Land of many sheep

Photo recap from my trip to Wales, as promised. I hope no one's on dial-up.

First stop was Stonehenge. I didn't see the point in paying to stand a little closer, so I took a few quick shots from the road and then we went along on our merry way.


Next, we came across this river with a bunch of neat boats that people actually live in. Naturally (my dad being shutterbug that he is), we stopped to take pictures.


Lunch was in Bibury, England. The houses are so cute, our guide book actually reminded us not to peep in the windows because people do still live there.




Eleven hours after setting out, we finally arrived at our hotel.





The next day, we set off to see my grandfather's hometown of Dolgellau. It was a really neat little town with cheap shopping.


Afterward, we visited the ruins of an abbey.


The ruins were right next to a trailer park. The juxtaposition was just too good to pass up.


On the road again, we randomly bumped into the town of Barmouth, which I found to be reminiscent of Coney Island. They had amusement park rides and colourful, kitschy shops all along the harbour. I didn't get any good shots of those things, sadly, but I did get these...




We stopped for lunch in this lovely little nautical-themed cafe.


Bryn is the Welsh word for hill (and as you can see from the other photos, there are LOTS of hills in Wales), so my name was plastered on signs every which way I looked.


Next stop, a castle!




On our way back to London the next day, we ventured down through South Wales and stopped in Cardiff. Cardiff actually reminds me a lot of Canada (a hybrid of Quebec City and Vancouver) with its wide streets and large, relatively modern buildings.


I picked up a colouring book and markers so that I could colour the rest of the way home.


And off we drove into the sunset.



Things the pictures don't show you:
- There are sheep everywhere you look in North Wales, and they are all spray painted.
- It is impossible to go out for supper or Sunday Roast in Wales unless you have a reservation.
- The roads (especially the "B" roads) are scary as hell. I spent most of my time in the car fearing for my life. They are extremely narrow (in some cases, only one lane for both directions) winding roads with no shoulders (you're right up against stone walls, trees, and/or cliffs). Not to mention, we were driving on the "wrong" side of the road.
- The roads are also often covered by a canopy of trees. It's very pretty.