Castles, Castles, Castles

Sunday morning dawned without silly screaming girls, without tired legs, after a truly great sleep. The gentle sound of the river rushing below, in fact quite similar to when we drifted off to sleep ten hours earlier, was entirely pleasant.

Menu for the day. Castle for breakfast, castle for lunch, Mansion for afternoon tea, City walls for dinner. With a whole lot of driving in between.

First on the menu was Beaumaris Castle, which is supposedly the best example of symmetrical castle building in the UK. It was never quite finished to full height so the walls are only about 30 foot high which makes it look a bit squat. It has a cool system of inner and outer walls, and archers on the inner walls could shoot over the heads of archers on the inner walls. With only one entrance point, a complete moat and Drawbridges etc, which if you made it past there you needed to then turn to your right (which exposes your left side not usually armoured in medieval times) to get through to the next gate which also featured a drawbridge type system, murder holes from above (so people can fire arrows etc down on you), as well as all the arrow slits etc, so again, the place was pretty well defended. Bugger trying to attack it - though again the Welsh did have a couple of attempts and were almost successful once i think. Almost. This one was never finished so the walls didn't make it around the town either as they did at Caernarfon, and Conwy as you'll see if you read on...

Mez and I decided somewhere yesterday that our photo's were in danger of getting a bit boring - too many of the two of us just standing and smiling in front of whatever monument castle etc, though in saying that i still prefer having a human subject in a photo rather than just a... whatever object. So now you just get pics of us doing crazy stuff instead. Beaumaris is right near a harbour again and used to be stocked by boats that would dock right at the gates of the castle, quite a pleasant drive down a tree lined road to get there and great outlook from the castle, as you can see, though the photo makes it look unduly grey - there was sun, I swear. Beaumaris itself is another quaint, bustling little Welsh town. Had a look at doing a Puffin cruise to the aptly named Puffin Island, to see some... you guessed it, Puffins. I've never met a Puffin before except on the back of a Puffin book, but reason was the winner on the day (we had no money you will remember) and so onwards went we in search of more Castles... At this point I should probably mention that we have a Welsh Heritage site membership which gets us into all the castles etc for a one off cost so essentially they become free...

So onwards then to Conwy, home perhaps not altogether surprisingly, to Conwy Castle. Conwy as a town was very very cool, walled in on all sides by this very impressive castle. This one was actually attacked while the royals were staying and it held, I guess not entirely surprisingly when you see its geographical location - right on the edge of another harbour with access really only from one side, unless you proposed to swim to it, then climb up the rocks and sheer (about 100 foot) walls.

I have to say Conwy castle impressed the most of all the castles followed a close second by Caernafon and then Beaumaris. But a picture paints a thousand words so heres a few thousand words...







In the afternoon we went to visit a historic 16th century home which has been restored in Conwy called Plas Mawr. Really cool old place that John Monastra (as a builder) would both be fascinated and horrified with - when they were doing the restorations they found one room where the walls and floor were a staggering 18 inches out of true! (i've worked with the man and he gets fussy over a few millimetres!!!) But a fascinating wee tour and we did an audio tour with it and so got to learn some interesting facts...

The most interesting one concerned the origins of the phrase 'upper crust'. Now obviously this refers to rich people, but back in the day when this Plas Mawr was in operation (1500's) the servants would bake the bread and chop off the top crunchy half and that was given to the owners, and they would keep the lower half - thus the rich owners literally got the 'upper crust' of each loaf baked. Interestingly enough the rich people were not necessarily the healthiest people back then, hygiene having not yet been discovered, and while they didn't drink the water (instead drank wine and ale), they ate a diet which was almost entirely meat, thinking vegetables only for the poor people. Pretension clearly had its health costs back then!!!

So we also found a welsh cure for the plague. Take the turd of a 12-13 year old. Dry it out, powderise it, then add a couple of teaspoons to a glass of wine and take daily.

I shit you not.

