Wheels Around Europe . . . . . . . : 2019

Saturday 19 October 2019

The Hunt For Dry October (and a search for Red Squirrels...........) see what I did there ?

Friday 18th October and Saturday 19th October

With two days annual leave booked for this week and a weather forecast for heavy rain showers, I decided not to set off yesterday as planned, and guess what ? there was wall to wall sunshine most of the day !

Still a wander around Trentham Gardens was not a bad way to spend a few hours.

So today I set off for the beautiful Welsh island of Anglesey.

I am in search of some autumn tree colour, beaches and red squirrels, whether I get to see any remains to be seen.

My sister Julia and I came here regularly as young children and stayed on a farm somewhere nearby, whilst I don't remember much of the island, I do remember many of the names of the bays and beaches we came to and dug sandcastles and rummaged in the rock pools on the beaches.

First stop today was Newborough Forest and Beach Nature Reserve.

It's down in the south west corner of the island and there is a £5 parking charge for the day. But it's well worth the money. The forest is famous for its red squirrels.

But none were to be seen today sadly, they're all sheltering from the weather instead of gathering nuts !

There wasn't much autumn tree colour either as the forest is planted with fir trees of the evergreen variety, so another fail there.

I did see some nice colour on the drive here though.

There is also a fabulous sandy beach walk along towards Ynys Llanddwyn island.

This is a small island separated from the main island at high tide but accessible at low tide.

There was about an hour to go before the tide was sufficiently out to get across when I was here so didn't wait around.

It actually stayed dry for the walk along the beach which is very welcome, Louis loved it of course, all those new smells to investigate, he was in doggie heaven.

We headed back through the forest and that was a lovely walk too.

An added bonus of this place is no mud, the forest was planted on sand dunes to stabilise them, so Louis was mud free when we got back and that makes a nice change !

I just needed to get some sand off him which was quite easy.

Unfortunately overnighting is not allowed on the Newborough Forest car park and I didn't want to risk it so moved on later in the day.

I'm now parked up for the night at Trearddur Bay which has a carpark where motorhomes can overnight just across the road from the beach and sea.

I'm sure it would be quite picturesque if I could see anything through the driving rain !

The rain started about tea time and hasn't let up since.

Fortunately Louis is flat out on the sofa after his exertions on the beach earlier so the last thing he wants is to go out.

TV and an early night for us then.

Well, I didn`t get to see the squirrels as they were hiding and the trees were mostly evergreen fir but it was still a great trip.

Louis`s doggie blog

Instead of my Dad having all the fun, I going to have my say as well !
You may know we travel around in my kennel with wheels on. I know there called wheels because I heard him call them that.
Dad sits in one of the chairs at the front and the kennel moves somehow ?
Not sure how, but it only moves when he`s sat there.
The purpose of moving is to take me to places where there are lots of new smells for me to investigate.
Today we went somewhere where there were supposed to be some squirrels for me to chase, these were to be different to the ones I have in my garden, a different colour I think. Anyway they didn`t come out to play so I had to make do with the new smells I found.
Afterwards he said I wasn`t to chase them anyway so there`s no fun in that !
There was a nice beach too and there were many smells there but I couldn`t find any lovely rotting dead fish to roll in though. But I still enjoyed my walk.

Here are some photos from our day at the beach ...............

Newborough Forest & Beach

Newborough Beach stone balancing

Newborough Forest & Beach

Newborough Forest

Ynys Llanddwyn island

Newborough Forest

Newborough Forest & Snowdonia mountains in the distance

Newborough Forest

Trearddur Bay

The "Haunted House" at Trearddur Bay

Tuesday 24 September 2019

Parsley Hay, again...but I do like it here !

Saturday 20^th September

With a weather forecast promising a late summer sprinkling of sunshine, I felt it was a good opportunity for a cheeky one nighter, so headed up to Parsley Hay in the Peak District.

I`ve been here before several times as it`s very scenic and beautiful, close to home and easy to get to.

It`s on the High Peak Cycle Trail and close to the Tissington Trail and Monsal Trail.
There is a large P&D car park at Parsley Hay, £4.50 for the full day.

Overnighting is not strictly allowed, but in all the times I`ve been here nobody has bothered me.
The staff at the cafe and cycle hire shop just lock up and go home leaving just the wild life and the local cows and sheep for company.

Louis and I had a cycle ride one way up the trail towards Tissington, then a walk the other way towards Buxton.

The weather was suprisingly warm and very sunny with clear blue skies, just the job to round off a great summer.

There was some rain overnight but by morning it was fine but much cooler and a threat of more rain for the rest of Sunday.

My neighbours for this evening

Sunday 25 August 2019

Change of plan !

