A day in Wales

Tuesday I arrived in Wellington to stay with Gary and Cath for a few days. Today we spent the day in Wales, a country of my ancestors. It's a beautiful place with lush, green hills/mountains. It was sunny, warm, and breezy. A beautiful day!
We crossed the border and stopped in Llangollen where Gary and Cath have a weekend mobile home for relaxation.
Then we went to Valle Crucis Abbey, an abbey that was started in 1201 and is still remarkably complete.




This guy really creeped me out. I couldn't tell if he was real or not at first! His purpose was to tell the story of the monks at the Abbey.

After that we drove up on Horeshoe Pass and had a picnic lunch in Gary's brand new hybrid car! I hope I didn't leave any crumbs behind. After lunch we had a chocolate roll and coffee. They asked me if I like it and I said yes. Then they told me it had "just a drop of brandy." haha
Then we drove around some more and after awhile we stopped in Rhyl, a seaside resort town that really caters to families. In the summer I can imagine lots and lots of kids on the carnival rides and eating popcorn. Right now it is pretty dead and the beach has a lot of garbage on it. I imagine it's nice in the summer, though.
I loved Conwy, it was on the shore and a tourist trap at that. It had a castle and wall that encompassed the entire town. We parked and went in the world's smallest house. It was indeed very small. The man who lived there was 6-foot 3-inches. I can't even imagine it! I was taller than the door. He apparently went all over the world measuring houses just to prove that his was the smallest.

The lady in the photo had moved to Wales from London, learned Welsh and decided to stay. She was nice and obliged to do the Pleasure Chest for me.

Naturally we got ice cream after this. A very important aspect to our day. I had Toffee Fudge ice cream. YUMMY!
Cath and I explored the Conwy Castle. As I was walking through it I felt like I was walking though the Mayan or Incan ruins. It just amazes me how these were built.




After exploring the castle we drove through Llandudno to look at the up-scale seaside resort with fancy shopping and nice hotels. It was very different and more posh, if you will, than Rhyl.
We completed our day with the drive back to the house with dinner on the way. Now we're watching Manchester United play and listening to information about the Swine Flu!