Temperature: Min 4°C; Max 22°C.
Weather: Overcast morning; sunny and warm afternoon.
With the threat of squillions of men in lycra and tonnes of traffic, we reluctantly decided we needed to give York and more exploration in Yorkshire a miss. We allowed ourself one stop in the area, the market town of Thirsk – aka James Herriot’s ‘Darrowby’.
We found a bookstore and cafe. Are you surprised?
Then we headed off across the country, avoiding the giant cities of Leeds and Manchester. Even on the motorway there were exits closed because of the Tour de France and helicopters circling, etc.
By midafternoon we were at Castellan Caernarfon! All we had to do in order to enjoy the castle was park. Unfortunately, the gentleman at the entrance to the car park was Welsh. He spoke in English, but not in an English that Scott could understand. Eventually we made it in and parked. And a good thing – Eskil adored the castle. And BTW – yes – there were ‘no walking on the grass’ signs. In Eskil’s defense, he danced – and jumped – and crash-landed.
Afterwards there was ice cream. Eskil insisted on eating mine.
Our accommodation for the night was in Llandudno at the Bella Vista, and it was lovely. The manager had read our room reservations carefully and correctly figured out what would work well for us. He was welcoming. And there was a lovely pub almost across the street where we went for a pint and chatted with a young Swedish family. Unfortunately we had already bought M&S Food salads for dinner that night. The lower floor of the hotel is an Italian restaurant, and it smelled wonderful. However after settling Eskil in our room, we enjoyed our food in my parents’ room next door – as well as a few glasses of wine.
More photos can be viewed at https://www.flickr.com/photos/cragg-ohlsson/archives/date-taken/2014/07/06/ and at https://www.flickr.com/photos/cragg-ohlsson/archives/date-taken/2014/07/07/ however the order is all over the place as unfortunately I had left my camera time set to Australia and my phone had reset the time to UK time.