Day 6, Conwy, Northern Wales Continued

A great view (stock photo), of the harbour walking area with The Conwy Castle looming over the city.  Conwy is an historic fishing village built by Edward I in 1283, in Northern Wales.

It's still very much a fishing village/ a port city.

While we didn't have time to tour the actual castle we did walk about and get a feel for the little fishing village.

A good use of the old phone booths!

 There was a little amusement area for the wee ones.

I'm not sure if this was a particular festival on the day we toured, or if the amusement area is always there.

We opted not to que up to enter the smallest house in Great Britain, so we could use our time to walk around and see more of the village.  The red house sandwiched between the white cottage and gate area of the walled city was built to fill in the space back in the day.  People did live in this 6 x 10 (72 inches wide by 122 inches tall) at one time.  It was built back in the 1800's and used by fishermen who lived and worked on the harbour.

The name of the house, Cymraeg is listed here with hours of operation.  

This is a short video I found on line by a travel blogger, it's short; but worth the time so you can see the inside of the wee house.  A man named Robert Jones bought the house for 20 pounds back in 1891, and he rented it to a man also named Robert Johnson, who was not a small man, but was 6'3".  Eventually he was evicted by the city council in the 1900's and the residence was deemed unsuitable for human habitation at that time.  His Great-Great Granddaughter, Jan Tyley ownes and operates the house to this day as a tourist attraction.

Video Here (then scroll down for the video)

You can see how narrow the streets were as we explored.

 Though we didn't tour the castle, it was ever present as we made our way among the shops in the historic area.  And then we headed back to the coach to make our way back to Chester for another walking tour.

Beautiful black and white buildings again in the center area of Chester.  

Looking down one of the mediaeval streets you see the Eastgate Clock.  The Eastgate to the walled city was built by the Normans. 

A close up of the clock which was installed at the Eastgate, City Center, in 1899 to commemorate Queen Victoria's Diamond Jubilee in 1897.  She was at that time, the longest serving monarch.

 

Chester Cathedral was built between the 10th and 16th century with the earliest parts dating back to 1093, Benedictine.  In 1541 the old abbey became The Church of England when King Henry the VIII, separated from the Roman Catholic Church.

We were able to listen to the choir for a short period of time.  Then headed back to our hotel in Chester, The Double Tree for our 2nd night there.  Tomorrow bags out at 7 am as we head to Scotland.

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Day 6 of 14 North Wales/Chester (part I)

Day 6 Itinerary reads: Drive through the countryside of North Wales as your journey to Conwy, a medieval town dominated by a huge castle.  Enjoy a walking tour around the picturesque streets and see the smallest house in Britain, followed by free time for lunch on your own.  In Chester, take another walking tour to see medieval buildings and Roman Walls.

Our first stop to use the facilities....notice the machine to pay to use the toilet.  You could actually use your credit card, which was helpful as most of us had no coin.

Not sure what people might have used the sinks for that made them put up the sign, but I wondered.

And an interesting place to place tourist information, lol.  That's me in the reflection as I was taking the photo.

A pretty stream along side buildings.  If you click to enlarge, I think you can see how closely the buildings were to the water's edge.

A very pretty little town/village with bridges and walk ways to explore. along the River Dee.

You know you're in Wales, when you attempt to pronounce the name of village  Llangollen.  The area is quite pretty, and hilly.  Seems to be an area where nature provides the entertainment by way of rafting, kayaking, fishing, climbing, biking etc.  There are canal paths to explore (though we didn't see those when we were there), and historic ruins (which we also didn't see when there).

A very old building used currently as a day care, was previously a church.  But, look at all the interesting details in this old building.

There is a history trail with ruins, but as I mentioned above; we did not see that on our visit.  This picture is from a visit the area webpage that I knabbed.  Wish we had been able to see this while there.  Our visit there was brief, passing through as we hoped back on the coach to continue our travels.

Beautiful country side with threatening clouds; but I think you get a feel for how rugged the country side was, and how hilly. 

We stopped for a photo opt along the side of the road amid lots of sheep, though only 2 are in the picture they pretty much covered the hillside.

