Our last full day in the paradise that is Wales was to be spent in the resort town of Llandudno. This delightful little town is on the coast of Liverpool Bay, just a mile or so north of Conwy. The plan was to spend some time there, then get back and finish packing for our return home. We had reservations at a new place called Shakespeare’s in Castle Hotel, Conwy for dinner at 6:00.
We got up fairly early and drove east over the bridge from Conwy to Llandudno Crossing. From there it was just a hop, skip and a jump to Llandudno. We drove to the main square and found a parking place close to the beach. The businesses there were just starting to open, and we found ourselves a nearby cafe to get some breakfast, and the requisite coffee.
Robin, Ranger and I getting ready for some early morning tucker to get our day started right!
Robin had the Bacon Bap(sandwich) with a cappuccino. I had an egg with bacon, sausage, beans and toast and black pudding, with a mocha. Ranger just watched.
Having fortified ourselves, we walked the half block to Llandudno Beach. It was low tide, so we had a chance to do some beach combing. We found some nice, intact shells, some interesting jelly-like creatures, and quite a few small, dead crabs. I realized that was probably why the seagulls looked so fat.
The end of my cane gives you an idea of scale. It was a clear, jelly-like creature that reminded my of the face hugger from Alien. After an extensive search of the Interwebs, this may actually have been squid eggs.
Squid Eggs https://www.glaucus.org.uk/Squeggs.html
After the beach combing, we walked the board walk on the Llandudno Pier. There were some nice shops along the pier, as well as some great views. Llandudno is located on the east side of a peninsula that juts out into the Irish Sea from the Avon Conwy estuary. At the tip of this peninsula was a large hill called the Great Orme. Robin and I wanted to go up to the summit of the Great Orme, and there were three choices; Walk, ride the Llandudno Cable Cars, or ride the Great Orme Tramway. Walking was quickly ruled out. The cable cars were ruled out when we saw we would need to walk uphill a ways to get to the cable car station. That left option 3, the Great Orme Tramway. The tram station was a few blocks from the pier, so off we ambled, as only two old farts with canes can amble. Check that! One old fart, and a gracious, beautiful, silver fox who made Llandudno a classier place with her presence.
The trip up the Great Orme was to be in two stages. Midway up the hill we would change trams and then head up to the summit. Once at the summit, there was the Summit Complex, which had a cafe. All low-speed, sedate places that we could handle. We’d spend some time up on the summit, then head back down. Easy-peasy!
The Great Orme, aș seen from our tram. Back in that area are burial monoliths that are 12,000 years old. That dates back to before the end of the last Ice Age!
The views of the summit was worth the trip! You had the Irish Sea to the north, the Snowden Mountains to the south and sheep all around. Robin and I took a long look round, then stepped into the cafe. She had a Victoria Sponge with cream filling, I had a chocolate eclair with cream filling. She had her cappuccino, they didn’t have mocha, so I had a cappuccino as well. Life was good!
The trip back down was as uneventful as the trip up. From the station we walked the few blocks back to where we parked. From there we drove a half mile to the Penderyn Distillery. A few months ago I had ordered some Penderyn Hiraeth, a single malt whiskey online. It was REALLY good. The original distillery was located in South Wales, but they had recently opened this distillery in Llandudno, and I was very interested in getting some single malt direct from the distillery! I ended up getting a couple of bottles in the Penderyn Gold series, their Sherrywood and the Rich Oak. I will be happy to do a separate blog on the tasting!
From the distillery we headed back to Conwy. We got everything stuffed into our suitcases. We figured our suitcases would be heavy, but decided we’d pay the overage fees. we cleaned up the townhome a bit, then headed to Shakespeare’s, located in the Castle Hotel, for dinner. As with everything else we did in Conwy, the restaurant was awesome! The food was excellent, and was a fitting end to our magical stay in Northern Wales. I still wanted to retire here and raise sheep. Every time I said that, Robin shook her head. She did not want to be away from the grandkids, and that was that. It would be very bad luck to have Robin invoke her climate-altering mood on the last night of our vacation, so I let the matter drop, and we headed to bed, anticipating an early morning wake up to get to Manchester and catch the train back to London.
Meditations of a Bald, Fat Guy 