Gross. Bring on modern medicine I say!

So after Plas Mawr we were pretty much all historied and ancient buildings'd out, Mez in fact was about ready to pull her hair out, so went for a calming drive in the general direction of home. Made a brief detour for a quick wander around the walls of yet another famous city which Paraparaumu Monastra's should have no trouble identifying by its distinctive buildings. Chester was originally settled by the Romans who built the walls and was again used as a port town with ships sailing right up the river and docking beside the walls. Nowadays the river has silted over and what was once a bustling dock is a race-course. You'd never guess water once covered it. A bit like the Wellington waterfront I suppose.

So the Mayor of Chester still retains the title 'Admiral of the Dee' despite there being no Navy ties in his profession, nor much of a waterway to speak of, as the Dee isn't much more than a trickle really. Pleasant walk though around the city walls. Chester also retains one of these crazy laws where it is legal to shoot a Welsh man found within the city walls after a certain time, provided you do it with a bow and arrow. Did manage to spot this on the side of one house though which I thought was kinda cool.

Anyway Chester was nice. Not much more to say really, quite a green city and nice to see the red brick instead of the Grey you find everywhere else in this country. But other than that it was just another place to see. Ticked that one off now, what's next. Such is the drive of the intrepid traveller, vapid in ambition except to see, to see, to see. Why such an empahsis on that particular sense i do not know, but such feasting of the senses cannot be maintained indefinately, this I do know. And so home to bed we flew (well might as well have, I was born to rally you know!!)

A Castle a day gives room for play...

Day two dawned with some random girl running through the camping ground screaming at the top of her lungs, clearly a dare as it finished in much giggling. To be fair, I think even the cock was a bit pissed at being woken so early, so went back to sleep with everyone else.

But we were up and all packed up well before 10am which was good. Clouds looked a bit ominous so after breakfast overlooking a lake, and a quick trip to an outdoors store for a new fuel pump for the stove to replace the melted old one, we decided against hiking up Mt Tryfan which is meant to be a fun scramble over rocks etc, but was enshrouded in cloud. Another day, when we can enjoy the view from the top. So we decided to go see a real Castle...

Arriving at Caernarfon Castle (and walled town) was an impressive sight half an hour's drive from our breakfast outlook. No longer in the midst of the massive natural fortress that is Snowdonia with it's towering craggy peaks and misty clouds enshrouding the tops and occasionally coming down to meet the roads. This was most clearly a man made fortress, impressive in its immensity of scale and so much cooler than the photo's give credit. We probably climbed a fair few hundred metres of turret after turret, marvelling at the sheer immensity of the place, the calm within its walls (it was a bit breezy outside) and the craftmanship as well as clever design so as to make it impregnable from without.

Learned some more vaguely interesting history too. So back in the day (about 1200ish) there was this welsh prince Llywelyn. Llywelyn set about reasserting the authority of Gwynedd and thereafter extending it into a supremacy over much of the rest of Wales. In 1267 his position as overlord was recognized by Henry III in the Treaty of Montgomery when the English king accepted Llywelyn's homage as prince of Wales.

Ten years after his recognition as the prince of Wales by Henry III, Llywelyn was to suffer a humiliating defeat at the hands of the new King Edward I. From the outset, Llywelyn seemed almost to go out of his way to court Edward's anger. In particular, he refused to yield the homage and money payments owing to the king under the terms of the Treaty of Montgomery. Seemingly not paying your taxes has always been a good way to ensure your downfall. And hey the Bible gives such good advice on the subject too (see Matthew 22:14-22). Anyway he tempted fate further by arranging to marry Eleanor, daughter of rebel baron Simon de Montfort, an act destined to strain Edward's patience to the limit.

