Wythnos yn yr Gogledd, Mehefin 2023

With a week of leave to take before the end of my notice period, we booked an apartment in Felinheli on the coast of the Menai Strait. It had a view of the Strait and Anglesey and was an ideal base for exploring new places and revisiting some favourite spots.

Fave places like Dinas Dinlle just south of Caernarfon. This is such a lovely beach with incredible pebbles and lovely sand which is ideal for sandcastles. 

We were very blessed to be joined for some of the week with our friend Ella. She contributed to the sandcastle building exploits. 

We had a sandcastle building contest one night. Neither of them could withstand the incoming tide, however. (We stayed on the beach right into the depths of the midsummer evening. That's the beauty of holidaying in June!)

Next to the beach is a restaurant called Braf. I had pancakes for breakfast there. 

And Cathy spotted a great reminder of home on the wall. Almost literally. That scene is two streets away!

We had been to Beaumaris before but we hadn't done the cruise around Puffin Island. The name is apparently a misnomer as it is sans puffins for most of the year. We saw some swimming in the water though!

One bonus about having Ella with us was getting to do all the cheesy tourist things because she hadn't done them before. 

Things like going to the Smallest House in Conwy...

And posing for photos with the station sign at Llanfair­pwllgwyngyll­gogery­chwyrn­drobwll­llan­tysilio­gogo­goch...

And paying our respects by being suitably mournful at Gelert's Grave in Beddgelert before buying ice creams from the Glaslyn ice cream shop...

And not seeing Yr Wyddfa because it was hiding in the clouds...

And posing with a steam train...

And visiting lots of castles!!

That's me waving at the very top!

(There's one genuine castell Cymreig in those photos!)

The day after Ella had to (sadly) go home, Cathy and I went back to Anglesey and visited Newborough beach for the first time. It was incredible. 

I'm already looking forward to going back there next time we have a week in the North!