July 9, 2018 - Wales

Today we got a wild hare and decided to take a day trip to Northern Wales.  It was a considerable amount of driving, but it was well worth it!  We had a great time and loved the beauty of this small country!




Because we spent so much time driving we don't have as many pictures as we would have otherwise.  Heather snagged a few pics and vids out the window of the car, and we made substantial stops in Snowdonia National Park and at Porthor Beach.  We saw many quaint stone houses set in beautiful greenery, with mountainous backdrops.














It is strange here how we felt like we must be at high elevation and were above tree line, but were really not even at 1,000 feet above sea level! The higher latitude changes everything.


The busy, narrow roads made the driving interesting (if not hair-raising), and the quaint, little towns made the sight-seeing delightful!




We loved Porthor (or "Whistling Sands") Beach!  What a beautiful and peaceful spot!  We only wish we could have spent more time there...like three months!!!














Watch the video below to find out why they call this beach "Whistling Sands."








We loved Wales! It was a beautiful day!

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

July 31, 2018 - Scotland Trip Day 2 - Hadrian's Wall, Gretna Green, Glasgow, & Inverary

Image
Day 2 included exploring Hadrian's Wall, Gretna Green, a tenement house in Glasgow, and a stay in Inverary (See map below). Hadrian's Wall Though Hannah had studied Hadrian's Wall in school right before we left Utah, some of the rest of us (namely, Mark and Heather) did not know much about it.  For those who are less informed about it, Wikipedia provides the following: Hadrian's Wall (Latin: Vallum Aelium), also called the Roman Wall, Picts' Wall, or Vallum Hadriani in Latin, was a defensive fortification in the Roman province of Britannia, begun in AD 122 in the reign of the emperor Hadrian. It ran from the banks of the River Tyne near the North Sea to the Solway Firth on the Irish Sea, and was the northern limit of the Roman Empire, immediately north of which were the lands of the northern Ancient Britons, including the Picts. It had a stone base and a stone wall. There were milecastles with two turrets in between. There was a fort about...
Read more

July 24, 2018 - Bolsover Castle

Image
We got home to Utah Friday night, but we really want to chronicle the rest of our trip so that we have a record of what we did.  We were able to see some neat things with Heather's sister, Heidi.  One of these was Bolsover Castle.  From Wikipedia: Bolsover Castle is a castle in Bolsover, Derbyshire, England (grid reference SK471707). It was built in the early 17th century by the Cavendish family, on the site of a medieval castle founded in the 12th century by the Peverel family. The site is now in the care of English Heritage and is a Grade I listed building and a Scheduled Ancient Monument. One of the really neat things about Bolsover is that you can take a recorded, self-guided tour through it all, at your own pace, and really explore the whole complex. It has three main sections:  the stables, the ruins of a once great manor house, and the castle.  Each section is quite interesting in its own way.  We included the aerial photo we found on the in...
Read more

July 1-End of Trip, 2018 - A New Home in Duffield

Image
On July 1st we moved from Cromford to Duffield, a town of nearly 6,000 people that is about 5 miles north of Derby.  Like other accommodations in which we have stayed, we found and booked this home through AirBnB.  We have loved staying in this pastoral and peaceful place, and in such a nice and comfortable apartment! The maps below show how this house is unique in that it is located in the middle of the Chevin Golf Course, which has been an operating golf course since the late 1700's.  The house can only be accessed via a narrow, private road that goes right through the golf course (Yes, we occasionally have to dodge golf balls as we drive to the house!) to a small cluster of buildings, called Courthouse Farm.  All of the buildings are owned by one woman, who lives in one of the buildings and has renovated several others to rent out.  Our house is circled in yellow on the map below. According to a handwritten history of Cou...
Read more