Conwy

I didn't know much about Conwy. Make that, I didn't know anything about Conwy, but I wanted to stop off somewhere on my way home from Snowdonia and so was on the lookout for somewhere interesting where I could spend a few hours. As I drove past Conwy it winked enticingly at me from down below the road. I turned off and followed signs for the harbour. This, I realised once there, was completely separate from the main town. I parked up (free) and went for a wander. It was quite pleasant with lots of yachts gently bobbing and a restaurant, but not a lot else. 

After a quick wander round the harbour I got back in my van and found the old town fairly easily. I parked in a pay and display car park at the base of the old walls and went for a walk along the top of the walls and a look round the old castle. 

The castle, a World Heritage site, dates from 1283 and was commissioned by Edward I. It's built on a rock and has eight huge round towers protruding from it's curtain walls. It gained its strength from its position atop the rock and so lacks concentric walls (an inner layer of walls) as they were not considered necessary.  

The inner parts of the castle lie in ruins, but enough can be seen to imagine how it would have looked in days gone by. From the battlements I got good views over the town of Conwy lying inside the old town walls, the suspension bridge designed by Thomas Telford and opened in 1826, and of the course the inside of the castle. The Great Hall is 125ft long and fills the main space inside the castle. Apart from this there is a chapel, cellars, dungeons, kitchens and so on. 

Leaving the castle, I walked a bit further along the walls before dropping into the town. The town walls are over 3\4 mile long and have 22 towers scattered along their length. It's possible to walk the full way along the walls but I cut it short as I wanted to have time to look at the town as well.  

I had a quick look at the smallest house in Britain which is on the shore front. It measures 1.8m wide and stands 3.05m high. I didn't go in as there were already a few people inside and so I would have had to wait - its size obviously limits the amount of people who can go in at any one time. I could see pretty much everything there was to see from the doorway anyway.

 









I popped into Plas Mawr which is an Elizabethan town house known for its fine decorative plasterwork and also visited Aberconwy House which is a 14th century merchant's house. The houses are in the care of Cadw and the National Trust respectively and so I didn't need to pay to get in. I would have liked to have spent longer in both places but was aware of the time ticking away on my parking ticket; indeed when I mentioned to the lady behind the desk in Aberconwy House that I would have liked to have spent longer there but couldn't because my parking ticket was running out, she advised me to hurry as the parking attendants can be very keen. 

 










At least I got to see what Conwy has to offer; enough to know I'd like to go back and spend a bit more time there, and I had a very pleasant afternoon exploring a new place and breaking my journey home.

Mobile phones and not going to Lundy

Lundy Island is about three and a half miles long and half a mile wide. It lies off the coast of North Devon towards the end of the Bristol Channel and is reached by ferry from either Bideford or Ilfracombe. It's owned by the National Trust and although it has a shop and accommodation is a bit of a wilderness. Going there has been at the back of my mind for a long time, but it was last year when I was walking the Exmoor part of the South West Coast Path and came across ferry timetables that I decided I would definitely visit this year.

I decided to go on the Thursday as the ferry times on this day would give me the maximum amount of time on the island. I hoped to walk right the way round and so wanted as much time as possible so that I could achieve this without feeling rushed and whilst still having plenty of time to sit and absorb the views and watch any wildlife.

I emailed the ferry company to see about booking. They emailed me back advising me to book in advance and informing me that I would have to do this over the phone rather than online or by email. Easier said than done as I get in too late to ring during the week. I tried phoning on Saturday morning before I left but each time I rang I got a voicemail message telling me the booking office was closed and informing me of the opening hours. As I was ringing at a time the message was saying the office should be open, this was a bit strange. Stranger still was the second part of the message advising me to ring the number I was actually already ringing. I tried one last time right before I left and this time, hallelujah, got through. I booked my ticket and arranged to pick it up from the booking office on Thursday morning. I even got a discount because I'm a member of the National Trust. The woman told me to be at the office for 7.45am and gave me directions for where to park and how to get to the office and the ferry. She also told me to phone the office after 8pm on Wednesday evening to check that the sailing was going ahead. I left home relieved I'd got it sorted out and knowing I'd be able to indulge my island habit whilst I was away.

All was well until Wednesday. I listened to the weather forecast: gales, storms, thunder, rain, gusts of wind up to 70 miles per hour. Maybe I wouldn't be going to Lundy after all. I listened to the forecast a couple more times in case they changed their minds but they didn't. Unless I was told otherwise by Lundy officials though, I still needed to turn up for the ferry the following morning. So it was important I made that after 8pm phone call. This is where I hit my next problem.

I rarely use a mobile phone. In fact I've never actually bought one, I just use other people's cast-offs. I've been using my current phone for a couple of years and it's an old one of my brother's. As he lives in Germany this is a German phone and so the charger doesn't fit English plug sockets. Not a problem because German plugs fit the shaver socket in my bathroom and so I can charge it in there. I can also charge it in the car and when I'm travelling in mainland Europe the charger fits the sockets fine and is much smaller and lighter to carry than an English size charger and adaptor. So I'm very happy with my German phone.

Now however, my phone decided to die. Each time I tried to switch it on it said auf wiedersehen and switched itself back off. And yes, it was fully charged. I took the battery out and wiped it and put it back in. I shook it. I held it in different positions. All to no avail. If I was going to make this phone call I was going to have to get a new phone. A trip to Tesco was called for.

I found a phone for £11 that seemed perfect. They did have one for £9 but I needed to buy a car charger to go with it and there wasn't one to fit the £9 phone. Buying a phone is far more complicated than I ever realised.  I had to charge it, then ring a number to register it, then put credit on it, then learn how to use it so I could actually make my phone call. I sat in my car in the car park with the phone plugged into the cigarette lighter trying to go through everything in the right order. Finally I was able to make my phone call. Only problem now was that I couldn't hear anything. I played with the volume but still couldn't hear anything. The only way I could hear was to have the phone on loud speaker. I assumed I was doing something wrong and resolved to play with it a bit more when I got back to the campsite.

As for my phone call? Well, I felt like I'd completely wasted my time because all I got was a voicemail message saying that because of the weather forecast the ferry may or may not go and they'd decide in the morning so passengers should still turn up at 7.45am. What was the point in having to ring to be told that? After my experiences with their voicemail messages on Saturday I really think they need to think a bit more about how to word their messages so they actually tell callers something useful and meaningful.

So next morning I had the alarm set before 6am to make sure I had enough time to get to Bideford and find the parking and the ticket office and the ferry. I tried calling again before I left but it was still the same message as the previous evening. I drove the half hour to Bideford, put my car in the car park and bought an all day ticket (luckily it was only £3) all with the knowledge that I was probably doing all of this for nothing and could have had a nice lie-in.

I walked along the quay to the ticket office. The ferry was docked alongside looking inviting. A queue of people were snaking outside the booking office door and along the quay next to the sign saying 'cancelled'. I had to join the queue to fill in a form to claim a refund. I wasn't the only person pointing out the inadequacy of the voicemail messages. The woman in the office said they'd only just made the decision to cancel. I really don't understand the point of having to ring the night before (ok, phoning the night before probably wasn't as much palaver for other people as it was for me, but even so ...) if they don't make decisions until just before the sailing is due even when there are such severe weather warnings. I was rather miffed at having got up early, wasted an hour's worth of diesel (return trip) and the parking fee all for nothing, as well as being disappointed at not getting to Lundy. The next sailing was not until Saturday and that would be too late for me.

At least it was still early and I still had the whole day ahead of me. So I went for a walk. But that's another story.