14 September 2014

Too many choices today. I had wanted to stop at a world famous garden that Michael was not that enthused about. The owner of the hotel assured us it was worth seeing, but that we really should see both castles as they were totally different. And oh, by the way, there was the really nice promenade in Llandudon with a row of Edwardian houses that was not to be missed. Augh.

We decided to do Conwy and Caernarfon castles and see if we had time for a quick stop at the garden on the way back.

Conwy and Caernarfon are 2 of the 5 castles that Edward I built to safeguard English interests in Wales. And they are quite different. Conwy is a smaller almost completely walled town with the castle in one corner on a rock, along the river. There are gates that you can drive through, but we stopped at the first pay and park we saw, outside the walls, – which turned out to be half the price of parking next to the castle. J

As you can see, it’s a bit rough around the edges, but it has the best-preserved example of the Kings quarters of all the castles. Note all the towers are round. You can climb up and walk along the battlements and climb down into the cellar below the great hall. And if you are really ambitious, you can climb to the top of a couple of the towers.

Me at the top of a tower. Please note, Michael did not take this picture.

It was explained to us at Caerphilly, and I saw on a sign here, that these castles were whitewashed after they were built to look more imposing. The idea was to discourage possible invaders from trying to attack. Not sure if it worked. Nothing left of the whitewash today.

We spent about an hour exploring the castle, then moved on to an Elizabethan era house a few streets over. Completed in 1585, it was kept in the Wynn family for many generations, then there was no son to inherit. Eventually, it became a series of apartments. Miraculously, the floors and paneling were not destroyed. That said, there was an extensive renovation to bring it back to the original layout.  I have been impressed with the attention to detail and the knowledge of the volunteers at these places.

Note the width of the floorboards and the ceiling decoration. Here, again, I climbed to the top of one of the towers. Also note what looks like straw on the floor. Could be hay, but the generic term was “thresh”. There was a step-over at the doorway to keep the thresh in – hence the term “threshold”.

Having spent a couple of hours at Conwy, we headed off to Caernarfon for lunch and another castle. Lunch was a spicy Thai chicken Panini. Think Thai chicken curry on a baguette put in a Panini press. Pretty good.

It took a couple of tries to get to the castle, The nav database does not recognize points of interest and she always wants to take you to the city center. But we made it and found a parking spot at the harbor. Interesting mooring system along the wall. Large chains are fastened to the wall and hang down into the water. You tie up to the chains. I suspect there are significant tides and the heavy chain just moves up and down.  You can see Caernarfon Castle in the background.

Note the towers here are not round, but polygonal. New fashion at the time.

This is a view of the Eagle Tower. Yours truly climbed to the top of one of those towers. You can walk on the battlements if you can find the right staircase. They are all spiral stairs and quite narrow. I wear a size 5 and I could barley fit my foot on the widest side. There are rope handrails, but you really have to be careful going down.

The view from halfway up the Eagle Tower.

 

The view from the top. Not for the acrophobic.

View up river from the top

View from the battlements towards the Queen’s Gate. You can just see the edge of the dais they created of local slate for the investiture of Prince Charles as Prince of Wales. (Gray circle).

We did not get to the garden, but we did have a fun day at the castles. We also saw a lot of sheep today. (Shades of New Zealand) There is a woolen mill just south of here that we plan to visit tomorrow on our way to the Lake District. Maybe I can find out what breeds of sheep they raise around here.

And for the UX peeps. Here is an automatic handwashing station in the loo at Caernarfon. You stick your hands in and you get soap, then water, and then air. Brilliant. There was a similar one at the bus station in Wells. Very few public conveniences use paper over here. Several Dyson systems. And they are clean.