A Few Busy Days in Wales
Last week, my boyfriend and I went down to North Wales to visit my brother and his girlfriend. They've recently bought a house over there, so it was a joint holiday and house-warming for the family to enjoy. We met my parents there as well, so all in all, it was a lovely, relaxing family affair.
Exploring Llandudno & Conwy
Thursday and Friday were spent, more or less, exploring Llandudno. We walked around the town, grabbed some coffee, walked down to the end of the pier and then took a stroll up to see the cable cars (yes, there are cable cars up there). Up where the cable cars are, there are a number of wooden sculptures, all of which are carved into Alice in Wonderland characters or symbolism, and for good reason.
Lewis Carroll, the Author who wrote Alice in Wonderland, was said to have family friends who had a holiday home in Llandudno and they had a daughter who was called Alice. It's said that Lewis Carroll stayed spent many of his summers in Llandudno and stayed with Alice and her parents. Apparently, Carroll was inspired by Alice's adventures around Llandudno and that's what inspired him to write Alice in Wonderland, hence all the references to the book and film.
Friday, we went on the open-top Llandudno bus tour that took us over to Conwy and then back round again. We could hop off and on whenever we wanted, which was great and it was actually very informative. I always find these bus tours interesting and they're also reasonably-priced. This specific tour lasted about an hour, all in all, which I thought was quite a decent amount of time, really.
We decided to get off at Conwy to visit the castle there and have a walk around the town. We stopped for a spot of lunch as well at a place called White Bakery and that was delicious! The staff were lovely, there was outdoor seating and the food was super tasty.
Once we got off the tour bus, back in Llandudno, we hopped on the tram that took us up to Gogarth Great Orme Country Park. This is where the cable cars would have taken us, although other tourists who were in the vicinity didn't really have anything good to say about them, so we jumped on the tram instead. The tram itself has been running up to the Great Orme since 1902 and still operates on a pulley system, which is super impressive given the gradient of the hills.
You can walk all the way up there, but seeing as we didn't have a whole lot of time left that day and because we wanted the novelty of such old, well-maintained transportation, we decided not to hike it up there on foot. For just £9.50 return, it'll take you all the way up to the Great Orme Country Park, but you do have to get off half way and hop onto another tram to take you the rest of the way.
The views from the top of the Orme are definitely something else and well worth the trip up there. If you look carefully in one of the following photographs, you'll see some words, names and shapes, all of which have been put together with a number of stones that tourists have found close by. It even has a summit at the top of it, which was quite busy so we didn't really bother trying to get to it. Also, I don't think we deserved to have a picture at the top seeing as we didn't walk up there, haha.
Cold water swimming in Dorothea Quarry
I love swimming in the sea, but I haven't done anything quite like this before. Dorothea Quarry is now no longer in use, but when people were mining it, there was a pump that would make sure the natural water wouldn't fill up the voids they've left behind. When the mining stopped, the quarry filled with water, thus turning it into somewhat of a man-made lake.
Some parts of it go down 100 metres deep and others 80 metres. We made sure we stayed around the edges of the water, ensuring we could easily swim to an area where we could touch the bottom. I've never seen water that clear before, so it really was something to behold and even more of an experience to swim in it.
In order to get to the quarry, you'l have to walk about a kilometre, which is fine! The worst part of getting down there, though was having to walk down an exceptionally steep, wet and slippery hill, so much so, I thought I'd end up slipping on my bum, haha. But once I was down, it was all fine :)
After going for a swim, we decided to walk around the outside of the quarry, doing somewhat of a loop around the top of it so that we could see the old pump house. It was well worth the 3K round trip and we even ate some sandwiches and had some biscuits along the way!
After our walk, we drove to Caernarfon, another small town in the heart of North Wales. It was much like Conwy, with small, independent shops, cafes, bars and restaurants. We stopped off for a coffee and a slice of cake in a quaint coffee establishment, just to refresh and have a bit of sit down after walking all the way around the quarry and then the town. I can't remember the name of the place now and I didnt take any pictures (unusual for me, haha, although I now wish I did), but it was absolutely delightful and the staff were super friendly and helpful, too.
A dip in the sea, a pit stop at Snugbury's & time to go home
On the last day of our stay, we decided we'd go for a walk along the seafront near to where my brother's new house is. But seeing as we were going to be strolling past it anyway, we thought we'd take the opportunity to actually get into the sea and have a bit of a swim, and I must say, it was wonderful!
I've been swimming in the sea before, in Eastbourne, Bournemouth, Devon, other parts of Wales in Spain and even in the Gulf of Mexico. So I have lots of experience swimming in the ocean. It was cold, but not as cold as the abandoned quarry, surprisingly. Although my brother thought otherwise, haha.
Once we were finished swimming, we went back to my brother's house, had a shower and a bite to eat and then hit the road. But on the way back home, we stopped off at Snugbury's, an ice cream place in Nantwich that sells an amazing selection of mouthwatering diary goods, including sorbets, believe it or not.
I've reviewed this place before, so if you want to see a more in-depth post about it, have a look here. I went for a pot with two scoops, one was cookie dough and the other was cappuccino -flavoured. Tom went for a waffle cone and has the same cappuccino flavour as me but went for a creme brulee scoop instead of a cookie dough, but there's loads of different choices available to you. Take a look and drop in if you're ever in the area, it's well worth the visit - promise!
All in all, we had an amazing few days in North Wales and we can't wait to go back and see what else that part of the UK has to offer. It would also be brilliant to go back and see my brother and his girlfriend again, of course! When we do, I'll be sure to keep you all posted so keep your eyes peeled for another blog post about our Welsh adventures.
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I hope you enjoyed this blog post! Let me know in the comments if you've ever been to the same places we've been to and I'll see you all again soon :)
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