Through Wales (it's a country) back into Enland

After only 1,5 hours on the ferry, we arrived in Holyhead, not too far from Liverpool. It was after one o'clock by the time we parked up next to a pub which allows patrons to spend the night in their car park. Not that we had a chance to become patrons at this time of the night.

Although my human was rather tempted to go up to Liverpool, we went west and into Wales. Snowdon was calling!
One of the larger towns within the Snowdonia National Park is Bedgellert. There are various ways to get there, of course, but the two main ones were closed off. Which resulted in us driving rather helter skelter around the area until we finally made it into town.

Which was packed. I mean really packed! With it still being school holidays and all, one could have expected it. Somehow we didn't. After getting lucky in the car park, squeezing into one of the rather tight spaces, my human went off on a really lovely walk along the river and up over a pass, past an old copper mine.

After a swim in the lake and a pretty quiet night on the roadside (very hard to find good parking here for the night), it was time to scale Snowdon early the next morning. The weather was grandiose, with low clouds slowly rolling over the lower lying hills, very pretty!
It took her less then two hours to reach the summit at 1085 meters. As per usual, she had left very early, so as she was descending, the masses started heading up.
There are six access routes, all of them classified as very hard/ strenous. Let's just say it's a matter of perception.

Not a bad spot to spend the night

After another swim, we drove deper into the National Park to be in place for a hike up Cadar Idris the next morning. We spent the afternoon and night next to a lovely river, reading in the sun, chatting with some neighbours, visiting the village close by.

As we were driving off in the morning, it started raining. Can't be lucky all the time. It didn't stop even for just a minute and my human was very happy to find a small stone shelter on the summit where she could have her breakfast. There were three guys already in the hut who had camped on the summit in the hope of a nice sunrise. Well, some days you win and some days ...

Cedar Idris, what it could look like

What it did look like

It cleared up somewhat on the way down

Over the next few days, we hopped down the coast, from one small, picturesque village to the next. Aberystwith, New Quay, Whitesands Beach and a few more.

Wales is one of the very few nations that have a path along the entire length of the country's coast line, 1400km of car free walking. When it was opened in it's entirety in 2012, it was the first such route.

Aberystwith

New Quay

Machynletth

We got chatting with a lot of people along the way. A German couple, traveling with their dog Cuba, a Welsh-German couple, all English couples, Richard and his dog Molly, who shared some time on the path with my human. Lovely, lovely people and interesting conversations. Besides the culture, history, food, music, beaches and cities, it's really the people you meet that make this whole traveling thing so interesting.

Stopped in Tenby for lunch and a little walk

Google calls it a "vibrant and desirable modern city". I call it Swansea, a wide, very long beach with a quarter million people attached to it. Not vibrant, at least when we were there. Not desirable. Not even a beer to be had to sit overlooking the beach. A good thing we came late and left early.

The promenade is good for running, though, I have to give Swansea that. So after doing that at 7am, we were off by nine.
After a brief stop at a rest area, which offered free hot showers (how nice of them) we arrived in Cardiff, the capital city of Wales.

The Romans built a small fort here in the 1st Century BC and the area has been inhabited ever since.

There is a wonderful 6,5km walk along the waterfront and through the city, taking you past some of the most interesting places.

The old Custom House

A nesting place for birds, a solar panel and street light all at the same time!

A memorial to Robert Falcon Scott and his heroic men who set sail from Bristol in 1910

A memorial to all ships lost at sea in front of Wales' Parliament

The multi-use convention, musical, theater, opera house

In the National History Museum, my human finally came face to face with a Basking Shark. The experience lacked some of the excitement she had hoped to gain from such an encounter, though.

Bute hey, better than nothing, right?

Leatherback turtle

A small humpback whale

A really good museum, though, with a fantastic exhibition on the animal kingdom from the earliest microbes to today's struggling species.

The city center is quite nice and polished, lots of restaurants by the water and shopping, of course. Getting out into the neighborhoods paints a bit of a different picture, though, with two districts having a child poverty rate above 50%!

The next day, we left Wales and drove back into England. First stop here, Bristol. I was left along the road next to a large green space, called the Clifton Downs.
From here, it was only a short walk along the Avon Gorge to the city's most iconic sight, the Clifton Suspension Bridge.

It was designed by Isambard Kingdom Brunel and opened in 1864. Brunel has been named "one of the greatest figures of the industrial revolution" and has also designed the Great Western Railway, many a tunnel and steamship.

The river Avon is omnipresent in the lives of Bristolians and the waterfront is littered with colourful houses, houseboats, wharfs, bars and restaurants.

Having had lunch before visiting the St. Nicholas food market was a mistake for sure. Arabic, Caribbean, Asian smells coming from all sides with the food actually looking authentic.
They like to throw around words like "artisan", "home-made", "freshly prepared daily" in the UK. Oftentimes, we were not so sure, though.