North WALES

May 25 Day 18

We went back to Wales, this time to the north. THere we visited a couple of old castles, Conwy and Caernarfon. These were both built by King Edward I in the late 12oo's to solidify his hold on Wales, which he had recently taken over. He built a number of these castles throughout Wales during this time. Each castle we visited were basically the stone structures without any of the interior improvements of wood which would have long ago decayed. The only reason these castles haven't been torn down is due to some citizen groups who wanted to preserve them, so they have done some basic restoration work to prevent them from crumbling to the ground. I guess that's what happens to a pile of stones over times. It makes you wonder how the pyramids of Egypt have lasted all of these years. Anyway, the castles were both very interesting to see, along with their walled towns within which they were built.

Conwy Castle

We found some cool swords in this shop. We may order something from then online

Caernarfon Castle. Prince Charles received his investiture as the Prince of Wales here at Caernarfon Castle. The entire grassy area in the middle of the castle was filled with bleachers to accommodate the guests. They even had bleachers set up outside the castle walls for people to watch the procession to the castle.

I'm up in the tower

We talked to an older couple that we saw at Conwy Castle. I initially heard them speaking in a strange tongue that reminded me of the language of Middle Earth in Lord of the Rings. It turns out that they are both Welsh, and were speaking their native tongue. They are also fluent in English, so we were able to converse with them. They were so nice and wanted to know all about our experience in Britain and about some of the cities in America. She said her life long dream is to go to Detroit, to the Henry Ford museum. I guess there's something for everybody. But they are typical of the many people we have met during our time here. THis is what is helping to make our trip so enjoyable.

We saw something really different on our way to Wales. In Britain, there are a lot of pedestrian crossing bridges over the highways. On this particular one, we saw a whole flock of sheep running across the overpass. We didn't get a chance to see if the shepherd was right behind them, but I'm sure Little Bo Peep wasn't too far behind.