God Save the Prince of Wales!

Good Morning from Wales! We had a really nice day yesterday. We visited Caernarfon to see their castle - also built by Edward I (Longshanks). It was the jewel in his Welsh crown of castles. You could definitely tell the difference between this castle and the one in Conwy. First, it was about twice as big. It was also extensively renovated by the Victorians, so you can get a bit more sense of what some of the rooms felt like. It was kind of eerie to go through all the small, dark hallways that wound around the many rooms. Just like at Holyrood House, you can get a sense of just how easy it was to sneak around and ambush people. Unfortunately, at Caernarfon, it would all be dreams, since the castle was never really finished. Apparently, good ole' Mel Gibson (i.e. William Wallace) intervened and Edward had to turn his attention to the North and never got back around to finishing his palace. However, his son was born in the castle, which gave rise to the tradition of the eldest son of the monarch being crowned the Prince of Wales. This is also the place where Charles was invested in 1969. They had a fairly interesting exhibit about the ceremony and also showed the blood-line and all of the other Princes of Wales. We also had the chance to walk out on the balcony at Queen's Gate and see the view of the public toilets that met Charles and Diana when he presented her to the Welsh in 1981. It is interesting how you can see photos of someplace and it looks so glamorous, but when you are standing there and see beyond the edge of the camera, it is left somehow lacking. One fun part was that we took the guided walking tour around the castle. As stated in an earlier post - guided tours are definitely worth the money. We also met another young couple from Atlanta (via Germany where he is currently stationed) who is apparently doing a very similar tour to us (but a lot shorter). They had been to York and Edinburgh and were staying in Conwy and had been to Conwy Castle the day before - somehow we missed them there! Emily was delighted to talk to someone with a southern accent and who didn't have a funny look when she said "y'all".

At any rate, the rest of the town of Caernarfon was not very pretty, so we only did a small part of the town walk that the TI provides a guide for and we had a nice lunch at a small cafe' on 'Hole in the Wall' Street. Emily thought it was so named because it was such a small street, until I pointed to the giant hole in the town wall the was made for the road-way! After lunch (which was actually around three o'clock) we decided to head back to Llandudno. We spent the afternoon doing our laundry - the best part about a month long vacation (not!), then relaxed at the flat for the evening - our lunch (which included fried bread) was heavier than we thought.

We didn't have too many pictures yesterday, so we thought we'd save them up and post some tomorrow. Today we are off to see Betws-y-Coed which is a small town located in Snowdonia National Park. It is supposed to have some good walks and great water-fall views. We are looking forward to a relaxing day of walking and seeing nature's scenery. Judging by my recent photography, I'll probably have a LOT more pictures after today. I seem to take way more pictures of nature than I do of man-made artifacts - unless of course the man-made artifiact is ruined and covered in nature! Of course, this might have something to do with the fact that most non-ruined places we've been won't allow you to take photographs inside. They say it is to protect the pieces - but we all know it is so you have to buy post cards - or better yet, guidebooks!

With that, I'll say cheerio for the day. We are having a great time, but we also miss seeing you all (or y'all for those who need it!)

Cheers for now!

-Cary