weather wise that is. We woke up to glorious hot sunshine. On the usual morning short drive down to Llandullas beach the Volvo’s temperature gauge was registering a barmy 15 degrees. In deed the short walk with the dogs felt like a Spring morning.

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!

Conwy and Llandudno (and a sea rescue!) - 22nd Jan ‘20

Shower day today! For me that’s every 3 days when on tour with Brunnehilda - that’s slightly more frequent than the average high street rough sleeper! Good job Kim has lost her sense of smell - getting on well with the dogs though!!

The road noise (from the North Wales Expressway) is quite noticeable at night but you sorta learn to block it out and we are both sleeping well.

Pretty much the normal morning (with the exception of the shower) ... tea in bed, mushroom omelette on bagel and a brief dog walk to let them do their stuff. I’m taking them to the wee rocky beach at the end of the road. We walk across the rocks to a waterfall going into the sea and then back along the banks of a wee river running parallel with the beach. Most of the local dog walkers are on the other side of the water so it works well for our “unpredictable” muts.

Out by 12.30 and heading for Conwy. The weather is grey and slightly damp but no rain. The weather guys were right and the sun did make an appearance later in the afternoon. It was very mild all day though - no wind and between 8 and 10 degrees.

Conwy is a fabulous place. A pretty quant town with a fantastic Norman castle and almost intact town walls. It has a quay as well so if you’re into boats there is even more to look at. We walked on the walls a bit but the current Mrs Pitts is not a fan of heights so we thought the £10 admission fee for the castle might be a bit wasted. Plus, as Kim said, we’re National Trust members so we shouldn’t be paying for any entrance to old buildings! Can’t fault the logic?!

We spent a very pleasant couple of hours strolling round the town / quay. Ending up at a coffee shop / cafe called “Love to Eat” for a bit of light lunch. Not a hit from me I’m afraid - I had Welsh Rarebit which was as dry as a nun’s habit! Annoyingly the pot of tea for 2 was indeed only 2 cups of tea! I felt a bit cheated, you should always expect to get at least another 3/4s of a cup each out of a pot of tea for two! Or is that just me??

At 2.30 we headed off to Llandudno to find a beach for the dogs. Again we timed the tide perfectly. If the tide had been in Llandudno beach would have be rubbish for our crazy dogs but with the tide right out it gave them lots of space to go mad. There was so few folks on the beach as well which was really surprising given the size of the town.

The sun was out by now and the late afternoon winter light was gorgeous. I wish I had my posh new camera with me but the iPhone did OK.

One bit of drama. We thought Ben was just relaxing in the water. He had stayed still for ages - prompting me to take a picture (below). It turned out he was stuck! He had run into a very rocky area and couldn’t find a way out. Of course swimming would have worked but that didn’t occur to Ben!

Kim had her wellies on so she put the hero’s coat on and bravely waded into the wild sea to save him. The video below records this - although my guilt at letting “the woman” go out to sea to make the rescue finally got too much for me and the filming was aborted just before the dramatic conclusion - and all the sea water coming over the top of Kim’s wellies!

Llandudno seems to be a little higher class / better kept than most of the other local seaside resorts around here. It’s kept some really nice local hotels on the prom and still retains some of that Victorian charm. We had 2 free Starbuck coffees so we made the long walk into town to redeem them. There is no lengths we won’t go to to get free frothy coffees - although in Kim’s case it was a mint tea.

Home to Brunnehilda for a splendid M&S prawn stir fry! A lot better than the Conwy Welsh Rarebit!
We have settled into a routine on this trip of watching an episode of The Waltons while we have our tea and an episode of The Wire just before we go to bed! Not sure this is the right way round for a peaceful and content evenings sleep?

A third night in a row where Kim was embarrassing thrashed at Canasta - it can’t just be luck now surely?? Although she got her own back and drubbed me at Backgammon! I never was any good with dice!