Wales......

Harbour Beach, Abersoch, Wales

I'm interrupting my Dixieland travelogue to tell you about our holiday in Abersoch, Wales, with the family last week.

You may remember a post I did about childhood holiday memories having a lasting effect, which I believe prompted our eldest son to drive for 3 hours one summer day to show his three children where we used to spend our summer holidays when he was a child.      His trip then prompted MWM and I to go back there two years ago, 30 years after our last visit, to spend a few days rekindling our love of the place.   You can read about that break here, here and here.   

Abersoch Harbour

Last December we decided we'd like all our grandchildren to experience the magic of Abersoch and hopefully they would in turn have magical holiday memories. which they might then pass on to their children in years to come. I looked online and found a fabulous house for rent, right in the village, which was big enough for us, our two sons and their families.    I checked with the boys that the dates were OK with them then went ahead and booked the house for a week.   You can see photos of the interior of the house here, it was fabulous and had everything we needed and more.

Argraig

We set off on Friday 3rd June for the 3 hour drive to Wales, followed by youngest son and his two boys.  Eldest son had set off an hour before taking a different route, saying he'd see us at the house.  The weather was just beautiful, sunny and hot and we were hoping it would stay that way for the seven days we were there.

We arrived at the house and unpacked the food we'd taken before popping down to the pub for a welcome drink.   The children were happy playing on the climbing frame at the pub for a short time before we took them down to the harbour to look at the boats and let them have a run around on the beach

before getting fish and chips to take back to the house for tea, which we ate sitting around the huge table on the decking in the evening sunshine.

Saturday was gloriously hot and sunny, so we took the buckets and spades, other beach games and a picnic down to the beautiful beach, where we all had a wonderful time.

After a great day on the beach we went back to the house to shower off the sand and had a lovely meal, eaten alfresco again, then popped down to the pub for a drink before bedtime whilst the children played together on the climbing frame there.

Here's Ali and Gracie having a cuddle before bedtime. 

On Sunday we drove the fifteen miles from Abersoch to Criccieth, taking a packed lunch with us which we ate overlooking the beach, and climbed the hill to the 13th century castle.     

Dan's partner, Fi, had been unable to come with us as she had to work and take care of their three dogs, and unfortunately Ali had to go home on Sunday evening because she had to go back to work on Monday too, Nick drove her home and returned to Abersoch later that evening.  

Monday dawned sunny again, so we took the children to Abersoch's main beach to explore and enjoy an icecream.

On Tuesday we drove to Caernarfon, which is 24 miles from Abersoch, to visit the magnificent Caernarfon Castle, which was built by Edward I in 1283 and is still in excellent repair.  Caernarfon Castle is where the investiture of the Prince of Wales took place in 1969.    Most of the turrets are still accessible and proved to be a great source of excitement for the children.

On Wednesday the children collected shells on the beach to make collages and explored the rock pools with their fishing nets.    Here's a few photographs showing their handiwork with the shells.

On Thursday we drove over to Pwllheli, which is the capital of the Llyn Peninsula and just seven miles from Abersoch, so that the children could get souvenirs for themselves and gifts for their mothers.       Later in the afternoon they went for one last scout on the beach before coming back for a bath.   Most evenings we spent playing snap and various games in the lounge with the children before they went to bed tired out and happy.


All too soon it was Friday morning and time for us to leave lovely Abersoch for the drive home.  The weather was very kind to us. Some mornings were overcast but by the time we were all ready to go out the clouds had cleared and the sun was out, though sometimes there was a chilly wind it didn't deter us or the children from enjoying our time in Abersoch.

Each morning, whilst the children were having breakfast and getting dressed,  MWM walked down to the little shop to get the daily paper and sit a while on the harbour,

looking out to sea, enjoying the peace and tranquility.

Each day a little Robin hopped around us looking for a few crumbs, so on the last morning we took him some and he almost ate them out of my hand.

MWM and I hope that all the grandchildren will remember their week in Abersoch and maybe in years to come take their children there.  Apart from the names of the shops Abersoch hasn't changed at all in 30 years and I hope it will be just the same if they eventually all go back.   Ah, sweet memories.

If you want to read our Dan's account of the holiday go to his blog

Dan's Fi-ver.

Croeso i Gymru......

As MWM and I are not having a holiday abroad this year, due to saving up for our Carribean Cruise in January next year, we decided to revisit a place we haven't seen for approximately 28 years! You may remember I blogged about what a lasting memory this place gave us and the boys some time back, you can read about it here and see the photos from way back then.

The place was Abersoch on the Llyn Peninsula in Wales.

We booked the Angorfa B&B in the centre of Abersoch and MWM planned the route as we decided to drive there again, the only difference being I offered to drive some of the way this time, I couldn't drive the last time we visited.

We set off around 9.30am with MWM driving the first leg as we had to go on the motorway - I don't 'do' motorways! The rain was lashing down until we came off the motorway and actually saw the sign telling us we were in Wales.

I've done a little slide show to show you where we stopped for our picnic lunch, which we ate in the car because although the rain had stopped it was overcast and very windy.

After lunch I took over the driving all the way to Abersoch. The scenery is just like the slide show above and the traffic was very light so I was able to enjoy it as well even though I was driving.

The traffic built up as went through Porthmadog and almost came to a standstill on the road over the Glaslyn Estuary into Porthmadog. This used to be a toll road until March 2003. MWM took the following picture as we were 'crawling' into Porthmadog.

The Ffestiniog Railway is a big tourist attraction in Porthmadog and I'll tell you more about that in my next post, as you know we're big railway fans so couldn't miss out on the chance to go on this famous railway.

The next town we went through was Criccieth where we enjoyed a weekend in March 2003, that was when we visited Portmerrion the village used in the filming of 'The Prisoner', you can read about our visit here. We then went through Pwllheli, then Llanbedrog (where we stayed for our first experience of Abersoch) then into Abersoch itself.

We arrived around 2.15 pm, found the B&B no problem and a little car park nearby where we were able to leave the car for a small fee. The Angorfa operates a self check in system where we had to punch in a code on a little box to get the front door key, which then had to be returned to the box, our room on the top floor was open and the keys were on the bed. We knew it was an attic room with very low beams when we booked it but it promised a sea view and that's what we got.

By this time the sun was shining and it was a beautiful afternoon so after unpacking the few things we'd taken with us we headed down the street to the pub for a drink.

Actually we had a couple of drinks then went for a walk down to the harbour and the beach. I'll leave you with the photos from the rest of the afternoon. We had a great meal that first night in a Balti House, followed by a few drinks and a reasonably early night ready for the trip on thetrain the following day.