(published a day after written)
Tomorrow morning, we are heading back home after our first trip to Wales. It is one of the most beautiful places we have ever been. We have been comparing it to New Zealand and Bali...who knew??!!
Last Friday we drove from London to North Wales. It ended up taking us SEVEN hours including a half hour stop. There was so much traffic. And much of it seemed to move very slowly, but ultimately we made it. The first three nights we were at the Royal Sportsman Hotel in Porthmadog. We ate all three dinners and breakfasts there, and it was awesome. The hotel was too hot and the shower was tricky, but it was otherwise fine.
stuff for a week
The first morning we drove to a copper mine. I had set the car's satnav to the mine's postal code, and it took us on this TINY road with walls on both sides. There were a few meters where we were touching BOTH the right and the left with the car. I did not enjoy this driving and I was dreading another car coming the other way. The car never came, thankfully. I asked these locals who were walking to give me a pep talk. They did. It helped. We ended up at the mine. Phew.
I was TERRIFIED to go in - I am pretty claustrophobic, and I did freak out multiple times inside, but I did it with a lot of deep breathing- we all did, other than Sam. Sam stayed in the car. The mine was closed in the early 1900s and it was re-opened for tours in the 80s. You can see how people worked in there, the tunnels, where they ate, etc. It was actually super super cool. We went for a walk by the mine and then went off to make sure we were parked in a city for Matt's fantasy baseball draft (my favorite).
i was truly freaking out but tried to seem like I had it together
crossing the river when mom and dad take the bridge
I took the kids to a cafe for lunch in Caernafon, and then we explored the castle there. We could go in any room, up and down the stairs, along the top walls - everywhere. It was so so so cool! The boys shot archery. Matt's draft went well. Sam mostly stayed with Matt in the cafe. No interest in the castle.
After the castle, we drove to this amazing beach with gorgeous ruins and wild ponies. I mean - what could be cooler? It was so so beautiful. We did a gorgeous walk there - the Newborough Beach and Ynys Llanddwyn hike out to the island, all around and back. We were all so happy. Though I was anxious to get back before dark. We hadn't changed our clocks yet, and man these roads with space for one car are scary when you can't see. We made it. But just barely.
Day 2 we did a big hike. Sam was miserable the whole time and threatened to leave multiple times. But the rest of us loved it - though it was quite long. It had some gorgeous waterfalls, amazing views, ruins, a lake and lunch towards the end at a cafe on the road. It was absolutely gorgeous.
Day 3 we packed up and drove down the coast to St David's. We stopped in Cardigan for lunch - it was so so cute! Then we went to this amazing hike at the end of a point before we got to St David's. The views were unbelievable. We bribed Sam with two Cadbury cream eggs. The sheep were so cute - so many babies playing, and one loose guy who followed us on the trail for a bit.
We got to St David's and went to walk to dinner, and Elie rolled down a hill in stinging nettles. With a quick google, we learned we should let it be for ten minutes and then wash it with soap. That night it was a bit itchy - we put some hydrocortisone, and by the morning it was totally gone. Miraculous. And we had a great dinner at a gorgeous pub in St David's.
Our hotel there had no soul but did the job.
The next morning we drove about 45 minutes south, along the coast. The driving was nearly ALL on road that had space for one car and walls of bushes on both sides. It was like a maze. When we had to pass someone, someone had to back up to a spot where we could squeeze around each other. I thought maybe it was a joke. But it was real life, and we made it.
We took a boat to Skomer Island where we spent the day hiking with puffins, gulls, we saw a buzzard and a few seals. Sam abandoned us on this hike and sat at the one building on the island all day (do you see a theme here?). The boys, Matt and I walked around the entire island and hung out with THOUSANDS of puffins. They are just coming back to the island for the summer to lay their eggs and chill. They're super cute. Did you know that puffins live for an average of 30 years? This island and a neighboring island have 50% of the world's reproducing population of puffins. We had a crazy downpour while walking (but we had jackets), and we saw hundreds of dead birds.
one of many dead birds
POURING
We then had to DRIVE BACK the same way we came - which was insane a second time also. On our way home, we decided to check out a different place to eat in St David's. Kids had walked more than nine miles, so no one wanted to walk the almost a mile to dinner, so we went to park in the town of St David's. We followed the signs to a parking lot and we saw a HUGE CATHEDRAL and old ruins of a religious building from the medieval times. Had we not been so lazy, we never would have seen this, and it is actually the main attraction in St David's. We should have googled! We had a great dinner at a different amazing, cute pub, and we went back to the cathedral in the morning. It was absolutely amazing and has been there for over a thousand years - the current one for at least six hundred.
amazing ceiling of the cathedral - from the 1600s
The rest of that day was a bit of a waste. We planned it around a call I had for work. We drove and drove until we reached Swansea - a place we could get lunch and I could have my call and the others could walk around. It ended up a bit late for lunch, so I had no more patience. Swansea was a bit of a dump, and it was hard to find a nice place, and we ended up eating in a gross place. Then, a big chunk of the key people on my call never made it, and the call ended early, so we left, but no one really saw anything interesting. Bummer. We made it the rest of the way to our hotel in the middle of the mountains. We had a lovely dinner there and slept.
The next day was yesterday, and we went on horses through a little village and up a mountain. Matt did not enjoy it for multiple reasons, including his knees and misplaced stirrups, so he ended up abandoning ship (Sam did not abandon this one...). The rest of us rode for two hours, walking and trotting, and we loved it. We had a nice lunch and then went on a small hike (bribed Sam...) in some AMAZING waterfalls. We had dinner with some darts in a pub near where we're staying.
sam took this pic of me
Today we went for a big hike - we left Sam to sleep at the hotel. The hike was AMAZING - one of my favorites ever. SO MANY waterfalls. We saw dudes kayaking down a waterfall. We went BEHIND a RAGING waterfall. It had POURED the entire night before, so everything was soaked, and waterfalls were a-flowing! Then we came back and grabbed Sam, had a lovely lunch at a gorgeous pub and went to see a red kite feeding. It was so so cool to see them up close. More wild horses on the way out of there, back to our inn for some Settlers, Splendor and dinner, and we're off to London tomorrow.
Overall, eight days in a small car with the five of us wasn't amazing. Sam is at a tough age for socializing with anyone other than peers. Elie and Koby are super physical, and while they love to wrestle, the old ladies at the pubs don't always love to witness it. Driving in Wales is the hardest driving I have ever done. The hiking was some of the most beautiful hiking we have ever done. Food in Wales is incredibly lacking in fresh vegetables. Welsh cakes are a bit dry. There is a lot of meat, potatoes/chips, fried cod. The Welsh language has SO MANY consonants! And then also so many vowels!! But never in the same words!
Elie is ping-pong deprived and said he would rather be in London, but the trip was ok, and he really liked the hike today. But he said he wouldn't recommend it.
Koby thought the trip was pretty good - he liked hiking and being in nature. He ate a hundred and one cheeseburgers and wasted a few of them.
Sam wasn't interested in the whole thing and truly seems to hate hiking and really anything.
Matt and I LOVED the hiking. We mostly enjoyed the food. We loved the cute inns. We played a lot of games/Lost Cities, and enjoyed some evenings away from the kids. We wouldn't mind if our kids would share a room and we could actually share a room, but I guess we're not there yet.
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