A weekend in Wales

We were off to Wales for the long Easter weekend, so on Thursday night we drove up to somewhere near Birmingham (Walsall?), stayed overnight in a hotel with a bed possibly made of concrete (a Village hotel- they aren’t normally too bad so I think we were just unlucky) and then spent the Friday stopping off at a few places on the way to our B&B in Betys-y-Coed (no idea how you say it still).

We stopped off at a couple of lovely places en route, having nice long walks through woods.

National Trust places were doing Hot Cross Bun scones for Easter- had to be done! Their scones are always good anyway, so with added spices and raisins- a pretty tasty alternative.

The weather was pretty amazing- it was forecast to be warm but I didn’t think it would be that warm- I didn’t pack shorts or cropped trousers, only very dark jeans and waterproof trousers. Thankfully I had packed suncream.

We went for dinner at a gorgeous pizzeria in town- I had a mild panic as we’d chosen and Andy was going to the counter to order, and I then read that their mozzarella wasn’t suitable for veggies- luckily he saw my message and I could order a vegan one instead (which was amazing).

Our B&B was lovely- beautiful views of the countryside, with armchairs by the big bay window and bird feeders on the front lawn. It served breakfast between 8 and 9am and initially when we booked the weekend I was kind of hoping for a welsh parkrun, but the nearest one was about a half an hour drive away, and the logistics of that combined with the breakfast time meant I gave it a miss.  On Saturday we headed up to Anglesey to look for red squirrels- we didn’t see any of those but we did see loads of bluebells, heard woodpeckers and also saw “Easter egg rolling” which turned out to be children log-rolling down a hill in return for an Easter egg (I was picturing something more horrific, like the cheese-rolling).

We headed to Conwy, had delicious ice-cream (where we were warned by the shop keeper to be aware of the seagulls because they just fly down and eat it out of your hands), and walked on the castle walls for brilliant views of the water.

For dinner with had a rather weird picnic of chips and hummus (actual chip shop chips, not crisps being called chips in that fancy way) and some fruit salad.

On Sunday we started to make our way home- stopping at a couple of National Trust places to break up the journey. I had started to get a bit of a sore back, and after going to this beautiful castle (which was interesting on the inside as it was used as a school for children evacuated during WW2) it was really sore and I had to do some yoga in the car park to try and stretch it out a bit. That and then rolling up a jumper to sit on seemed to help and it wasn’t so bad for the rest of the journey.

I love our road trips- we caught up on loads of podcasts as we’d been falling behind in things like the Radio 5 film podcast. We’ve recently got into Off Menu, which is where James Acaster and Ed Gamble interview people about their favourite meals- it doesn’t sound that great but they have funny conversations revolving around their various opinions. I was super excited to see that a new Buckles podcast was out (Adam Buxton)- he always has interesting guests on. We heard Tina Fey on David Tennant’s podcast (again, very interesting) and then regular favourites like Judge John Hodgman and Athletico Mince (which is a really weird and at times hilarious sketch show by Bob Mortimer).

It was such a great trip, even though it was only for a couple of days. I’d not been to that part of Wales before and really loved it (the place we stayed reminded me a lot of Aviemore in Scotland), so we shall definitely have to go back another time and visit a few more places.

Where do you like to visit for a weekend in the UK?

Any recommendations for things to do in Bristol? (We are heading there next)