England/Wales - April/May 2005

This was my third visit to the UK, and my first visit to Wales.  After spending the night at Chris's parents in Chilwell (near Nottingham), we headed up to Wilmslow (near Manchester) for the wedding of James (Chris's cousin) and Suzy.  We had a great time at the wedding, dancing til about 1 AM.  It was held in a huge tent (known as a marquee in England) that had room for cocktails, a full sit-down dinner, and a dance floor complete with disco ball.

The next morning we convoyed with Chris's parents to a cottage they had rented for us in Criccieth, Wales.  When we arrived, we went for a walk past Criccieth Castle and on the beach with Chris's brother Peter, his wife Rachel, their son, and our brand-new niece.  They were only able to stay one more night with us before heading home. 

The next week was spent traveling around Wales.  We visited five castles:  Beaumaris, Caernarfon, Castell-Y-Bere, Chirk, and Harlech.  We went on the very cool Snowdon railway to the highest point in England and Wales (at 3,560 feet, not quite as tall as local Mt Diablo, which is 3,849 feet).  We saw plenty of sheep (and lambs!), ate fish and chips, and visited the Centre for Alternative Technology, where we rode a funicular.  We toured a slate mine, visited the town with the longest name in the UK (Llanfairpwllgwyngyllgogerychwyrndrobwllllantysiliogogogoch), watched Blair win the election, and visited the town where the British TV show "The Prisoner" was filmed (Portmeirion).   We had a picnic lunch in the car at Chirk Castle due to a sudden downpour. (Chris said it reminded him of his childhood.)

 The most important thing that happened in Wales was that I beat everyone at Scrabble.  I didn't think it was possible to beat Chris, so it's one for the record books.

After leaving Wales we went back to Chilwell for a couple of nights, and spent a day in Birmingham seeing Peter & Rachel and the kids.  Next it was off to Cambridge, where we discovered the rather shocking news that our company had been acquired.  We spent a nice day in Cambridge seeing friends, and then headed down to London where we stayed with our friend Margaret and visited a high school friend of mine.  On our last day we checked out Hampton Court, and then it was home again.

Click on any of the photos below to see the photos for that set.  You'll be taken to the Flickr website.  Note:  if you want to see the photo descriptions, click on each photo.  (Slideshow mode doesn't show descriptions.)

Wedding pictures
James & Suzy's wedding
Criccieth pictures
In and around Criccieth, Wales
Welsh castle pictures
Various Welsh castles

Portmeirion pictures
Portmeirion, Wales
London pictures
London
Misc Wales pictures
Misc Wales photos, including Snowdon

    
Map of some of the places we visited
Map of the UK

Last updated:  12/4/05

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