Journeys

31/05/2007

Coastal Walk

We went up and down the hills following the paths. It was quite tiring, but we were enjoying ourselves, so we kept going. There were a few steep bits on the path and several times we turned and chose a different path, we weren't quite sure if it was too steep for us or the dogs! Better safe than sorry I suppose!

The path that we had chosen ended up taking us through a caravan park called Greenacres, where Andy used to go for holidays when he was young. Walking through Greenacres, we realised we had walked quite far, we were almost at Black Rock Sands. We walked out of the park and followed the road until we came to another path that led back into the hills. Before we carried on though, we took a well deserved break!

This new path took us on a bit of a short cut as we came out at the top of Borth y Gest by a school. We walked through the village with its lovely colourful houses and made our way back to Porthmadog.

When we arrived back, we realised that our 15 minute walk had actually been a 2 hour hike! We went straight to the pub!

The dogs were exhausted and so were we, my legs were aching the next day!!

Spike, Chewy and Coco

Borth y Gest

We got up quite early and thought that we would try the 15 minute walk to some sandy coves in Borth y Gest, that had been recommended in the visitors book.

The walk wasn't that hard, along the harbour, up a slight hill and then down into Borth y Gest. We walked through the village and over a coastal hill where we could see the sandy cove.

It wasn't very busy, just a few with a couple of dogs. We chose a spot and threw the tennis ball into the sea for Spike and Chewy. The dogs love the sea and were soon soaked through!

It wasn't long before we were joined by a friendly lady and her chocolate labrador, Coco.

Coco's owner was quite surprised at how friendly Spike and Chewy are to other dogs and how good they are in sharing their toys. I had no real explanation, its just how they've always been.

Coco and her owner stayed with us quite a while.

After they had left, we decided to explore further and picked a path leading up along the coast.

29/05/2007

Wandering Around

After unpacking, we decided to just take a short wander around and get our bearings. We weren't going to be doing much on our arrival.

Porthmadog developed through the slate trade and is still considered a young town as it is not yet 200 years old. The Harbour itself came about between 1821-1825. In the 1870’s, approximately over a thousand vessels used the harbour in any one year and in 1873 over 116,000 tons of Blaenau Ffestiniog slate left Porthmadog to be transported to different places all over the world.

The coming of the Cambrian railway in 1867 opened up the area to tourists but there was a decline in local shipping and the export of slate.

Our Harbour View

Our Cottage

We arrived in Porthmadog on 21/05/07 at 15.30 after a 2 hour drive, which was pretty good going seen as though we stopped on the way for lunch.
It didn't take us long to find our cottage, Limekiln Cottage. Our first impressions were good, the cottage looked lovely, everything was neat and tidy from the outside. The inside didn't disappoint either, the dining room was quite large with a table to seat 6, the lounge was cosy with sofa's to also seat 6, we had a television with Sky and DVD player (we did hope not to use those much!). The kitchen was very well equipped, everything you could have needed. The patio doors in the kitchen led out into an outdoor breakfast area. There were 3 bedrooms, one with a four poster bed, the second with two single beds and the third with bunkbeds. There were 2 bathrooms, the first with toilet, sink and a jacuzzi bath and the second bathroom with toilet, sink and a singing and all dancing computerised shower! Basically, the shower had a built in radio (which also had a connection to play an ipod through) a steam room and the water could either come out of a normal shower head, a drencher or you could sit on the seat and have the water come out of massaging nozzles. We didn't explore all the possibilities as we really didn't have the time!

The view from the cottage was great, it did look over the harbour, but not as much as we were expecting to see of the harbour and next door was a friendly, quiet local pub called the Tafarn Pencei Cafe Bar, which did great cheeseburgers!!

There was a terrace to the front of the cottage and to the left was a bar-b-que area.

On arrival, champagne and chocolates and doggy treats were left for us and the dogs. The champagne didn't last long!

We stayed at Limekiln Cottage, Hoeseasons. From 21/05/07 - 25/05/07 we paid £378 all inclusive. (that did include a pet supplement).

27/05/2007

Us inside Wembley

Andy rang home to tell our parents to keep an eye out for us on tv. When we got home we went through the match (we recorded it on Sky plus) to see if we could spot us. At one point you can just about see us when Shrewsbury had a free kick. A couple of our friends were clearly seen as the camera zoomed right in on them.

We will now return back to telling you about our trip in Wales...

Stadium 5

In the second half, Shrewsbury really battled to get an equaliser all the way into the last 6 minutes or so. Shrewsbury's keeper came to the Bristol goal at one point to provide an extra man to see if they could snatch a goal.

It wasn't meant to be though and Bristol went and scored in an open goal. It was all over. Its congratulations to Bristol Rovers.

Shrewsbury players battled though and deserved a standing ovation, which they received and a couple of lucky fans got some of the players boots as well!

We were sad for our team, but had enjoyed a lovely day despite a bit of rain on our way back to the coach.

When we left the ground we found that our way back to the tube station had been blocked off by the police and so had to go down some steps into an enormous crowd, as you can see from the photo. It wasn't that bad though and we were soon back on the coach. We didn't arrive home until 21.45.

A long day, but well worth it!