Llandudno
September 2011
In the afternoon, we headed to Betws-y-Coed, a bit further south of the Conwy Maze. It's not a large village, but it is very picturesque. This large expanse of grass had the backdrop of tree-lined hills.
We stopped off for some lunch here, which was a very nice café offering home-made everything, from soups and sandwiches, to quiches and cakes. We obliged.
A stream. Lovely. Daisy made a bit of a kerfuffle when Lynne battled with the changing room, but soon fell asleep.
It is beyond me what this grand old building is.
We were soon back at the cottage, as Daisy was delighted to report. She's always happy if she has Monkey.
The next day (not sure which one we are up to now - that's the problem with updating the website in sessions), Daisy showed off her flipping and lying on her front skills. She is getting ever more adept at rolling onto her stomach and comfortable at being in that position.
Later on the... Tuesday!... the weather was set fair for a visit to Conwy and its castle.
We successfully located the pathway for prams and pushchairs.
...which Daisy was most pleased about. She had her little princess with her, with her precious jewels, which helped.
Needing to feed Daisy, we found a quaint tea room and tried to find seats as far away as possible from the other paying customers.
They had a rather archaic door policy at some of the shops in Conwy.
We wandered and wandered, not really having a clue where we were going, but it did give us the opportunity to see quite far into the distance.
The next day we meandered into Llandudno. This is fairly late in the afternoon - I have no idea what we were doing all day. Just not taking photos, I guess. Here is the start of Llandudno Pier.
At no point during the week was I tempted to go for a swim, and I am usually quite keen to go into the sea.
I tried my luck at the local amusements, but found none, so I amused myself by playing Sega Rally on a seat which (deliberately) wobbled with each course bump. Lynne had gone shopping and I eventually caught up with her in a coffee shop-cum-restaurant.
The sun still had a say in matters, though, lighting up this monument.
This is the view we had from the kitchen window - very appealing. The house just off shot was on the opposite side of the lane we were on.
On the Thursday, we decided to head to Anglesey, which basically involved finding the A55 and staying on it. Fairly cluelessly, we just drove and drove, eventually ending up in Holyhead, for not much more of a reason than we recognised the name. This shot seemed to sum up Holyhead - a fairly unattractive-looking industrial town juxtaposed with some ancient ruins like this.
This church was in the middle of Holyhead Fort.
A couple of pastries and some mild coordination later, and we were at Anglesey Sea Zoo. Which was, more specifically, here!
Here is a close-up of the "YOU ARE HERE" location.
It was again time for the carrier, which Daisy was more than happy with, having developed a scrunched-up smile face.
Inside, this was probably the most impressive feature, a large tank with large fish, beside which we fed Daisy some baby food. She liked being able to look around but didn't really appreciate what she was looking at (naturally - she's not much over six months here).
Relentlessly (for my back, in particular), we headed for the Great Orme Tramway in Llandudno once we'd got bored with Anglesey. It wasn't especially warm so we wrapped Daisy up, with a muslin strategically placed to catch the vast streams of dribble that emanate from Daisy's mouth. You look a bit anxious, Daisy... give us a smile.
That's more like it - the scrunched-up face, you will note.
This is looking back down to Llandudno Bay (I'm actually not sure if it is called that but if it isn't it should be). The tram comprised two separate journeys. We had to get off one tram and head round to another one waiting on the other side.
Eventually we reached the top. Some of the sections were very steep and we were definitely glad not to have to walk them. The scenery was stunning, however; despite the clouds.
All the way up here they'd built a crazy golf course. It was not practical for us to play, not least because it was cold, Daisy was getting tired and I wouldn't have been able to see the ball because Daisy was in the way. We will return.
The rock garden was as dull as it sounds.
This was the building at the summit.
Friday, and finally the rains came, hard and heavy. Time to cocoon the youngster. We ducked out of most of it by timing it well with a visit to a chip shop restaurant.
We had a contingency plan in place, which was to head for a swim at Llandudno Swimming Centre. Daisy had a bit of fun splashing but then swallowed a bit of water and was subsequently not at all happy. She was a bit tired too...
The seagulls were comfortable with their surroundings and made themselves at home.
Back at the ranch, mother and daughter dried out and generally had a good time.
And then the week was over. It didn't know whether to be sunny or wet on the last morning, but it didn't matter as we were soon on our way. But not before I wandered around taking some last photos. Here is the narrow lane we were on, with our cottage being the first white building on the right.
It's a bit out of the way and not much happens (which is part of the appeal), but you can see why you would live here, with views like this.
And this.
And this. I had tried to locate the hilltop walk, but to no avail. It was hard to tell which paths or roads were public walkways and which were driveways of people's residences.
I did managed to find the Misty Woods, though.
And before long we were gone, arriving him a mere 90 minutes later, despite a road closure on the M56.
Back to The Secret Portal.