Wales Castle Visit

One thing we learned about Wales was there is a lot of castles. Most of them are in ruins because they were created to defend against the invading forces (England). As England took over an area they destroyed the castles. Its a bit of a shame, but my kids love climbing over castle ruins rather than touring fancy castle museums.

The castle we found was Coity Castle. As you see all signs are written in both English and Welsh. Ironically hardly anyone speaks Welsh, but the government is trying to bring back the almost dead language...thus the signs. 

The castle was located in the middle of a neighborhood. There was local boys were playing soccer in the courtyard, and there was a nearby playground.

Wales: Cave and Farm

The owners of the cottage we hired suggested that we take the kids to The National Showcaves which was a couple of caves and a couple of cheesy family attractions like a dinosaur park and farm.

Since there wasn't anything to spear Misty on, we decided to feed her to a dinosaur.

This is us as we begin our journey into one of the caves. 

The caves were beautiful, but unfortunately they don't photograph well.

I enlarged this one a bit so you can hopefully see that there are two waterfalls inside this cave. The path curved around so you actually walked behind the waterfalls and then in between them. This cave was popular for wedding ceremonies, so they named it the Cathedral Cave.

In dinosaur land, Misty found a touch screen game that allowed her to paint the dinosaur. This was one of her many creations.

They had a sleuth station to pan for gold. Suprizingly they actually had real gold to pan for instead of pyrite  but it was just small worthless flakes. Neil and Lexi thought it was fun though. Here Neil shows Misty the finer points of sloshing.

Onto the farm side, Neil found some random rocks that had some historical significance.

While Lexi made it a mission to pet every animal. Misty was a bit exhausted at this point so she didn't enjoy this part of the day as much.

Wales: Waterfall Hikes

Normally I break up our holidays by days in a chronological timeline; however, I think it would work better for this trip to categorize it by experiences. 

One of the reasons I wanted to go to Wales was because they are known for beautiful waterfalls. I love waterfalls. 

We really had no idea what to expect from Wales. Ray works with a Welsh lady, and before arriving we had the impression that Wales was like Texas....everyone there THINKS they are special, but in reality everyone knows they are special. We found this to be untrue. Everyone in Wales was very nice, and it is just a slower pace of life than in the cities of England. Wales is mostly just countryside full of country people.

The countryside of Wales is beautiful. It was also VERY muddy. We rented a wonderful cottage, and before arriving the owners told us to bring wellies (rubber boots). We are very thankful for this warning since it was very muddy. The kids enjoyed it though, esp Misty who told us her wellies needed to be wet and muddy.

The hike to the waterfalls were long and in rough terrain.  The first one we picked was by the cottage, but we later found out was the hardest waterfall trail. At points we were hiking up a rocky cliff, splashing through puddles, and walking through thigh deep mud. 

Sgwd-yr-Eira meaning the waterfall of snow

The waterfalls were worth it though. 

The kids were able to get behind one of the waterfalls.

On a different trail we got to follow the river on a much more mild hiking trail.

Sgwd Gwladus

Sgwd Gwladus

 We saw several other waterfalls as we were driving. I can see why they call this part of Wales Waterfall Country.