Tuesday, July 20, 2010

Land of my Fathers

I've just spent a couple of very wet days in North Wales--trying to show my grandchildren what I did when I was a child. But alas the weather was typically Welsh--it poured and poured. Great areas were flooded. The mountains hid themselves in cloud. Riding the train up Snowdon was out of the question.
And I'd also forgotten that Wales shuts down on Sunday evenings--we had a hard time finding a restaurant open.

But they loved the castles--it stopped raining long enough to do Conwy and Caernarfon castles and I relived many a summer vacation in Wales in which we tramped miserably, decked in raingear, and wondered when we could get the next cup of hot tea! I remember one summer when my father and I bet each other we could swim in the sea every day. It was so cold and blowing that we drove the car to the very edge of the ocean, stripped off, raced in, swam out and back, got back in the car and drove away!

I'll try to download pictures tonight and post some--but I've had two great tea parties I want to tell you about!

2 comments:

  1. Rhys, touring Caernarfon Castle in '86 is one of the great travel memories I have: such a vivid introduction to a history I only had textbook glimpses of, before that journey.
    Swimming in the cold sea everyday? Wow, wish I'd had a dad that would share that bet with me--sounds like a formative experience to me.
    Sorry about all the rain . . . hope you have some sparkling days to offset it.

    ReplyDelete
  2. I'm looking forward to the pictures and reading about the tea parties!

    ReplyDelete