Our first day in Wales was met with uncharacteristic sun and warmish weather. A sunburn in Wales- who would have thought that? A teaser to get our hopes up, I think. We rose early to pick up the others from the airport (their flight got in at 7:20). Then we headed a couple hours out of England and into Wales (they are NOT the same thing).  We spent the bulk of the day in Conwy. It had a fantastic castle from 1287. It was built by Edward I when he was fed up with the people of Wales for not paying homage. He built it to assert his power in the area (it was one of a few he built).  Our tour guide was "brilliant" in giving us the history and describing parts of it. The city wall remains (although it's been modified to let cars and trains through) and there are now 4 gates (there were 3). Inside some of the castle walls remain but it's open above. We climbed a tower with narrow, stone spiral stairs. What a great view from above (worth the tricky steps). Then we walked along the Irish Sea- beautiful. The town was quite charming. We skipped our next stop, as the people who flew over were tired (very long day for them). Our hotel is in Llandudno (don't ask me to pronounce it!). It's right across from the sea. Nice location and some rooms have a sea view (not ours, we see cars, roofs and way off in the distance there is a mountain).  The street is lined with building like our hotel.  The buildings used to be Victorian resort homes and now they have been turned into hotels.  There's a slew of them.  Back in the day, the people would ring a bell and would be wheeled across to the beach.  Now we have to cross a road (LOOKING both ways carefully since cars are traveling on other side of the road).  Then there is a promenade to walk on, then rocks, then beach.  There's also a boardwalk in it's original form but there's nothing super special about it.  To end the day I had fish and chips.  Then we were going to put our feet in the water but the tide was high and I thought I'd wait for the sand to return and not risk all the large rocks.

Thanks to the newly arrived camera (YEAH!!) I've got lots of pics to choose from.  Enjoy!


Wait- he's on the wrong side : 0

Will we fit?

The castle

The city wall

A church

Harbor

Welsh alphabet

By our hotel

Fish and chips

Turbines!