Wales from North to South (30 June)

Today was a bus-filled day. It started with an amazing run on the country roads outside of Beaumaris. I just can’t get over the clouds here! There is so much variation—they can be wispy and puffy, big and small, gloomy gray and pure white. I love it.

We spent the rest of the day on a bus going from the northern tip of Wales to the southern tip. If you ask a local what the best way through Wales is, they’d say that the best way is to leave Wales and take the freeway in England instead. But, we wanted to see Wales, so we spent she day on roads that were too narrow for our bus, going through small towns that had no food or facilities—it was awesome. Wales is gorgeous. We even got lost a few times, which added to the excitement.

We did stop in one quaint town, Beddgerlert, just to experience a Northern-Wales town. It was so beautiful! There was a river going through it with a beautiful arched stone bridge. Flowers lined the streets and hung out of window boxes. Plus, we got some delicious ice cream for 1.80 (1 pound, 80 pence). Good thing because it wasn’t until about 3:15 that we found a grocery store to stop at and get lunch!

Chrisse and I with some delicious gelatto-like ice cream in Beddgelert

(Parenthetical story: Yesterday I pulled out some money for Great Britain—the pound. Lori and I went to buy some Welsh cakes and I went to pay for them. I pulled out my handful of change and suddenly realized that I had no clue what this money was. I was trying to figure out how their money worked looking at each coin. Finally I laughed and asked the woman, “um . . . can you help me? I don’t know what these are.” She counted the coins out of my hand. We laughed and she said she felt like my school teacher. Ha. The British coins are interesting. The pound is the highest-value coin, but it’s pretty small. The 10-pence and 2-pence coins are much longer!)

We arrived at our hotel in Cardiff, Wales. We were about a 20 minute bus ride away from the city center, so we all took a bus in to the downtown. We had a bit of an adventure getting back. It’s a long story, but I’ll just say that the people of Wales are so kind and helpful. 

Downtown Cardiff. On the right is Cardiff Castle.