Monday, February 23, 2009

A weekend in Wales

I spent the last few weekends mostly working (or at least I tried to) so that I would have some time for Juergen, Jenny & Johanna. They came to the Island for holidays and we caught up in the North of Wales for the weekend.

I was planning to take the train to Aberystwyth early in the morning on Friday, but I took the wrong train and ended up in York. Eventually at 6pm (and 4 hours later than intended) I arrived at the coast in Wales and met JJJ.

The following day, we hung out on Llyn Peninsula. Unfortunately, my digital camera stopped working, so I don't (yet) have many pictures to show. Any who, we saw lots of beaches, sheep, hills & the highest peak in the UK (or at least we saw the clouds surrounding it), the hometown of the British pop star "Duffy" (who won 3 Brit Pop Awards a few days before), cliffs, and more sheep.

We continued our trip with some pretty impressive castles (Caernarfon, Beaumaris and Conwy), and a short visit to the place with the longest name in the UK, called Llanfairpwllgwyngyllgogerychwyrndrobwllllantysiliogogogoch, which is Welsh for "St Mary's Church in the hollow of the White Hazel near a rapid whirlpool and the Church of St Tysilio near the Red Cave. We saw neither church nor cave, but the sign at the train station was pretty loooooong.

It was good to see the sea again, get some sun, have lots of food (especially the huge breakfasts with everything from black pudding to baked beans), and to hang out with old friends and have fun (and to eventually get the RIGHT train back ;)