draliman on life

Welcome back to my little Wales mini-break! In the first part I visited Dolwyddelan Castle. That was actually an unscheduled stop – I saw a sign marked “Castle”, hit the brakes and swung into the car park (rather too fast considering the cattle grid just inside the entrance).

I then continued northwards to my planned destination – a National Trust property called Bodnant Garden. A bit pricey, but since I’m a National Trust member, I got in for free!

It was a lovely day and the place was packed – I was in the overflow overflow car park I think.

I had trouble picking just a few pictures, so there are quite a few here!

The place is pretty big, and includes a big house/stately home as well as the gardens.

As well as the ponds, there was also a little river complete with baby waterfall!

As well as the perfectly kept garden area, there was also quite a wild area to walk through.

And finally, a couple of snaps I couldn’t resist adding. The place was so packed I couldn’t help getting a few people in the pictures.

After getting comprehensively ripped off in the obligatory gift shop (I couldn’t go home without goodies for the family) I headed back to the hotel. As if the roads weren’t small enough, there were some pretty comprehensive road works to contend with. I picked up one or two Welsh words but unbelievably (considering how often I saw it), the Welsh for “Traffic Control Ahead” didn’t fix itself in my mind.

For dinner that night I had asparagus wrapped in bacon with a cheese sauce for starter followed by Cajun chicken with home-made chips (“chips” as in French fries). After that I was pretty stuffed but I managed a selection of cheese with biscuits, grapes and chutney for dessert (there’s always room for cheese). There were also celery sticks which I ignored. As all the world knows, celery is the devil’s food.

Tomorrow I’m off for a walk in a forest park!