Wales - 2nd Week - Hikes

Our second week in Wales was spent doing a lot of walking and hiking. Thought I'd group together the pics of the 2nd week into themes, so this is the hiking theme.

There is this beautiful trail called the Pembrokeshire Coastal Trail that runs the full western coast of Wales. It goes through farmers fields - with grass sometimes taller than F,

sometimes you have to walk through herds of cows,

sometimes you are a step away from a huge drop to the ocean,


all is absolutely beautiful.


Here are some pics from our first hike the first full day we were in Trefin. We walked straight from the village to the coastal trail...not bad t'all.


The kids were at first eager to tromp along themselves. The monkey harness came in handy for little F as he quickly learned to stay on the path.





Eventually they both got tired and Joy got to find out what it's like to carry a nearly 40 pound girl while hiking.


And here is F and papa with the monkey looking on.


Here we are at the end, smiles again all around.



Both Glenn and I got a chance to spend a bit of time on our own hiking too which was glorious. It's been a while since we've been able to go at our own pace...bc...before children. Here are some pics from our respective jaunts:







Self portrait of me totally enjoying my solo hike:



This one shows how big the tides are in this area. The boats look like they are just stuck in the mud. But when the tide is high they are actually floating in the water. It's a bit crazy to think about and see.


The last day we were in Wales, we did a small hike from a little town called Abercastle. We walked up a short path

and checked out an ancient burial chamber that looks like a mini stone henge:




And we got a family pic on the way down:


More to come about beaches we visited.

Wales - Day 5-7 - Trains & Arrival in Trefin

Thursday and Friday we spent mostly inside as it was quite rainy. But at one point we went out with the kids with their rainboots, ahem, 'wellies', to stomp in puddles. They were soaking wet instantly but had so much fun testing out every puddle outside our apartment. We also went swimming at this international pool close by the apartment. There were water slides, pools, a 'slow river' to float around, and fountains everywhere. Both G and I got to go on some of the adult waterslides. There was one we called the toilet bowl, because you slid down into this huge bowl-like structure that swept you around a few times before dumping you about 8 feet into a pool of water. G had a blast with it and the kids loved seeing papa drop through the hole.

We had some cozy reading at the end of the day:




Saturday was the big driving day to Pembrokeshire (the southwestern coast of Wales). With some coaching from our friend, G did awesome with his driving. It still was very weird to be shifting with the left hand and driving on the left side and there seemed to be roundabouts just about everywhere:


Instead of heading straight to the coast, we decided to first do a train ride in the Brecon Beacons, this beautiful hilly range north of Cardiff. We rode the Brecon Mountain Railway, a steam engine, through the hills of the Brecons. The kids LOVED it and were wide eyed throughout the trip:












On the way back, we stopped at a playground and the kids again got to run off some energy in a beautiful setting.




And here is a scene from the train:


After our trainride, we hopped back in the car for a naptime ride to the coast!

Trefin was the little town we stayed in and our house was at the end of town right next to some farm fields.


Trefin is a beautiful little town with narrow streets and surrounded by the coast and fields. Some of the streets in these small towns and between the towns were basically sized for one car, so if someone is coming from the other direction you have to find a pull-out as quickly as you can, which sometimes means backing up a bit. We definitely didn't see many SUVs at all. Here are some views of Trefin:




Our house was quite nice, though musty and dusty in some rooms. Poor little F's room was so nasty smelling that he got to sleep in a port-a-crib in a hall nook. The best room in the place was the conservatory where we ate. Check this out:



We ended up moving a comfy chair in there because we spent so much time here. Here is J snuggling up in the chair to color:


After a long day of driving we settled in, ate at the local pub (great beer!!!), then crashed. Oh, and here is a beautiful sunset shot that we caught right outside our cottage: