Summer Holiday

Saturday - Arrived at the Holiday Cottage in "Ysbyty Ifans"

Sunday - Bright and Sunny today. We drove to Harlech, where we had tea, milk and toasted teacakes in our favourite tea room (soon to be featured in one of Novelist Supermum's stories).

Then down from Harlech to spend the rest of the day on Harlech Beach, which has got to be one of the best beaches in the area.

Great day out.

Monday - Wet morning, but turned bright and sunny in the afternoon.

Went to the Greenwood Forest Adventure Park. An eco-friendly theme park. We all rode the "Green Dragon" roller coaster. To power this first you all walk up a hill and get into a large box car. Everybody's weight takes this car down the hill, and acts as a counter-weight to bring the roller coaster cars up the hill (it also generates electricity for the ride). You then all walk up the hill again and get into the roller coaster cars that are now at the top of the hill. Then off you go at breakneck speed whizzing round the track and down to the bottom.

This was Frodo and Samwise's first roller coaster. Samwise just made the height restriction, and I wasn't sure how he would take it. Luckily they both thought it was great fun, laughing and shrieking all the way to the bottom, and both wanted to go again.

Other attractions were some slides made out of matting that you whizzed down on plastic "tea trays", several rope, chain and log climbs and bridges, some large tubular slides, and "jungle boats" that you had to navigate through the "jungle" yourself by paddling and pulling on overhead ropes.

Great day out.

Tuesday - A rainy day for a drive around Snowdon to the Llanberis Lake Railway

An hour or so's ride on these little chuff chuffs was the higlight of the day. There was a stop at a picnic area, but since the nearby cafe and playground were both shut for repairs it wasn't worth staying.

We ate some of our pic-nic in the little rail carriage. Samwise got into the groove and started dancing to the "clickety clack" sound.

There's a slate museum next to the main station, so we had a quick tour of this since it was free. Then a walk into Llanberis for a look at the start of the mountain railway (have decided to do this on a special trip another year, since it's expensive, and you can't get to the top at present as they're improving the last section - it's a building site at the moment).

Wednesday - A wet start to the day, but turned bright and sunny again as we drove out to the Anglesey Sea Zoo

Had a spot of trouble finding this, due to a very small, almost unnoticeable direction sign that we missed with a lobster on it. We were distracted at the time by the larger sign for the small, but largely named town of llanfairpwllgwyngyllgogerychwyrndrobwllllantysiliogogogoch

The Sea Zoo was OK, but wasn't very big. For twenty notes I would have been disappointed if we hadn't got to see a diver "maintaining" one of the tanks. All the kids sat at the front while he took his aqualung out and pulled faces at them. They were supposed to ask him questions by writing on a board and holding him up. This quickly deteriorated into asking him to do tricks. This included a forward somersault, backward somersault and a cartwheel.

Outside was a bouncy castle and an adventure play area, so we spent a good hour or two here and had our lunch.

We then went in search of the nearest, and found it just outside the Sea View Centre.
Spent the afternoon throwing stones into the sea with Frodo and Samwise.

Great day out.

Thursday - Another wet day, so we visited Gormenghast aka Penhrhyn Castle Not mediaeval this time, but built in the 1800's from the profits of Welsh slate mines and Jamaican sugar plantations.

Fantastic place to wander around. Magnificent neo-Norman architecture - i.e. like an overdecorated film set, combined with interiors ranging from the Victorian period to the 1930's. Bakelite lamp stands. Water closets - flush toilets with hand pump action, a collection of steam engines, early electric lighting and power, enormous kitchens with vast arrays of copper pans and larders where the carcases of a whole herd of cows could hang, an early fridge in the form of "the ice tower" and the most fantastic arrangement of servant summoning bells - a labelled bell ringing in the servants quarters for every room in the castle.

The weather remained wet, so we had tea and cake in the castle tea rooms before wandering around the stables, the stalls of which now form the gift shop.

There was a walled garden which was worth a visit, particularly for the bog garden, which had some huge foliage in it, due to the heavy rains.
A quick go on the adventure playground in the castle woods before it got too wet, then we had our pic-nic in the car.

Friday - Again a wet start, but bright and sunny later.

Visited the town of Conwy. Here there is a fabulous toyshop where we bought an essential addition to the boys toy castle - a tavern. Every castle needs a pub! We also bought a wizard and a queen figure to add to the castle population.

Another shop in Conwy sells mediaeval weapons and armour. Novelist Supermum bought this sword. I have sword envy.

We found a quiet cove beyond the tourist filled sea front (the so-called smallest house in the UK is here), just outside the town wall. Had our lunch here. Frodo and Samwise indulged in their favourite pastime of throwing stones in the water.

We went for a vertigo-inducing walk around the fortified town walls. Great views, but a bit scary in places, taking two small excited boys above the rooftops balancing on top of a mediaeval wall. There was a safety rail - but the gap was a bit worrying.

Great day out.

Saturday - Packed up and headed home.

Great holiday.

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Frodo's 6th Birthday Party is tomorrow (his Birthday is next Friday, but we're having the party in advance as a lot of his school friends will be on holiday next week).

The party has been booked at a local college campus. 2 of the staff provide the kids with party fun and games. We just provide the food, balloons and party gift bags.

I've bought a cylinder of helium from the local cash and carry to inflate the balloons. The party gift bags are little boxes full of gifts and sweets that we got for a couple of quid each.

Bought the food from Asda this afternoon. Drove out of Asda and whilst putting the car into second gear it stalled in mid gear-change. The engine just cut out completely and I couldn't restart it.

Called the AA and a "very very nice man" did his best to fix it on the spot, but had to tow me to a local repair centre, where they'll take a closer look on Monday. Suspected "cam sensor failure" causing an intermittent fault. They started it again immediately at the garage - but they want to keep it and check it out since the computer chip was reporting "no fault" even when it wouldn't start!

The AA man gave me a lift home with all of my shopping.
We'll have to take a taxi to Frodo's party tomorrow.