My friend, Jane got the photo of the day.  She was able to get pretty close to these very special, 2 headed sheep!  You gotta click to enlarge this picture folks, really...no really you do.  LOL  She couldn't have placed the two sheep any better if she tried to get this fun photo.

We made another brief stop at St. Margaret's.  (The Church of Wales).

Aside from being a beautiful church with an interesting grave yard attached, it has a deep connection with World War I, and Canadian solders.  

The church is known as the "Marble Church".  We were unable to go inside, but pictures of the church look breathtaking.  Nearby in Kinmel Park Army Camp thousands of Canadian soldiers awaited ships to take them home to Canada after the close of the World War.  Food shortages were a problem, soldiers were unhappy.  The influenza took the lives of 86 of their comrades between Nov of 1918 and March of 1919.  The soldiers had had enough and rioted.  How horrible to live through the war and then die of influenza and be buried here so far from home.  Additionally 4 who died in the riot are buried here.  There was an investigation that the army officers didn't do what they should to take care of their men, and to put a stop to the riot.

**I'll pause here due to the number of pictures from that day and pick up Day 6 part II in the next post.  Please come back.

PLEASE leave me a comment when you come visit, so I know you were here. Your visits and comments are very special to me. AND remember, leave your name and url and not your profile link. Name and url takes me right to your blog post so I can reciprocate the visit.

Day 6, Leaning Tower of Pisa

Day 6, Pisa, and Lake Maggiore.  Our itinerary for the day says  stop at Pisa for the Leaning Tower from which Galileo is said to have conducted experiments on velocity and gravity.  See the splendid cathedral and baptistery decorated with mosaics.  Journey past the marble quarries T Carrara, used since the time of Ancient Rome.  Travel through the Apennine Mountains to the fertile valley of the River Po. and continue to your lakeside resort on beautiful Lake Maggiore.

The town of Pisa is one of the areas where tour coaches aren't permitted.  We toured several areas where the coaches have to park some place outside the city, and tourist need to walk in, or find other transportation.  From memory, believe this was the 2nd time the coach had to leave us outside city limits.  Partially due to the distance, and perhaps because of our lady in the wheel chair, Vivian; arrangements were made to ride these little trains into the area where The Leaning Tower of Pisa,  and Cathedral were.  We weren't the only tour group here that morning, so the trains must be common place.

And even after you leave the train outside the walled area, you still must walk to your actual destination.  ERnie in right foreground.

As you approach, you see the Cathedral on your left and The Leaning Tower beyond.  They look connected in this picture, but they aren't.  It's just the distance.  But, comparing it to the building near it, you see better how much it's leaning.

A different view where were almost in front of the Cathedral, gives you a feel for the size.

We considered briefly doing the shot where you find the right spot and look like you're holding it up, but the line of younger folks waiting to do that...we moved on.  The Leaning tower is the bell tower for the Romanesque Marble Cathedral, built in 1372.  Even at the time it was built, it leaned.  Later due to it leaning so much Italians were afraid it would fall over, devices were used to secure it.  Over time it was beginning to straighten the tower......which would ruin the tourist attraction, so alterations had to be made to allow it to continue to lean.

The Cathedral was beautiful even from the outside, and as you can see the line to enter was long, so was the line to buy the ticket to enter.  Knowing our time table here, we elected to walk around the community instead.  I don't believe anyone in our group made it inside the Cathedral.  There was also a long line to use the bathroom, which was one of the many paid public toilets we encountered during our travels. (more on bathrooms in a later post)

One of the side streets with shops and places to eat.  We were there early enough, many weren't yet open for the day.

This was gorgeous.  Look at the wooden wheels!  I couldn't read the sign posted with it, but we assume it's for hire to site see from.

 Some views out the window of the coach.

We're approaching Lake Maggiore.  We did pass the marble areas mentioned in the itinerary for the day.  It was visible from the coach, but not such that a picture was obtained.  A very steep hillside where marble was selected and the difficulty of getting the marble to the artist/builder etc was discussed.  We could see very primitive roads off in the distance.

**Pop back in for Lake Maggiore.