Songline On Sea

Bagel with cream cheese and smoked salmon makes and excellent breakfast and Merle serves everyone orange juice saying 'It is good at preventing Altzeimers'. She was a nurse. Pete drove me in his Jaguar to Conwy Bridge and Merle followed close behind probably at great speed in her Peugeot with Brolly. How could I? Crossing the river with the castle and the fortified town of Conwy before me bathed in glorious sunshine was as magnificent a sight as I have seen the whole trip. I visited and found it easy to get in the castle then very hard to find the way out. Aren't castles supposed to work the other way round? I could have done with more time but there was a long walk ahead to Bangor and it was going to be tough against a very strong headwind. I have made it harder for myself by trying to save on new maps and using an old one from 1981 which I managed to pick up. There have been lots of changes in 27 years. Going through Penmaenmawr and Llanfairfechan has required major fetes of engineering getting road and rail through the mountains which come right down to the sea. I went into a bird Hide and got caught up with an elderly twitcher who was very excited about what he thought was a juvenile something wagtail. He told me that the coast to Bangor was impossible to walk because of the salt marshes and nasty landowners so it was back to the busy A55 trunk road the other side of the railway line. This time I had to go back for Brolly who was still in the hide playing hide-and-seek. I shouldn't have been walking on the newly completed trunk road let alone cross it but it was all I could do to get to a quieter road which took me along the foot of the mountains - not my territory. I was tired even after Merle's sandwiches and orange juice (of course) so when I rounded a corner and smelt a barbecue and then met Brenda in her car just leaving and guess what, she was going my way enroute to her home on Anglesey. She dropped me at Penrhyn Castle so I still had to walk a bit to the Youth Hostel which is in a manor house on the edge of Bangor. Half an hour earlier and I would have seen Last Choir Standing - as it was when I sat down I realised how tired I was. The very strong wind all day had knocked me for six so I had a cooked meal available at this hostel and dumbly watched a family playing Cludo. I went to my dormitory to get my blog book and a young American had yanked off the hot water tap and lost his contact lense in the process. I tried to help but made it worse so ended up trying to stop the very hot water from gushing onto the floor whilst he went to get the warden. The warden came, went, and came again with tools to turn off the water which he did rather easily. I left the room with a red hand and the American muttering that he really like himself anymore. I can't wait to see him again.

The weather was as bad as the forecast. I arose at 9am and shared a bagel breakfast with all the household except Pete who had already been at his computer since 6am preparing medical lectures soon to be delivered in New Zealand. I was last equal with Jeremy in making a physical presence at breakfast. Wendy was ahead of us all the way and all the day when it came eventually to walking together. As we were attempting to leave the house we were halted by the car windscreen wipers which didn't work so Wendy kindly waited for the RAC and we went on to start the walk in the rain. Today was a glorious walk around 2 Ormes and Llandudno between. From Llandudno, Little Ormes Head looks like an elephant and Great Ormes Head like a crocodile. The elephant is the wilder of the two but only needs an hour to climb around. The crocodile is grander, longer and more touched by man having a toll road all round and a tourist bus. Wendy joined us in Llandudno when the rain stopped. We had great fun exploring the esplanade and its hotels ad then the town with its arcades and cafes. We had lunch at one where the waitresses were a strange mixture of being both rude and polite. We sat outside where the seagulls were not just rude but downright aggressive and thoroughly unpleasant. A lady sat at a keyboard and played half of many pieces of music equally badly from Mozart to the Beatles. It is still a fine town with a very fine pier, though it no longer has ferries to the Isle of Man and Liverpool. Going round Great Ormes I realised the last cliff I had climbed were way back up in Scotland. On the west side, Anglesey was clearly visible and from the top Ireland can be seen on a clear day. We had a drink in Conwy where a wedding reception was taking place which reminded me that at this time last week I was with Kaya in Melrose to witness a very happy occasion. What a great deal happens in a week on a trip like this. We had a splendid dinner where Merle cooked a splendid joint of Welsh lamb and we indulged in many interesting conversations, too many to mention in this blog but all hugely enjoyable and edifying.