Thursday, March 27, 2008

The wind whistled all trough the night and other Welsh hymns...

This weekend gone saw myself, T and her lads spending some time at her parents caravan in north Wales.
So that was two things I never thought would happen, happening;-

  1. Me spending time in Wales again
  2. Me spending time in a caravan
This was no ordinary caravan, you know the ones, the ones towed behind small cars that clog the roads and motorways of this country every bank holiday. Or the ones featured on shows like Brainiac and Top gear, that get blown up (a lot).
No! This caravan was one of those big jobs that you need an articulated lorry to move and a crane to set it into place once you get it to where you want it.
There where hundreds of the things all sitting in the one large plot, sort of like a trailer park but with marginally more taste and style.
To get a better view of the place T drove us up a hill so steep even flies had trouble walking on it. Here are some pics taken while there.

The place had all sorts of things for kids to do, pools, play areas, football and peddle cars and a fair and go-carts, and an arcade full of games.
It only had one thing for the grown-ups to do and that was to spend money like there was going to be no tomorrow.

Still didn't stop us having a great time, with the exception of the restaurant/bar that we had a meal in on the last evening. T had a veggie lasagne, I had steak and chips with veggies, J had chicken nuggets and chips and B had cheese burger with chips and beans.
With the exception of the lasagne it was all cold and generally horrible. When the lads failed to enjoy their meal I would have put it down to them just being picky and that the food hadn't been cooked by their mum but when even a steak knife with an aggressive blade had trouble I began to wonder. My Steak was inedible and so I decided that I'd leave it well alone and have some toast when we got back to the caravan.
It wasn't long after I put down my eating irons that a woman in the livery of the place came along to clear the plates. The poor woman really didn't expect the answer she got when she asked me if we had enjoyed our meal. But in fairness to me, if she had looked at the plates a little more closely she probably wouldn't have asked such a monumentally stupid question as she did.
I drew her attention to the almost whole but now completely cold meals and said that the chips where cold from the moment the meals arrived, the burger had no cheese slice even tho' the menu said it should have one, the nuggets where cold (almost chilled) and that the steak (I now picked up the offending item between two fingers and waved it in front of her) was all connecting tissue that had almost broken the knife and had given my dentists work a run for it's money.
Poor woman was very apologetic, and asked if there was anything she could get us to make up for it. I should have asked for a refund but no. I said that the place had done enough and that we would be leaving and not coming back, also muttering that it was just as well that the caravan had a good kitchen and that I had a jar of Marmite.

Now you would think from the text above that I hated my time in Wales, almost as much as the times that the RN had me and several of my brothers in arms traipsing around in the wilds of south Wales with out dated equipment and rucksacks the size of wardrobes strapped to our backs in all weathers.
Nothing could be further from the truth, I had a great time.

Spent the whole time in great company, visited the Snowdon railway (A HUGE rip off who's ticket staff are retards unaware of the recorded message content that punters get to listen to when phoning for info).
Here are some train and mountain shots,


Phwaarrrr
Now some pics from out of the window whilst on Snowdon,

It doesn't get much better than this


BBBRRRRRRRRRR!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

had some really good chippy chips, got to see snow (some of it falling) and got to revisit an old castle keep that I last visited when I was the same age as T's lads.

And here it is...



So that's some long and not so long shots, now for some other shots. And I will not talk about the animal in a hole. Well maybe later.

It's a great place to visit, especially if you're 10 years old or below. There are some great chimney flues to climb up and look into the central fire pit. Don't have any of those pics, sorry.
Ahhh, stuff it, just go to Wales, it's fun, some times.

here is a couple of views from the top, a hydro plant is over the way.

This is a place called "Electric mountain" or in Welsh, Electric Mountain.
Bloody Druids.

However.

Once you get to the top of the Castle Arrrhhhggg, this is the view out of the (incorrectly made windows)
My T shot is missing, she won't let me take her pic. Don't know why.
So here we have another window shot, sort of....

Look! If you make it to Wales, go here. Wherever it is....

It has a really good spiral staircase...So that was Wales, well at least by day.

During the night in the caravan (every night) the wind and rain kept us awake for a few hours. The caravan shook at times as if a crowd of people had turned up and decided to sake us to sleep.
In fact it was that bad at times I thought we'd wake up with the caravan on top of a witch.

Next stop is Hull, for a trampoline gig that the lads need to go to. I'm running behind and just got back from Hull, so it may or may not happen.
Also back to Wales on Wednesday for another stop in the caravan, must remember to pack at least one fan heater.

TTFN


6 comments:

Anonymous said...

Ed I'm not sure if you look excited or terrified on the blue 3 wheel bike. And stop perving at the trains engine.

Great pics though fella. Impressive vistas.

Ashley

Jo said...

Those are some great pictures! I bet you had fun despite yourself ;)

Anonymous said...

Mate,

How much weight have you lost, looking good man. Just left Oman, it was hot, 'nuff zed.

Nobby

Ed's next door neighbour said...

I was over in Anglesey myself yesterday (Sunday) and the views of the snow-topped mountains were spectacular, and especially distracting whilst driving! By contrast, the sea was the most perfect turquoise, dotted with little orange oil tankers. Exquisite!

Glad you're having fun and seeing the world a bit! ;) It's so quiet I thought you'd run off back to sea!

Bezzie said...

THat spiral staircase makes me a bit claustrophobic. We had similar signs on glaciers in Alaska that warned of falling ice and immenient peril if you were close enough to read the sign.

Anonymous said...

Hi, very interesting post, greetings from Greece!