South Wales - 29th to 31st of May 2010

Someone should really tell the guys in power that two bank holidays in May is a little bit silly. But nevermind, despite all the packing and cleaning still to do in Putney, we were going to make the most of it - and so were up early on Saturday to hire a car and off we went to Wales.

Because it was on the way, and so why not, we stopped in at Bristol. Small fact for you, there are 34 other places on earth named Bristol. Isn't Wikipedia amazing?

But on to Cardiff, where our luxury accommodation awaited us, just in time to see the two attractions. First up Cardiff Castle, on a spot where there has been a castle or fort since 55AD.

Rounding off our sightseeing before a much needed beer, we hit Millennium Stadium for the last tour of the day, built to hold the 1999 rugby world cup. I forget who won that year...

Having had a few beers and a couple of wines experiencing the wildness that is Cardiff on a Saturday night, we were feeling surprisingly chipper on Sunday and so headed further west along the Southern coast of Wales. Stopped in Swansea for a look at their harbour...

...stopped in Kidwelly for a snap of their pretty castle, followed by a stop in Carmarthen for a great Sunday roast. It just happened that they were showing the F1...
But unquestionably the highlight of the day was the half hour spent sunning ourselves on Tenby's excellent (for the UK) beach, overlooked by a very pretty and colourful old harbour. By mid-afternoon the sun was out, and we made the most of it.
But we had more driving to do before we could call it a day, and so we went west until you could go west no more, ending up in a little B&B just outside Fishguard. There were more castles on the way, this one Carew Castle.
Bank holiday Monday and with a long drive back to London in front of us we hit the road back along the coast, stopping for some decent pics of south Wales.

On the way home we stopped in at St David's, with a population of 1797 the smallest "city" in the UK, awarded such lofty title due to its Cathedral. And a pretty decent cathedral it is too..

Trying to find some scenery to match the stunning views were had seen in Scotland earlier in the month, we made our way back to London via the Brecon Beacons, a national park just north of Cardiff. Very nice, but Scotland is going to take some beating.

Snowdonia, North Wales - 24th to 28th of December 2009

After grabbing some pressies, some santa hats and plenty of warm clothes we picked up our rental car and our mates early on the 24th and jumped on the motorways for our trip north west to Wales. The further we got away from London, the prettier the roads, with some spectacular sights once we left the motorways. About 6 hours later we made it to our little cottage in Blaenau Ffestiniog.

Thanks to a lack of central heating, our cottage was FREEZING, so we were up early Christmas morning to stoke the fire. We miss having a fireplace, so was nice and romantic snuggling up in front of it for a few days.

After an awesome Christmas breaky, we went for a little walk to see some of the countryside around Blaenau.

Boxing day ended up being a tour of the castles of northwest wales. First up Harlech Castle.

Caernafon:

View of the countryside from the Isle of Anglesey:

Beaumaris Castle:

...and finally Conwy Castle:

The 27th we decided to go for a bit of a wander. Braving the cold we found a nice circuit to do, up and over and through a valley to a nice little pub and around along a river back to the car. Well that was the plan anyway, turns out we cant follow directions very well and the path we were on seemed to disappear, so we had to turnaround and go back the way we came. Still, some spectacular scenery:

And that was the end of our little Christmas trip to Wales. Back through some more amazing scenery to London on the 28th: