44. The Castles of North Wales

Where: Wales
When: March 16, 2013
With: Nic

It's weird to think how fast the last year and a half living here has gone. Perhaps one of the biggest "wow" moments was when we realised our friend Nic has finished his term and is moving back to the states in a week. It feels like only yesterday we went to his flat for dinner and ended up chatting and drinking bottle after bottle of wine until 3am. While we thought we may have scared him off by being "those people you can't get rid of", he's now become one of our closest friends.

He holds a particularly special place in my heart as he is just as much into travel and photography as I am. And on his last weekend in the UK, we decided to take a weekend trip to Wales for farewells, photos, and a part deux to our impromptu Finland weekend. 

The first thing to tackle on our weekend was the second most symbolic items of Wales (after sheep of course): castles. And there are a lot of them to pick from. We decided to rent a car, map them out, and see how many we could hit in a day. 

The first castle we went to was Conwy Castle. 

The walls continue to contain the city of Conwy, and the castle is idyllic, sitting on the edge of the Bay. 

To enter the town, you must drive your car through a narrow arch. While it may look like it could only possibly be one-way, it is most definitely two-way and you just have to play chicken with oncoming traffic to determine who gets to pass. 

The streets inside don't get any wider and they've were constructed along with the castle in the 13th century. The walls around the top are still walkable, so you can play sentinel as you wander around the perimeter. 

We learned that some of the cracks in the towers come from an old military breaching technique that involved digging out, or mining, the earth under the towers. This would cause the tower walls to crack and crumble and introduced the word "undermining" to our vocabulary. Some of these cracks still exist.

One turret in the town walls served as someone's backyard, complete with grill.

Outside the city walls is the harbor that brought the city most of its wealth and commerce. While no longer used to transport fish, you can still see one of Conwy's main exports: Mussels, mmmmm.

A fitting tribute to the mussel industry was a statue of mussels...in a parking lot.

The castle itself is really cool, though doesn't have a ton to see inside other than the ruins.

However, I appreciate the addition of modern art to spruce up the inside. 

It is also possible to walk the castle walls of the structure, to get some views from the top. It amazes me how old this structure is. 

After Conwy, we took an hour drive to the island of Anglesey. In addition to being the island where Will and Kate live and hosting the town with the second longest name in the world ("Llanfairpwllgwyngyllgogerychwyrndrobwllllantysiliogogogoch"), it held our next castle, Beaumaris. Set beside a small town on the water, the grounds have become more park-like than historical relic.

Before entering the castle, we explored the small town of Beaumaris first. It wasn't very large, and had a gorgeous view of the Snowdonia mountains. We grabbed lunch in a tiny pub off the high street and sat with locals who watched their football in Welsh. 

Afterwards, we turned back towards the castle. Beaumaris was begun in the 13th century in an effort to keep an eye on the unruly northern Welshmen. But when battles on England's border started up north with the Scots, construction on this castle was abandoned. Therefore, it looks like it's in ruins, but is actually just unfinished. 

It is one of the few castles standing that still has its moat. 

For being a fairly straightforward castle with no real interior, it was really hard to navigate. We got really lost trying to make it to the top of the walls, just ending with a lot of dead ends. 

Eventually we made it to the top, and were rewarded with beautiful views of the mainland.

Our next and final castle stop of the day was Caenarfon Castle. This one sits on the mainland just opposite Beaumaris. It is technically the castle that gives the "Prince of Wales" his title. 

We arrived 30 minutes before closing, and the very kind man at the ticket booth allowed us entry on one ticket. In our limited time, we made the most of it by shooting straight up to the top of the front turret for the views. 

We then did a quick loop of the grounds inside. It's a shame, since this castle actually had some small exhibits that gave some history, but we didn't really get to explore. I'm glad we got to see it anyway!

It was a whirlwind day, but I'd say we conquered these three castles in a way that the wild Welshmen could only have dreamed.