Enough was enough, and in 1276-77 Edward had decided to settle accounts with the recalcitrant Welsh prince. Edward himself took the field at Chester in July 1277, and by August he had some 15,600 troops in his pay. Against these odds, Llywelyn had no choice but to sue for peace. The ensuing Treaty of Aberconwy represented a comprehensive humiliation for the prince of Wales. Stripped of his overlordship he had won ten years earlier, Gwynedd was again reduced to its traditional heartland to the west of the River Conwy.

On 21 March 1282, Llywelyn's brother, Dafydd, attacked Hawarden Castle and sparked off the war of 1282-83. Llywelyn was faced with an almost impossible dilemma. Torn between his fealty to the king and his loyalty to his brother Dafydd and his people, Llywelyn was to side with his brother and led the Welsh resistance to the inevitable invasion by Edward I. By the end of the year Llywelyn was dead, having been killed on 11 December in a brief engagement with English forces at Irfon Bridge near Builth Wells. So they made him a memorial stone, and his name stands in history - an ambitious man no doubt, but missed a salient point of leadership - never underestimate your enemies.

Anyway it was in response to this passage of history that King Edward I built his ring of castles to surround north wales. Edward was not really interested in Battle with Llywelyn, so just built massive castles in what was supposed to be Llywelyn's territory to stake his dominance. The Welsh had a couple of goes at destroying these, mid production and on completion but they were exceedingly well built and designed and the poor wee welshmen offered little resistance really. So sayeth history.

So the English have a great and bloody history of getting into other people's lands and taking over somewhat. I guess when you learn about how the brits have treated their nearest neighbors it paints the Treaty of Waitangi in a new light. As well as ensuing land claims and settlements. And I guess as Solomon put it - there is nothing new under the sun. The current struggles in Israel/Lebanon would seem to back ole' Solomon up on that.

Anyway, I digress. The left is about a 3om movable section of bridge that is manned and swings out of the way to let ships into the harbour and allows great access on foot to the rest of the coastland when closed. Really cool to watch from above and from on the bridge too. Slides closed within millimetres. Engineering at its finest. Really impressive. Had some great lunch in the sun, beside the beach before exiting Caernarfon for the island of Anglesey.

After a truly impressive play in the castle grounds we've decided that we will have to build one when we get back to NZ. All we need now is about 40 million dollars, give or take a few million, and a nice seaside property. But the idea of having a massive grassed area behind the walls of your property is a good one, particularly when the walls are about 100 foot high and block ALL the wind, I think the concept could really take off in Wellington at least.

So after a great experience with that attraction we decided to take in one of the other top ten attractions in North Wales. The Anglesey Sea Zoo. To be fair, kids would probably love it, but it had nothing on Ocean Park Hong Kong. Had an exceedingly large crayfish and some lobsters but otherwise pretty boring. From there we headed off for a drive around the island of Anglesey. Passing through this town with this ridiculous name - my comment was simply that there would never be any need to speak the name of the place because it's quicker and easier just to say 'i went to the place with the long name' than say the name of the place. Crazy stuff. Holyhead (where you can catch a ferry to Dublin for a mere 46 pound per person - ouch!) was unimpressive in the rain which was by now falling steadily, and so we just enjoyed a quick drive around the island which took all of about an hour and a half.

Mez found us a great campsite, just as the rain subsided, beside a wee river with FANTASTIC hot showers for only 30p - easily the best 30p we spent all weekend!!! (The photo doesn't really do it justice!) Thankfully the stove worked a treat as the rain started to fall again, and so we ate and slept the night with the sounds of rushing water and the occasional gentle patter on our roof.

Of Men, Women and Mountains...

So another bank holiday descended upon us. All too quickly as the bank had not yet been replenished from the last few weeks. But hey, we're not the kind of people that worry (too much) about mere numbers on bank statements. And well since we're the praying types, we prayed and really felt like God spoke from on high and said "for such a time as this, i have created thine credit cards!" OK, so the last couple of bits were made up, but you get the idea. No money, three day weekend. What to do.

