Tuesday, May 15, 2012

Conwy Castle

My dad hates castles.  He was sick of them when he and my mom brought us 30 years ago (thanks!)  and he is still sick of them.

I still love them. Conwy is stunning.  Lonely Planet Wales says this fortress built between 1277 and 1307 is "the most drop-your-crossbow stunning of all Edward I's Welsh fortresses."  It is less mysterious than Dolbadarn, Llewelyn's castle we visited a few days ago, but really a marvel.

I also like "danger man" signs.
I particularly like the middle one: Please let your eyes adjust to the darkness.


Look at all those dangers: Falling down stairs, hitting your head on low ceilings, slipping, plummeting.
Despite the dangers we forged on.
Up a stair...
To a turret.
Instead of Where's Wally we've got Catch Clementine.
She was always ahead of us and whenever we climbed a tower we'd see her.

Can you find her in the pics below?  You might have to zoom in.
This first one is for beginners.

More challenging
 Even more challenging
 For experts only

After the castle we walked the wall around the town.  I LOVED it.
Until I really didn't.

\
In the one below you can see how far we've come from the castle in the middle in the distance.
All of a sudden I got afraid that one of the kids would fall and I just wanted to get down.
Maybe the danger man signs finally sunk in.  Plummeting.
I think you could fall out the second story of this house and be ok.
When we got home cows had invaded the village.
I guess they wanted an evening on the town.
We had a wonderful dinner with our relatives--Pete, Linda, Caren, Dic, Elin, Lisa, Mart, Liwsi and Betsi and turned in early.

Below is the view from Pete and Linda's garden.
That was yesterday.
Today we skipped beautiful Beaumaris Castle and toured the gaol.  
But more about that later.

4 comments:

  1. Signs by Keith Haring!?

    Love the castle. (I assume this was once an operational castle - not just built for Monty Python.)

    How long did you wait for a non-rainy day?

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  2. We've been too lucky with the weather. A spot of rain here and there, but the sun has come out every day. I hope we don't use up our good luck before Hadrian's Wall.

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  3. I last clambered around British castles when I was Clem's age. They didn't have Danger Man signs in those days. Or railings. My parents stayed outside and drink wine while my sister and I risked our lives.

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  4. I too share the love of castles - what fabulous places to explore! I don't remember the Danger Man from when we were there, so I guess we survived like Judith without the warnings. Take dad to a few churches and he'll warm up to the castle idea :)

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