Wales

Last night on the canal boat was pretty rough. My cough flared up (which had developed earlier that day), and I had a fitful night with little sleep. I finally gave up trying to sleep at 8:30AM. The canal boat was very small, so small, in fact, that the bathroom was about a person-and-a-half’s width in every direction. This meant you could sit at the toilet, stand in the shower, or stand in front of the sink mirror just fine. However, if you tried to do anything, like brush your hair, bend over to pick a towel up, or even turn (if you weren’t really careful) you’d hit something. This was a bit tedious, especially with a hazy head from being up all night. The sides of the tub were so small that I couldn’t fit more than one shampoo (or conditioner) bottle on them – something was always falling off, over, or onto/into something else.

After we left the canal boat, we set off to into Wales along the Northern coast to Conwy Castle.

Built by Edward the first, this castle was impressive, not merely with its size, but also because of its turret-studded wall, 3/4 of which we could walk around. It was quite a long walk (with some steep uphills and treacherous stairs), but well worth the effort.

The view of the town, ocean, and castle, were stunning.
To view more pictures of Conwy Castle, click here.

Next was Caernarfon Castle, also on the coast (for fairly logical tactical and logistical reasons). It was bigger, and so close to the coast you could hear the seagulls crying from the castle walls.

To view more pictures of Caernarfon Castle, click here.

After that was Harlech Castle, which has such an exorbitant parking fee that we didn’t stay long. While all the castles were impressive, they were very similar, since they were all built in the same style under the same man (Edward I).

To view more pictures of Harlech Castle, click here.

After that we attempted to find Hope Castle, and succeeded in getting to the tiny village of Hope, but weren’t able to locate the castle before the sun began to set.Now we are at Miark’s sister’s house (in Cheltenham, England), where I am ready for bed and planning to dose myself with cough syrup to hopefully get some sleep.