Fortunately our other adventures had earned us a free rental for a weekend, so, after a splendid night out on friday with Sally (my workmate) and her partner Steve (a kiwi physio), the alarm bells were ringing to tell us it was time to move. Fortunately for me, i'm a heavy sleeper, so i merely integrated the bells into my dream, it was a great dream too - mez was baking something fantastic, I was typing away at something on the computer and the oven started alarming. I asked her to turn it off, it kept alarming, I asked again, she ignored me (all such happenings are quite normal you must realise!), then my brain started to suggest to me that perhaps that wasn't reality, that in fact mez was also still asleep (as opposed to baking) and would need me to turn off the alarm. The alarm turned off by itself. I groaned. Mez groaned. Saturday was upon us and it was 7.15am.

So it's traditional for Monastra's to be late when leaving on hoilday. We didn't do too badly really, getting away by 9.00am instead of the planned 8.30, but who's splitting hairs?
The drive was mainly on windy wee back roads and had us into Betsw-Y-Coed by about 1.30 given a traffic jam or two. Bit wet on the way mind you and to be fair both of us were stalling at the idea of climbing this mountain. Snowdon, our bite-sized parcel of the day stands at 1085m and is the tallest mountain in England and Wales, but smaller than Ben Nevis (Scotland) which is the highest in the UK. Betsw-Y-Coed is a cool wee town, a bit like Wanaka except without the skiers, all mountainbikers and climbers and trampers - bit of an outdoor pursuits mecca in wales - Frank Sinatra can have chicago, this is my kinda town!

So we stalled and had a look at some jackets and outdoor gears, bought some fuel for the stove, and a guidebook to find our way... Stopped at Swallow falls for a wee squizz, and watched as the clouds thinned and disappated...

Arriving at the base of Snowdon at 2.30pm my guess was we were leaving it a tad late, but i'm one for adventure and the sun peeking from behind the clouds was enough to coax us out and on our way from the Llanberis Pass. We made it half way in just under an hour and were smoking it pace-wise towards the top - full steam ahead and beaten only marginally by the steam train that also chuggs its way up the same valley. There was discussion on whether this was a lamentable or likeable fact about the journey - conclusion that it was both, and gave some impetus to keep moving quickly, to try and beat the next one... Got some interested looks (kinda spoke of "are you crazy?") from those descending in their full wet weather pants and jackets, while we were powering up, me in a singlet and shorts and Mez a T-shirt and shorts. Clearly they haven't heard about icebreaker! About 700-800m ish we headed into the clouds and got this quite cool shot along an exceedingly cold, windy ridgeline looking back down the way we had come (see lake in far distance). By this stage I had added a T-shirt, and shortly after a windproof vest and then the Gore-tex as well!

To be fair the top was not that impressive. White on white and bloody freezing as you may be able to tell from the photo - great to stop in the cafe for some lollies and nuts and a hot chocoloate, before a brisk jog and walk back down the mountain.

Some cool views of cliffs and tarns (mountain lakes) and a few wild and woolly sheep... ooo that reminds me, when we were in south wales we noticed that all the sheep have tails, well in north wales a lot of the sheep are docked (tail-less - like their NZ cousins), we thought maybe this was a southern sheep vs northern sheep thing (similar to the mullets sported by many a southlander (no offense to any southlanders out there)) but alas we were mistaken, some sheep manage to escape docking in north wales too... Got a photo of a cool fluffy white sheep but he looked better in person than on camera so i won't bore you with that. I can report that the sheep in wales are polite and Baa back to you... sometimes... when you baa at them. You've got to try these things.

Anyway. Snowdon conquered. One Mez with one sore SIJ and the other sore Hip and tummy upset from all the diclofenac. Two tired Monastras we ventured to find a campsite and some exceedingly cold, 'hot' showers. What can you expect for 50p i guess? Dinner was to be a highlight as I has pre-chopped excessive quantities of fresh veges for a stir-fry, But alas a near disaster finds its way to this page instead.

We have a beautiful mountain safety designs stove, an engagement present from the VC's which has served us well, however I had a dream, call it a premonition about a disaster with the stove blowing up. So what happened... I lit it as usual, and somehow the flames tracked instantly back to the fuel bottle, so, somewhat in a panic and thinking i was about to be horribly burned and scarred for life at best, I reached into the flames and turned off the gas. It kept burning. Fearing explosion and fireball as well as shards of exceedingly hot aluminium from the pressurised gas bottle, I put our big wok over it and my foot on it. What seemed like a minute or so passed, nothing happened, so I thought I had starved it of Oxygen. I was wrong, still burning, not yet exploded. What to do. Mez to the rescue with water to put it out, and disaster averted. Thank God for wives eh?

So I went begging and found some campers who had been watching who lent us theirs to cook on. A good meal was had by all. Disaster averted. Great day, and we settled peacefully into bed.

9 weeks and 5 days

That's how long till we're winging our way back to NZ. I wasn't going to admit that I'm counting but to be honest I kinda am. It started with innocently crossing days off on the calander. Then I began to wonder the other day why is it that I get so much joy from this little thing I do. All it means is another day in our lives has past. Another sunrise. Another sunset. We're another day older. But to be fair I think a lot of the joy comes in knowing that we're that little bit closer to Oct 28th when we're going back to NZ for a couple of weeks.

I think we're both definitely over the major homesickness that struck us a couple of months ago. We've now been here over 5mths (sometimes that feels like forever) and I think it's finally sunk into that deep place in our minds and hearts that this IS home for now. The recent suspected terrorist scare did however remind us how far away we are from the security of liitle old Aotearoa tucked away down there at the ends of the earth.

This weeknd I did some more planning for our stopover in Fiji on the way home. It means breaking up the 14 and a half hour flight between LA and Auck just a little and it gives me a chance to show Ryan where I played as a child and sunbathed as a teenager. CAN'T WAIT! I haven't been back there in almost 10 years so it will be interesting to see. We've only got 5 days there but we're going to take in as much as we can whilst still finding time to relax. Which won't be too hard when spending a day on South Sea Island.









If I can score a healthy tan while we're there I'll be extra happy too. Because despite the great summer we've had I think we're now looking forward to some cooler days but that means that by Oct I'm likely to be pastey white. Ryan on the other hand will probably be as gorgeous as ever as his olive skin retains its summer glow.

Most of all I/ we are so looking forward to seeing family and friends. Although we are having loads of fun on our own, we miss you guys! We don't have anything planned as yet for when we're home other than attending my brother and my sister's weddings. So make sure you're around!

Well enough ramblings from me.

Much love y'all

Mez

The British Wedding of the Year

What an exceedingly clever title eh?

Guaranteed to please the discerning Mr and Mrs Lynch, without offending the perpetrators of the familial weddings in November. Gosh sometimes my own political correctness astounds me.

Anyway thats not what this is about.

This weekend just been was all about the celebration of Love between Daryl and Lorna. Hosted in the town of Ilkley, Yorkshire. Toasted by people from across the globe and no doubt a good few in heaven as well. A great weekend was had by all i think too!!!

Our weekend began with Paul arriving on thursday night (he was catching a ride north with us). Friday morning was hairdressers for Mez for colouring and straightening, a brief kitten or two were hatched when the rental car company stated they had lost our booking, and then we were on the road only half an hour behind schedule... which had us into Ilkley at around 2.30pm.

Quick check of the attire... Very styley cream shirt, exceedingly styley kiwifruit cufflinks, smart casual tan linen pants, brown shoes, and a matching brown belt - looked a lot like the picture really. Why the detail? Because Daryl is a detail man, hence my... exposition of our weekend must include detail to reflect that. And, well, lets be honest, I like details too.

Highlight of the afternoon would have to be a great game of hacky sack 'pig' with Paul. Needless to say i got my butt kicked, but it was good fun.

Downer of the day was getting a prickle in the end of my finger. Cos it hurt. And it took me two days to get it out!

Friday night was to be poker with the Lads... Amanda and Dan joined us in the early evening, however we also learned that Daryls Neice's and Nephew had been diagnosed with bronchitis post long haul flights and yound kevin had been coughing for a couple of days so there was a minor panic to get the wee man to a doctor late on friday, which he did, which was good for everyone's nerves i think. The young fella has some scarring on his lungs from early life problems and surgery so a chest infection would be very serious indeed. Anyway a healthy baby means happy parents and the last pre-wedding potential disaster averted. (there were a number of pre-wedding disasters including Daryl's dad, Danny getting off the plane and into hospital for a short stay up till the night before the wedding - stressful for the family and without wanting to make light of a serious situation, i thought an exceedingly good way to get over Jet lag!!!) So we (Amanda, Dan, Paul, Mez and I) sat around, ate pizza, drank coke, chatted, did some dishes, did the evening prayer of the church (as you do), then had an early night. Mez and I were at the B & B across the road with the Lynch mob which was nice for the bed, not so for all the coughing.

Saturday morning was a brief sleep in, then a duck into town for breakfast with Daryl as he wrote his speech on a bit of receipt!!! Betty's tearoom is home to the worlds most expensive case of tea, bought for around 18,000 pounds!!! Dan tried the tea. Apparrently it wasn't too bad! Ambience was fantastic, including a dude in a pennguin suit playing classical piano (over breakfast!!!) this is an aspect of British culture i'd be happy to take home!!! Got to go buy a dummy for young Kevin, prompting some interesting commentary from the checkout chick in Boots! (cos being three men and a baby we forgot the dummy). We were joined by Amanda, Dan and Mez though so Mez soon had the wee man quiet... that woman will make an exceedingly good mother some day!!! Then it was home, change and off to get Daryl wedded!

A beautiful, simple ceremony, traditional vows, great readings from Ecclesiastes, Collosians and one of the gospels! (can't remember which one!) Don't think there was a lot of room for individual stamps on the ceremony itself, or Lorna would have walked in to U2's 'All I want is you', but Pachabel's canon was nice. And everyone looked strapping.

Beautiful photo's and then onwards to the reception, an informal BBQ which was preceded by speeches of which there was only three, Kevin (Lorna's dad - Very funny), Daryl (sweet, with very loving and beautiful words for his wife), and Me (which i can't really comment on except to say it was short, sweet and intended at being edifying). Then dancing, drinking, eating (the best BBQ I have ever eaten no less), a cake flown all the way from NZ. A wonderful day of celebration.

And then sunday was just a bit lazy - we hung about in Ilkley for the morning, caught Daryl and Lorna to say goodbye, went to church, then headed for the peak district (near Notts) with Amanda and Dan. Stopped in a wee town called Bakewell which had a music festival ongoing - got to listen to some heavy metal. Yeah to be fair, Bakewell was a bit of a disappointment. BUt we stopped at a great country pub for dinner, called 'the Excavator!'

Then Amanda and Dan stayed with us Sunday night and left after a big breakfast on Monday morning. Great weekend. Another one to add to the list.

Words to describe the weekend:
Love
Friends
Fun
Family
Prayerful
Laughter
Thriving (Daryl and Lorna)
Second (the gear we used most in the traffic in the peaks!!)

Hope yours was stunning also.

Living with a Nurse...

So Guess what Mez's greatest idea was today...

You know that song "Love Potion Number 9?"

I just had a funny thought...

How about "Bowel Motion Number 9"

Yeah sure Mez, real funny... I'm eating my dinner here.

Nuff said.

Living with a nurse eh?

Who would?

Pembroke Castle, Wales

This is a minute or so of footage of Pembroke castle, Pembrokeshire in Wales... for other photo's see the wales extravaganza!!!