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Wales 2024 - Castles and a very foggy walk (Day 1)

For our late summer holiday this year, we decided to go on a trip to the North Wales coast. Nicole has always enjoyed going to Wales, and it turns out that Shannon has never been, so it seemed like a great place to visit and have chance to properly explore. As we live in Lancashire, it wasn't very far for us to travel, so we didn't have to set off too early. We had originally planned to spend the first day in and around Llandudno, which is where we were staying, however the weather had other ideas! As it was very overcast, raining and the visibility out to sea was poor, we decided to make use of our National Trust memberships to visit Penrhyn Castle and Garden. We were pleasantly surprised by the castle and grounds. It is a short 5-10 minute walk up to the castle itself, although there is a buggy service if this is needed. We were able to see a large proportion of the castle rooms, as well as inside the adjoining house, and there was a walled garden to explore too. We spent about an hour and a half there, and before leaving, popped into the cafe to grab ourselves a takeaway cake for later. We found some new treats in the cafe which we hadn't seen before, which were summer fruits doughnuts. It was no surprise that this was Shannon's choice! Nicole went for the blueberry bakewell slice. Both were delicious!



After exploring the castle, we headed to Cwm Idwal for a walk within the Snowdonia national park. This is a national trust site, however unfortunately even national trust members need to pay for parking. The walk took about 2 1/2 hours and took us on a path up to Llyn Idwal, around the perimeter and back down the original path to the visitor centre. A few words of warning, the path can be steep in places, and is difficult to walk at times due to the uneven stone surface. Despite this, it is definitely worth a trip as the views are spectacular. As we were getting towards the end of the walk, it started to get very foggy. There were still visitors commencing their walk as we made our way down. Our suggestion would be that if it is becoming foggy on the lower parts of the path, there's not much point continuing as you won't really see anything of the views and the path could become a bit treacherous. It's worth popping into the visitor centre before you leave to find out about the natural history of the area. 




We then headed to our accomodation, which was a small flat we found on AirBnB in Penrhyn-side. The location offers great sea views; it's just a shame it rained so much during our stay! The flat itself was cosy with a small kitchenette and a continental breakfast was provided, with plenty of choice. The host Roberts was really friendly and made us feel welcome when we checked in. 

For dinner we headed to the local Penrhyn Arms, which offers wood-fired pizzas. We both had a 9" pizza. Shannon had a meat feast and Nicole had the goats cheese, and then we shared some fries and homemade coleslaw. The pizzas had the thinnest bases we've ever seen on a pizza, but was crispy and had just the right amount of toppings. As it was a Monday evening, they had a jazz band in. Unfortunately we were there a bit early, but waited around for them to start. I'm not sure that jazz is our thing, but we listened for a short time before heading back to the flat for some well-needed rest. 



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