Ar wyliau yn yr Gogledd - Mehefin 2025

We have just had a lovely week on holiday in North Wales. We stayed in a holiday cottage near our favourite beach, Dinas Dinlle (which my Cymraeg twtor, Lynne. described as "Gothic") and had some fun revisiting some favourite places and discovering new things. 

One of those new things was climbing the hill fort at the southern end of Dinas Dinlle. 

But the main thing was just walking the length of the beach, and occasionally having a sit and being lulled by the waves. 

We weren't far from Caernarfon Airport (originally an RAF base in World War 2 and the place where the Mountain Rescue Service was founded) but it was too windy all week for us to take a sightseeing flight. Next time!

There are a couple more blog posts to follow, but in the meantime, here are some of the places we visited:

Bangor Pier is no longer Pier of the Year, but we had great views down the Menai Strait all the way over to the Great Orme.

The FAW were promoting the Women's European Championships with a giant inflatable shirt outside Caernarfon Castle, so we went along and had a photo with it. 

I was quite pleased to have a few opportunities to practice my Cymraeg. I feel hesitant sometimes, but everyone I spoke to was very supportive and encouraging. 

We went to Y Galeri in Caernarfon to watch Elio, the latest Pixar film. I went in knowing very little about the film, but enjoyed it. The central message about a little boy wanting to be anywhere but on Earth was poignant, and then when he gets his wish and meets aliens, he has to decide where he wants to be. 

We also had a couple of trips to Anglesey, including to Oriel Mon, outside Llangefni. 

I wasn't too fussed on the main exhibition, which featured work by Leonard McComb even though it included a big shiny bronze statue. 

However, the themed exhibition of Anglesey Windmills was very good, with the two paintings by Kyffin Williams really anchoring the displays. 

And I thought this political artwork made a good point.

After Oriel Mon we had a short stop in Beaumaris for ice creams. We bought them just in time for a rain squall to break over us so ended up eating them in the car as the rain battered down. That made it feel like a proper North Wales holiday!

And so, after a very lovely week, we bade farewell to Dinas Dinlle.

Wythnos yn yr Gogledd, Tachwedd 2023

We had another week in North Cymru as a result of a combo of a few days leave, two days off in lieu of a worked weekend, Cathy's birthday, the opportunity to go to a football match in Caernarfon, and the holiday flat we stayed in back in the summer being available (and very reasonable). Unlike my rather frenetic week off in October when we went to DisneyLand Paris which I followed up with an epic quest to Hartlepool, this was a proper relaxing, low voltage week away.

The weather was mixed but pretty good overall. We had a superb, crisp winter sunny day on Anglesey, when we got to visit one of our favourite beaches, Traeth Llanddwyn near Newborough. 

We also got ice cream and sorbet from Red Boat in Beaumaris. I had bara brith ice cream for the first time. It was delicious.

We had a day in Porthmadog, where I got to unexpectedly see a steam train in action. The railway has virtually closed down for the winter, but they had fired up the Double Fairlie to film an advert promoting Wales as a tourist destination. 

I saw Barry Town win with a late goal screamer at Caernarfon Town - and made my debut as a radio commentator for Bro Radio.

We had two trips to the cinema - one to see The Nightmare Before Christmas on its 30th anniversary re-release into cinemas. Cathy and I went to watch it together 28 years ago when it was on it's first UK release (18 months after it hit the screens in America). We also went to see The Marvels at the Galeri Arts Centre in Caernarfon - where the film started at the time advertised without having to sit through the gaudy tedium of multiple adverts. If I get a chance I will blog some thoughts about The Marvels, but to summarise, I'd suggest not bothering unless you have a good grasp of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, although if you like cats you might find it very amusing in its own right. 

We didn't visit any castles this time, although we drove under the watchful gaze of the battlements in both Caernarfon and Conwy. We did find time for a museum though - the Storiel in Bangor. It had several small, contained permanent exhibits and an interesting small temporary exhibition of sleep through the ages. I liked the local angle, including Bangor City FC memorabilia and the chair that Thomas Telford used to sit in when he stayed in a local hotel overseeing construction of the Menai Bridge. 

We even got to drive home via Shrewsbury to see the folks, and chose to drive over the Llanberis Pass. As we topped the pass near the youth hostel, we drove into sunlight. The mountain sides fell away, with the steep valley snaking away to Beddgelert enlivened by sunlight and for a moment it made me catch my breath at how beautiful it looked. It was an emotionally uplifting way to end a lovely week. 

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!