When we first started going on walking holidays 3 years ago, we would walk day after day, often walking anything between 5 and 8 hours - but then paid for it as the week went on as we both developed aches and pains. We're still prepared to undertake long walks, but now tend to mix up our trip - and our visit to Caernarfon today was a perfect example (as was our coast trip a couple of days ago) of adding some variety into our walking holidays.
Now all I knew about Caernarfon was that there was a castle there, not knowing anything about it's history or whether there was anything else there other than the castle. Well we were very surprised when arrived at how good a place it is to visit, and we ended up spending 4hrs in the town.
We arrived around 11am and didn't leave until gone 3pm, spending about 90 minutes exploring all the castle had to offer. It's a very well kept piece of history, and there's plenty there to keep all ages busy - not only will the adults adore the history, but the kids will love going up and down the spiral staircases and looking out from the tops of turrets, and there are loads of places for them to hide from their parents - surely all kids love that?
Before we arrived I wasn't aware that the castle formed part of the old walled town, with narrow streets criss-crossing the area between the old town walls - there were some great pubs, shops and galleries hidden down these streets and lots of brightly coloured buildings. We had a brief rest-stop taking in a cool drink whilst sitting in the sun outside the Black Boy Inn - built around 1522 and one of the oldest pubs in Wales. What we've really loved whilst in North Wales is listening to the number of people speaking Welsh. Being very naive to the subject, I always just assumed that it was a second language only spoken by the older generation, but how wrong I was.
Our walk through the streets took us into the town square, a large open area where I imagine that at certain times of the year they hold open-air events. There were a few places to eat along one side of the square, so we decided to have lunch at one of them - again sitting out in the afternoon sun. Well the place looked great, but the food was if I'm honest - rubbish. Donna only ate half a panini and left all the supposed home-made chips and salad, and I only ate my Lamb burger and chips as I was starving - possibly the worst chips we've every eaten! But, you never know unless you try - just something to remember if (almost certainly a 'when') we return.
Our last stop was to grab an ice-cream, walk across to the other side of the harbour so that I could get some photos of the whole castle, and then it was into the car for the journey back to Dolwyddelan. On our return journey we stopped off in Llanberis to have a look in a few shops, but there's not really a lot there to see and the outdoor shops were more geared towards climbers so trying to find anything above an XL was like looking for a Manchester Utd fan in Manchester! The last stop-off was to go into Coltswold Outdoors in Betws-Y-Coed to see if an XXL Haglofs jacket would fit - but to no avail, just too small for my 'womens hips' Only one full day left - and it's Donna's birthday so we'll make it a good one.
Now all I knew about Caernarfon was that there was a castle there, not knowing anything about it's history or whether there was anything else there other than the castle. Well we were very surprised when arrived at how good a place it is to visit, and we ended up spending 4hrs in the town.
We arrived around 11am and didn't leave until gone 3pm, spending about 90 minutes exploring all the castle had to offer. It's a very well kept piece of history, and there's plenty there to keep all ages busy - not only will the adults adore the history, but the kids will love going up and down the spiral staircases and looking out from the tops of turrets, and there are loads of places for them to hide from their parents - surely all kids love that?
Before we arrived I wasn't aware that the castle formed part of the old walled town, with narrow streets criss-crossing the area between the old town walls - there were some great pubs, shops and galleries hidden down these streets and lots of brightly coloured buildings. We had a brief rest-stop taking in a cool drink whilst sitting in the sun outside the Black Boy Inn - built around 1522 and one of the oldest pubs in Wales. What we've really loved whilst in North Wales is listening to the number of people speaking Welsh. Being very naive to the subject, I always just assumed that it was a second language only spoken by the older generation, but how wrong I was.
Our walk through the streets took us into the town square, a large open area where I imagine that at certain times of the year they hold open-air events. There were a few places to eat along one side of the square, so we decided to have lunch at one of them - again sitting out in the afternoon sun. Well the place looked great, but the food was if I'm honest - rubbish. Donna only ate half a panini and left all the supposed home-made chips and salad, and I only ate my Lamb burger and chips as I was starving - possibly the worst chips we've every eaten! But, you never know unless you try - just something to remember if (almost certainly a 'when') we return.
Our last stop was to grab an ice-cream, walk across to the other side of the harbour so that I could get some photos of the whole castle, and then it was into the car for the journey back to Dolwyddelan. On our return journey we stopped off in Llanberis to have a look in a few shops, but there's not really a lot there to see and the outdoor shops were more geared towards climbers so trying to find anything above an XL was like looking for a Manchester Utd fan in Manchester! The last stop-off was to go into Coltswold Outdoors in Betws-Y-Coed to see if an XXL Haglofs jacket would fit - but to no avail, just too small for my 'womens hips' Only one full day left - and it's Donna's birthday so we'll make it a good one.
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