A Week in North Wales - Summer 2016

This summer has just been a massive whirlwind for us. From mid-August onwards we've been travelling pretty much non-stop. We had an overnight stay at Legoland which I am yet to blog about (or may never find the time to), then a week in beautiful North Wales. Upon returning from Wales, there was only time to unpack and re-pack our bags before setting off for the most amazing adventure in Dubai.

As we normally like to capture our holiday memories in a blogpost, here is a quick one - mainly like a photo diary - for our time in Wales.

We were extremely fortunate with the weather. Other than arriving in rain and wind, every other day was either completely dry or had a large dry spell and we managed to get in the hot tub every day.

Being conscious of the fact that we had a busy trip to Dubai planned straight after this break, we tried to make this a relaxing time without trying to fit too much in. We'd pre-bought a Cadw pass which gave us access to various castles but wanted to just spent most the time near our cottage at a relaxed pace.

visiting caernarfon castle

We booked Blaen Y Nant via North Wales Holiday cottages and would thoroughly recommend this cottage as a homely quaint home-from-home base for exploring North Wales.

We were surrounded by stunning views all around and by the local animals!

Our cottage felt like it was truly in the middle of nowhere down a very steep farm track. Yet it was close to Ogwen Lake and the beautiful Lake Idwal that we totally fell in love with.

Ogwen cafe and the exhibition building there became like a second home to us with us stopping for a delicious pasty or sausage roll every day for lunch.

There were also some very well maintained clean loos there making it a perfect stop for a break when visiting Lake Idwal.  Whilst all the views around us were stunning, it was Lake Idwal and the surrounding area that I loved the most.

With plenty of little breaks sitting on rocks it was manageable for me and Miss T which was important to us as we are trying to build up her strength and stamina now she's 18 months into her juvenile arthritis journey. She truly wowed us with just how well she managed.

Some days she was crying with pain by the end of the day but we just took things slowly and at her pace and she did brilliantly.

family selfie time at Lake Idwal

Conwy Castle

Our lunch break at Caenarfon castle was just across the road at Gray Thomas cafe and gift shop which we really enjoyed (in fact, we popped back for cakes later in the day too!).

At Conwy Castle we enjoyed lunch just outside at The Press Room cafe. They were SO welcoming there and the food was superb! Would thoroughly recommend this place. In fact, our own brilliant chef D was so impressed he actually said he wanted to work there.

 We also fitted in the obligatory trip to Snowdon - just has to be done when in the area. Again had to take things slowly and just do short distances. There was no way we could attempt the whole thing with Miss T's condition and my back pain but both dosed up on pain relief we still enjoyed it a lot.

We had even been organised enough to take our telescope to stargaze and stayed up one night to look at the stars. Without using the telescope we saw loads of shooting stars in the night sky.

A lovely relaxing week with lots of happy memories made.