Friday, June 20, 2014

Whirlwind Tour of North Wales

When planning our trip, we had decided that we’d do one day of general sightseeing and one day of hiking.  Unfortunately because there are no hills in Cambridge, we are not in hill walking shape and knew that we’d probably not want to torture ourselves with a second hike – no matter how beautiful the view was.  After checking the weather forecast, we decided that Tuesday was the day to hike because the sun was predicted to be out just slightly more.  Although Monday ended up being beautiful after a bit of a drizzly start.

We’d had a hard time trying to decide what we wanted to see because there was just so much we could do.  We ended up driving south – a bit aimlessly at first – to see what we would come upon.  After a frustrating 30 minutes or so we decided to find a beach where Luther could burn some energy.  However, finding that beach was a bit harder than expected. 

Our GPS took us to the little town of Borth-y-Gest but we could see no beach.  Luke finally got out and asked at a café and was told that the beach was just down the path ahead but that you couldn’t drive to it.  Helpful information to include on a website, don’t ya think?



Our time at the beach was definitely worth the bit of frustration.  Luther had a blast and made some new friends.  You could tell that he knew where we were headed and he could not contain his excitement.  Run ahead – come back and find out why mum and dad are so slow – run ahead – find the beach – check on the ‘rents – run into the water – lay down and cool off – run in circles like a crazy man.  And then he met a girl called Benji and they ran around like crazy for close to 20 minutes. 





We also met a sweet, older couple who gave us a few pointers on what else we should do with our day.  One of these included the story of Gelert a dog who was slain inadvertently after defending the prince’s son from a wolf.  The grave of Gelert is in a town aptly named Beddgelert (Gelert’s Grave).  There’s not much in the town, but there is a stone bridge, a river and the grave of Gelert.  It was a nice stop and had an ice cream shop where everything is made right there with milk from Welsh cows.  Yum!











Since it was still early and we didn’t have anywhere we needed to be, we decided to head further west to the Isle of Anglesey just off the coast of Wales.  We headed towards the South Stack Lighthouse, which happens to be next to the South Stack Cliffs bird reserve.  Birds are cool, but I’m not one to sit and look at them through binoculars and definitely don’t have a desire to photograph them.  But apparently there are a number of people who feel differently.  Good for them. 




We walked around for a bit since we really didn’t have the equipment to bird watch.  My eyes are good – but not that good.  After wandering up the hill, we came upon a large group of people.  A group of 20 something guys saw Luther and got super excited – fighting for his attention.  We then found out that they were all starring in the movie Take Down.  Heather – Unfortunately we missed Chuck Bass.  Bummer!

Since we couldn’t go any further, we turned around and headed for the car to see what else we could find.  We decided to just drive the coastal road and stop if we saw something interesting.  That ‘something interesting’ ended up being the harbour in Cemaes.  It was nice to get our and stretch our legs and the view was a bonus.







By this time we got back in the car it was definitely time to start considering dinner options.  I am so thankful for the websites DugsWelcome.com and doggiepubs.org.uk.  I have found so many places to eat through these websites.  We ended up at the Pier House Café and Bistro in Beamaris.  Pubs are great – but it’s nice to have a bit lighter meal every now and then. 

And that was the end of the day.  Time to rest up before we hiked the tallest ‘mountain’ south of the highlands.

Love you & miss you,
Aubs, Luke & Luther



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