St. Kilda Hotel Llandudno

.....as Dan and I manage to miss our first train atthe beginning of the trip!! Excellent!! After moi's rabid seraching over a month earlier to guarantee us £16 super-apex singles to London we manage to miss our train by nano-seconds. In fact Dan was on the train but I was 20 meteres away running with my big ...

... the beach and had sandwiches amongst the pidgeons - some guy left his sandwich for about 10 seconds to get something from the bar and at least 20 pesky birds were on it in seconds!

Then we visited Machynlleth - known as the spiritual capital of Wales - home of the last Welsh led parliament in the 1400s. We were lucky enough to visit on market day - Josh spoiled me with a small dragon charm for my necklace and also a Welsh ...

... Louise, Emma and Jan were already kitted up when we arrived. I climbed the inauspiciously named Crack 2 with Emma. I regularly climb indoors at Martley with her, and she easily puts me to shame, balancing on thin air as she ascends impossible walls. Well, I managed to get up Crack 2 without any mishaps or serious exertion.

The kids borrowed Louise's multi-adjustable harness and Jan took the older two up Chimney Crack. They made swift work of it and got ...

... I switched it off half way down, so its not the full trace). Anyway, cracking interval session - max HR of 181, average HR of 130... so definitely tough in places, but not maximal, it can be done :)
http://connect.garmin.com/activit y/15042210

Today we went to Snowdonia Park in the mountains and it was lovely. Everything is green here and lots of rocky terrain. There are many mountain climbers and walkers in Scotland and Wales. Everyone is friendly and is interested in our trip. From there we made a bee line for Llangollen Canal where we just made it for a 12:15 excursion along the canal in a 72 foot canal boot. The trip was lovely ...

So all flights, ferrys and buses we hve to book in advance are all booked, sponge bob car ready thestart of our rally to naples, Italy - along with my durcell battery water pistol!!

Just a few preparation pictures to show what we taking.

We left our wonderful friends Margaret and Barry Austin and our grand room at the Midland Hotel this morning. Hard to leave a top floor room with floor to ceiling windows for the entire wall that looked out on the Morecombe Bay! I am adding photo's of the hotel and view.

We visited Chester, England and it was a darling town with the typical English Tudor style buildings and beautiful Cathedral. They were having a special ...

Group of 25 headed up Snowdon in celebration of Andy Duggards retirment.

Brilliant time was had by all, probably the best retirement I have been on (obviously sponsored by Carlsburg)

Congratulations Andy.

Proved to be a good last workout before we go - calves are feeling the effect though.

Well done to those that completed this mountain for the first time - Scafell next!

... that took our fancy along the way. We stopped in at **** and took in the scenery of nature in all its glory. Waterfalls, rapids, massive trees and green everywhere - yep nothing like brown of home. We found a deer made out of cane and did some obligatory stupid photos and just moseyed our way through Mid-Wales.

Stopped at an old pub and had a Welsh Black Beefburger along with a pint of the local Snowdonia Ale. The burger was amazing, the ...

... needed to use any toilet facilities. I think we lost most of our liquids through sweating. We drove back to Capel Curig, and stopped at the Swallow Falls Hotel for a warm and deserved pub lunch/dinner. We however, didn't get to visit the Swallow Falls themselves, which in retrospect I regret a bit, but I don't think we realised what exactly they were at the time and even if we did. I'm not sure we had enough energy to do any further walking. Back ...