Europe - Trip 1

Day 7 - January 14, 2002

A very blustery view from Harlech Castle

After a quick shower and breakfast we were off again - discovering the process that the right tail light had fallen out during the night. Todd figured that it was high quality Italian automobile craftmanship or that someone had pried it off trying to get into the boot. Regardless our quick start was derailed by a stop at the hardware store in town to get some epoxy so that we could glue the light housing back in - you'd figure that it would just clip in but no... it was only attached by contact cement.

A lovely day at the seaside in Barmouth

Half an hour of holding the light in while Sue was off getting some groceries for lunch, Todd's fingers were getting cold and cramped trying to ensure that instructions on the epoxy were rigorouly followed. We then headed to Barmouth on the coast and watched the waves for a bit before heading up to Harlech castle on the top of a wind swept peak. Unusually no-one else was there on a bitterly rainy and windy January morning.

Next, off to Caenarfon where the big castle is and where Chuck the Prince of Wales was invested or something. A bigger town, not as pretty as Dolgellau and definitely much more of a noisy tourist burg - we decided to park and headed straight for the castle.

Inside Caernarfon Castle

The castle was spectacular, well maintained but with some ruined parts. An extensive set of museumettes lead you through the history of the castle and the area from cro magnon times to present. The wander through here took better than 2 hours, though Sue felt rushed because she thought Todd was going to be waiting for her at the end.

We hit the tourist info place and got a list of places to stay. Sue suggested staying at one of the local hostels, Todd suggested staying at one of the local hotels with a pub on the main floor. We went to investigate the hostel and found that the proprietor was out of town until later - Todd took this as a sign. After a bit more searching we headed to the hotel and got $25 off the rate because no-one else was staying in town that night.

We then hit the local library to send off and read e-mail and then came back to the hotel for dinner and a pint(s) and watched the Simpsons with a couple other tourists, one of whom had been to Canada and thought Hamilton was just gorgeous. We left shortly after that, did a wander, ending up back in our room a bit later.

rainy the entire time