Caernarfon Castle

Another day in Wales meant another outing. And since Wales is most known for castles, we were headed to our second one, risking that the girls would hate it. But they seemed interested in Conwy Castle so we gave it a try. We pumped the girls full of Dramamine and headed to Caernarfon Castle.

To get there, we traveled through a stunning valley, stark Welsh mountains, and tiny winding roads. As a defense mechanism against projectile vomiting, the girls quickly fell asleep and missed most of the beautiful scenery. At one point, I stopped the car to get a better look, stretch my legs, and enjoy watching my wife chase sheep. She was actually trying to pet one. Sheep don’t like being massaged, like our cat, so they ran away. They seemed to lure Sheri away from the car. I waited to see if they would then all rush at her in a well-planned butting session, but the girl’s shouts of embarrassment brought Sheri back to us.

Caernarfon Castle was built by King Edward I after he conquered them in 1283. He built the castle to assert his might and because he had nothing better to do with his money. It’s built in a place where a Roman fort once stood on the banks of the River Seiont where it meets the Menai Strait. It’s a very impressive and imposing site. The parking lot we paid dearly to park in was only 30 years old and was build by Gordon the Only. He built it to dominate the tourist trade.

Each castle has its own unique traits and I won’t bore you with this one. However, what makes this castle modernly unique is that it’s the place where Prince Charles was invested as Prince of Wales. If you look at my photos of the castle, you’ll see the very spot this happened. To pacify the Welsh, King Edward, as the legend goes, told the Welsh he promised them "a prince born in Wales, who did not speak a word of English" and then delivered his infant son, Edward II (who actually spoke no language).

Just like at Conwy Castle, we found a tour guide to bring the castle to life. It was well worth the cost. Caernarfon has many more secret passages and well preserved towers than Conwy. But the inside buildings are not as well preserved, in fact, all that’s left are the foundations.

Unfortunately, nothing funny happened at Caernarfon. Sheri and the girls enjoyed the gift shop. Because it took us so long to get there, the town was mostly closed down, sparing me hours of waiting while the girls shopped and argued about shopping.

One the way back to our guest house, we found the freeway bridge out of town blocked by farmers protesting on tractors. We turned to TomTom to find a new way home. Although it was a longer route, I am certain we made it to our destination much faster than everyone else in Northern Wales. Because hunger was beaconing, we stopped at a nice Welsh restaurant. It was clean, nicely decorated, and filled with nice but very silent people. We felt silly talking to each other, especially with our American accents. So we just politely stared at each other, silently. The food sucked because it was typical British so we bought a box of fudge to help us forget what we ate. After posing with a mannequin in the parking lot, we jumped in the car and opened the box of fudge.

Here’s another one of these English-American differences. Our fudge is chocolatey, creamy, dense, and heavenly. Their fudge has no chocolate and tastes like our caramels, only more grainy. It was good but we were disappointed.

On the way back, the girls became car sick, again. Our outings began to wear them down, and us too. Again, my apologies for nothing funny or tragic happening.