Sunday 25^th August

Sue not feeling well and wants to go home, so the beach at Gower will have to wait.................................

Cardiff Bay and the City

Saturday 24^th August

Last night we had military helicopters going overhead and a concert at the cricket ground next door, but still it was somehow a relaxing night's sleep. Maybe a result of the bottle of beer brought back from Lake Garda that had resided in the fridge ever since.

I slept well.

Bright sunshine greeted up this morning so after doing the usual morning routine things, we set off for Cardiff Bay.

The river taxi next to the castle whisked us down the River Taff and into the bay.

For £4 each it's a good way to get there.

The bay area is very nice, lots to see and do.

The Norwegian Church was interesting, Rohl Dhal was baptised there apparently.

He also went to boarding school in Repton Staffordshire so I read somewhere, I pass the school twice a day going to work and back.

After wandering around the bay area we caught the river taxi back to the city area and had a walk around the streets.

It seems there is a LGBT thing on this weekend, lots of rainbow flags and people in all kinds of strange outfits, well strange to us anyway if you were born in the era when such things wouldn't get talked about much.

Good on 'em, if they're having fun then why not ?
I liked the Victorian style shopping arcades of which there seemed to be several.
They contained some really interesting shops and bars.

The day has been quite hot, very sunny, and it was welcome to get back to Ed to put our feet up.

Tea was meatballs in Bolognese sauce, spaghetti, parmesan cheese, garlic bread and Italian beer brought back from Garda, no finer tea has man enjoyed than that which we have just devoured ! So say I !!!

Tomorrow I feel the need for some sandy beach action on the Gower ....

But they may be crowded, we'll see ???

River Taff

Cardiff Castle

Cardiff Castle famous animal wall

Cardiff River Taxi

Cardiff Bay

Cardiff Bay Norwegian Church

Cardiff Bay

Cardiff City Arcades

Cardiff City

Vivienne Westwood, a portrait picture outside her shop !
Would this tempt you in to spend big on her clobber,
or send you scurrying to M&S ???

Cardiff City Arcades

Into the Welsh Capital City

Friday 23^rd August

It was indeed a very peaceful night at Tintern Abbey. It was flood lit after dark and was quite impressive, very atmospheric.

Bats darted around at dusk and Owls could be heard.

After breakfast we set off for Cardiff.

I decided we needed to visit somewhere on the way into Cardiff, so a quick search of interesting places threw up Dyffryn House and Gardens.

It's a National Trust site although it's not been in their ownership for very long.

It`s a very elegant looking house set in fine grounds in a beautful position in the welsh countryside.

The house has had chequered past. It was originally built in 640 AD but was much later bought by John Cory a Victorian industrialist. The family went on to export Welsh coal all over the world and at one time had a office in every main port in the World.

A very great deal of money was made from Welsh coal and it was highly soughtafter as it burned 1c hotter than most other coal so the ships could go faster with Welsh coal.

After the Cory family, It had a time as a conference centre then it was sold for development as a hotel which failed, but not before a lot of damage was done to the fabric of the building.

It stood empty for years before the NT rescued it.

The house is interesting but not outstanding, one feature though is you were allowed to sit on the chairs, touch the furniture, play snooker on the full sized table, so it was very hands on. Unusual for a NT property.

The gardens are very large, very lovely and have undergone an awful lot of renovation in recent years and the work is set to continue for many more years.

So it was an excellent way to spend a few hours.

We got to the campsite in Cardiff by mid afternoon and got setup.

The site is very convenient for Cardiff bring situated next to Sofia Gardens and a fifteen minute walk along the River Taff.

Cardiff Castle is next to the gardens and there is a tourist information office so we headed there for a city map.

On entering the castle gate a lady with a walkie talkie said "sorry, no dogs" but I just want to go in the TI office. 'sorry, no dogs"

I was a bit wound up by this point.

We've visited TI offices in ten countries across Europe with Louis and only ever had a friendly welcome with a dog water bowl at the door and a fuss from the ladies. (For Louis usually, not for me !) So I was quite suprised at this.

She radioed for the manager and he promptly arrived, he was very friendly and apologetic, but it was policy "no dogs sir"

He offered to get me a map and we left.

Now I can understand no dogs in public historic buildings, but going through the gates at Cardiff Castle you enter a huge grassed area with the TI office and shop off to the right and the castle keep over the other side. I wouldn't have expected him to be allowed in the castle buildings, but the grounds ???

Anyway, we'll leave a suitable review on Tripadvisor and spend one money elsewhere.

It was a very pleasant walk back up the river to the campsite.

The weather has been very warm and sunny, summer has returned !