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: