Monday 14th May – Caernarfon

Good weather this morning so it was time to investigate Caernarfon whilst it held. We wandered down, through the main square to the castle that dominates the town. We called in to the Tourist Information Office opposite the castle and obtained a leaflet that gave us a heritage walk around the town. It was soon lunch time and we decided to have a meal at the Anglesey Arms just beyond the castle between the high town walls and the sea. The pub is owned by Marstons and disappointingly did not have any Welsh cask ales but the Marstons Bitter was good. Jane had a roasted vegetable lasagne with salad and chips but I was tempted by an exotic entry on the menu, something that I had never had before – I think that my Mum will be horrified – a cheesy chip sandwich! This was served as a generous bowl of chips covered with cheese with two buttered slices of white bread on the side. It was almost as if they couldn't bring themselves to put the chips in the sandwich. I stuffed as many of the chips as I could between the slices but this still left lots of cheesy chips as a second course. I had intended to have apple pie and ice cream as a pudding but I was absolutely stuffed by the time that I had finished the chips. Decidedly unhealthy but really good for a change.

After lunch we visited the castle. We have visited castles throughout Europe and many of these have had much more in the way of internal buildings, furnished rooms and dungeons, usually full of torture equipment. Caernarfon had none of these but was so impressive in other ways. Although the interior is just grass, it is possible to access almost every part of the walls and towers. Seemingly endless spiral staircases took us up many levels until we spilled out, breathless, on to the top of a tower with commanding views over Caernarfon, the Menai Strait and beyond to Anglesey, the Llyen Peninsula and the Mountains of Snowdonia. The best views of all were from the Eagle Tower, the tallest of them all at 128 feet on the side next to the sea. At every level of the staircases there were rooms or access to walkways along or through the walls. Quite often covered passages, sometimes helpfully lit, took you to a dead end. Were they there to confuse the enemy or was there some other purpose? There were exhibitions and a film show that told us about the history of the castle and the town. We spent a very interesting few hours in the castle leaving just after half past four and arriving back at the campsite just as it started raining.

Photos: Caernarfon Castle from across the harbour; The interior of the castle; A view from the castle looking over the Menai Strait to Anglesey – the white building is the Anglesey Arms.