Culture, castles, Chester and hoses

Having enjoyed Beaumaris castle and being keen to get our money's worth from the Cadw membership, we ventured to Harlech castle too. Loved it. The location is amazing and the castle ditto:

Bored with old castles? Well, we spotted a great house in Harlech with views over the water that looked like an ideal spot to us. Just a bit remote perhaps, and of course we would have to learn the language:

Not having been there for many many years, we also spent a very happy day in Chester. We had forgotten just how wonderful the city centre is:

Walking along the canal, a narrowboater lady gaily told the crew that the three locks together were "not a flight" (Wikipedia says that the Northgate Staircase is a flight by the way) and tried to explain how locks work. The crew was good, listened for a while then explained that we had spent many years ditch crawling on the Thames and so had negotiated the odd lock or two.

One person had named their narrowboat rather inappropriately:

Escaping from Chester in the Friday evening rush hour traffic reminded us how much we don't miss rush hour travel for work. No fun at all.

Having seen 2 of the 4 world heritage site castles, we had to complete the set. Conwy particularly impressed the crew:

They even have a lovely footbridge built like the Menai straights suspension bridge to look the part. Proper old engineering stuff:

All of this was lost on one oriental couple who spent their entire visit taking selfies with a determination that was impressive:

We wonder if they can remember anything about the castle at all in a few days time as they didn't look at anything - at least they will be able to remember themselves from the many pictures they took.

The estuary looked great from the castle:

We felt as though we were back in Norn Iron too - these boats were out on mooring buoys:

The green hulled Fisher 37 looked like George's boat from Bangor. The Bavaria could be David and Caroline's. We checked, they were not.

The wander around the town walls with lovely estuary views was enjoyed, except that we were accosted passing a local catholic church by a lady who wanted to tell us all about it (apparently there was a church open event going on) and how the Bishop was visiting soon and he wants to close their 100 year old church and force everyone to go to Llandudno Junction instead. We made what we thought sounded like suitably sympathetic noises and escaped before the locals had us leading the petition and campaign. We guess that their church would make plenty of cash when turned into flats or houses with the nice location tucked inside the city wall. The Lord moves in mysterious / commercial ways these days....

We also spotted a real winter project for anyone with a garage, fondness for old Citroen cars and a slight mental problem:

The town walls have one watchtower which now has a railway line passing underneath it. This hasn't helped its longevity:

Arriva trains Wales have managed what many many years of sieges and revolts failed to do. Congratulations.

We also spotted one of the fishing boat engines in truly wonderful condition:

another winter project....

The last castle to "tick off" (sounds just like a American tourist doing Europe, doesn't it!) was Caernarfon. Hearing the Tom Tom navigation system speak that was very amusing! The castle was up there with the others in spectacle:

There was a moving poppy tribute in place as well:

Being economical types, we figure that we've had our money back from the Cadw membership now, although we still cannot pronounce it properly of course. That doesn't worry us unduly. You are now safe, no more castle pictures for a while.


Maintenance news

Well, the new oil drain pipe that the captain ordered arrived and on first measurement, seemed to have a smaller inside diameter then the original. "Again?" we hear you cry. Well, This should have been 1mm bigger than the last one and more flexible as it was the top spec fluorosilicone lined stuff. Of course, it comes in 1 metre lengths and when you only need just over 4 inches of it, there will be plenty of spare hose ready to be cut to length. Wonder if we will run out of turbo oil drain hose before the engine is worn out? Actually, as the original lasted 2,600 hours and we have enough to cut 9 replacements, the engine might still be running. The Deere base engine is reckoned to be good for well over 30,000 hours before any significant overhauls. Keep reading, we will let you know.....

The new pipe was a fetching (or yuk depending upon your viewpoint) green colour and the penguins on the table mats (courtesy of Andrew and Linda) did not seem impressed when they examined it:

Yes, this boat has a major penguin thing going on.

The good news was that the new hose stretched enough to allow it to be fitted in the rather tricky little space behind the starter and under the exhaust manifold. Suitably double clipped as a precaution it ought to work. Lots of messing about for what should have been a simple thing really.

However further down the oil drain route from the turbo to the sump, there is a metal pipe that terminates in the engine block with an O ring to seal it. We probably ought to replace that as well as it will have been disturbed a little when replacing the hose . Getting to it will be a "take the starter off the engine" job though so that can wait for a wet winter day when we are happy to lose more skin from our knuckles and use more bad language.