Holiday in a time of Pandemic

Decided this year's holiday would be a short break to Wales. Pandemic means that actually being allowed to go away and be allowed back is not that likely. Plus I'm not that keen on spending time in a plane right now.

North Wales looked nice. Various interesting places to visit and some seaside towns. Plus it's a pretty short drive from home. Although really what I wanted was the chance to spend lots of time lurking in a pool and hot tub. So I booked a Hotel and Spa.

After a couple of weeks of really hot weather, we have gloom and rain. So not an auspicious start.

Get to the hotel. Can't check in. Also Flickums is feeling decidedly grumpy. Was hoping to leave her in room to mellow. She seemed happy to let me explore while she waited in car though. Mood seemed to improve with some alone time.

Set off to find some lunch. The Toad looked promising. The Toad was closed. Really not off to a good start. Still, found Rhos-on-sea, which is a nice seaside town with nice seaside cafe and had some tea, then sent towards the sea to pounce along the beaches.

Flickums wanted to buy me a unicorn ice cream but I was full.

Went back via Conwy. It's a walled city! I really like city walls for some reason. Had a meander around town, and returned to hotel. Seems none of the spa facilities are open. Sigh.

Also not much of a view.

On the plus side, they did provide the picture of Marina Sirtis I requested for a Marina View.

Pandemic holiday - day 2.

Off to sea the trains today! If we're going to Wales, I really need to see a narrow gauge railway. The one I liked the look of was sold out but the Bala Lake railway was available. It's not actually a preserved narrow guage railway - built along the route of a standard gauge railway - but the locomotives are genuine, and used to work on the slate mines. Also has a nice little heritage centre.

Messed up a bit and ended up at the wrong end of the line. Ooops. But it was only a 15 minute drive to the other end of the line, and we had a chance to sit in a cafe by the lake and drink tea while we worked out where I went wrong. On the plus side the weather has now improved.

Train took us along the route. Nice view of the lake and lots of people like to wave at the train so we waved back.

Went to Llandudno via hotel.Turns out that the room hadn't been made over because they're not doing that either, apparently because of Covid. Not sure that makes sense.

Still, Llandudno is quite nice. Has a pier and a beach, so we walked along the pier, then I went for a swim.The water was bloody cold, but that's just a question of getting used to it. Bravely went all the way in, and did a bit of a doggy paddle so I can claim to have been swimming.

Hoping to do a Puffin cruise tomorrow. Options were limited so we booked a rather too late slot (social distancing regulations again). Have received an email suggesting that that may be cancelled due to weather. Not promising.