North Walesing - part 1

The Fiat 500 theme sort of continues here. We decided not to treat the sad town of Holyhead as a “useful stop on passage” but instead to view it as a good spot to explore Anglesey and a little of North Wales from. We booked a rental car on-line, with collection from the ferry terminal Hertz office at 10am on Friday. Of course, having walked there, the desk was shut and a sign said “open at 10.30 – go to our other location when this office is shut”. No map to show where the other office was of course. The captain found it on the internet and did the 15 minute walk in the soggy conditions only to be greeted with “oh your car is at the ferry terminal!” They knew he was not amused – very poor organisation for a “proper” rental company.

Still, the little powder blue Fiat 500 was OK, or as OK as they can be. We know that we are a tad biased from previous employment but why anyone would buy one in preference to a MINI is beyond us. 

OK, car rant over – what did we do with it? A good trundle around Anglesey and some of North Wales, visiting nice spots like Camaes where they have a restored 100+ year old lifeboat. She was “on station” from 1907 to 1932 but was only launched 7 times in anger. They now use her for trips / education:

We reckon that going out to a ship in distress in her would have been an education in itself. Amazing what brave people did in those old rowing boats, wearing nothing more than a cork lifejacket. We also walked the cliffs and raided an excellent tea shop (Anns Pantry website) which we can recommend if you feel at all cake minded, as we have been known to.

Continuing the lifeboat theme that seems to have developed recently, Moelfre is in the middle of building a new home for the new, faster, bigger Tamar lifeboat. Some serious engineering work is underway to build the boathouse and slipway. Looking at it makes us realise that our annual donation to the RNLI is a very small drop in a very big ocean of cost:

They also have a good visitor centre, with an old (old=in use until 1986) lifeboat as an exhibit. Scary how the captain remembers lifeboats like it being launched off the beach at Caister-on-sea as a kid and how they could only manage 8 knots. It took a lot longer to reach the casualty in those days and there was no neat electronic kit to help locate you in bad weather either. 

We also visited Pwllheli, Abersoch (in the rain) and loved the walled old town in Caernarfon:

The steam train was pretty good too; sadly this picture cannot recreate the smell and sounds:

And here is one for the tekkies that love old style solid engineering; the engines are pretty powerful to handle the gradients in the area:

We decided that £35 per person for a return fare to Porthmadog was a little steep so didn’t go for a trip. Instead we took the healthier option and walked along the shore a little. Here is the harbour with the castle in the background:

In the town, the captain was very tempted to be unhealthy but sadly, this place was shut by the time we found it:

Of course, you just have to do the typical tourist thing whilst on Anglesey. So, here it is:

For the non UK readers, this is a real railway platform sign for the station in a Welsh village with a rather long name. Underneath, for the non-Welsh speakers (guess that includes Andrew and Linda), is a helpful phonetic hint on how to pronounce it. We doubt that it will be useful as a party trick in Munich, the USA or Canada but thought it might amuse you anyway. Look at Wikipedia if you think we just photoshopped the sign to make it longer. 

On the way back we hit the local John Deere dealer, Mona Tractors, to get some spare oil. The captain will get around to that oil change we mentioned a few days ago soon (!) and this will replace our stock. A 20 litre drum in the boot took the edge off the performance of the little Fiat….