The Towns and Countryside of Wales
- Jenn
- Sep 2, 2024
- 4 min read
When we've spoken to people in the UK and let them know we were driving through Wales, they always referred to its beauty and its valleys. Now we understand.
More driving. Butts are officially sore from road-trip sightseeing, but our eyes are in excellent working order as we take in yet more stunning landscapes. We crossed the Scottish border into Chester, England (packed with impressive, Tudor-style architecture) before ducking back in to drive down the middle of Wales. We didn't know which way we were going to drive, we just knew we wanted to go down the middle, via Eryri National Park, which was an excellent choice. Over 2 days, we made our way down to Cardiff, in the south of Wales. This time Scott deserves the round of applause for driving through the majority of the narrowest possible roads that barely, and sometimes don't, fit two vehicles. We often wondered if Google was sending us into someone's private property as we snaked and wound through the exceptional, sheep-abundant countryside, often sling-shotting us around blind corners where we'd be like "OMG big truck coming our way!" and the only place to go was even closer to the stone wall on the left that the side mirror was already almost scraping, or more nerve-racking, the valley that dropped below (at least they weren't overly terrifying drops into valleys like in New Zealand, these drops are probably survivable?). Gratefully, most of the time we were externally composed about it. You do get used to it by necessity, otherwise as a driver and co-pilot you will enjoy exactly nothing.
Ok, here are the highlights of our multi-day drive:
Conwy
Oh Conwy. A perfect, northern, picturesque seaside town, the most excellent way to begin our southern drive via Wales. It's painful that Conwy was only a pee stop and a stretch-the-legs stop, as this is a destination in itself. With a beautiful castle, the seaside and the ability to buy a beer in a pub that you can then take out to the beach, how could a one or two night stay go wrong? This is also the stop where I found an obligatory Cymru (Wales) Christmas ornament, as ornaments from other countries or very special occasions is how we decorate our tree.
Llansantffraid
As we drove down the middle of Wales, we passed numerous charming, tiny villages and eventually drove in to one called Blaenau Ffestiniog. We stopped there for a rest and started searching for a place to spend the night. I suppose we should have known that it would be challenging to find last-minute accommodation when driving through national parks and small villages, but we finally found our place, a pond-side cabin just a couple of kilometers outside of Llansantffraid. Honestly, it was perfect. The last thing I wanted to do, driving through these landscapes was find a larger town and stay in a motel. A cabin seemed perfect, and it really was. B interspersed practising his soccer skills and literally rolling on the grass, and S also joined him outside where they just were for the evening, no car, no other distractions. We bought some food to cook in our cabin kitchen, took in the lovely sunset over the pond and breathed the fresh air. Yet another place I wish we could have stayed in longer.
We then continued our trek south towards Cardiff, but not before stopping to have an delicious pub lunch at the Griffin Inn in Llyswen. I had a broccoli and stilton soup and brie wedge fries. Repeat, brie wedge fries. Yes, brie wedges rolled in crunchy bread crumbs and deep fried and served with cranberry sauce. Oh, my heart! Literally. But damn, delicious.
Cardiff
Cardiff on the weekend is a non-stop party, particularly down St. Mary street, which our hotel is near to. Middle of the day, or at night, the street is filled with people of all the generations partying and socializing. It's fun to watch!
Our first evening we walked along and near St. Mary on the way to the Cardiff Arms park where we watched a rugby league game and Scott met up with the Canadian Grizzlies team that were playing here against Wales. The following day we split up, Scott and B taking off to a highly critiqued (by them) football game (Cardiff vs. Middleborough), and S and I taking off to the St. Fagans National Museum of History, which was fabulous! It's an outdoor museum displaying different eras in Welsh history, dating back to the Iron Age. This is also where we tried bara brith with butter, yumsies! S and I really enjoyed our time there, highly recommended! Also, on a related note, it's so impressive that it seems most, if not all UK museums, prominent and less prominent, have free admission.
On that note, hwyl fawr from Wales which, like Scotland, is a place I really hope we can return to in order to spend more time in its landscapes and enduring towns and villages.
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