Well Sarah and I have had a lovely couple of weekends. First we went to Wales for a nice (and very sunny) weekend away together. We set off early on Saturday morning and headed across to a village named Portmeirion – setting of ‘The Prisoner’ TV Show. It was a very beautiful village, and very relaxing too. We were aware that it was an anniversary of the construction of the village (which was not built for the TV show but prior to it) however to celebrate this there was (unknown to us) a ‘Prisoner’ convention going on at the weekend too, with lots of scenes from the TV show being acted out around the village and lots of people in costume walking around (black blazers with a white edging). I didn’t understand many of the references having not seen the prisoner myself, but the atmosphere was electric with the enjoyment and excitement to all the convention goers. Which made it all the more enjoyable to be there. Thanks to this convention and the anniversary, accommodation in Portmeirion itself was far too expensive, however we stayed at a very nearby village named Porthmadog which was extremely close by and very pretty. We had lunch on the Black Rock Sands beach from a local award winning fish and chip shop, and we played around on the sand in the car, which was very enjoyable.
We had an early night that evening in the B&B as a combination of the early start, lots of walking and activities, and all of the sun had really tired us out.
The next morning (another moderately early start) we left Porthmadog and headed north east to Beddgelert. This village is the setting of a (supposedly true) legend of a regional King and his hunting dog Gelert. I had heard the story before however the name meant nothing to me. The story says that the king set out hunting one day from his lodge, however Gelert, his favourite hunting hound, was not with them for an unknown reason. Upon returning from the hunt Gelert came bounding out to meet the king covered in blood. Fearing the worst the king rushed into the lodge to check on his infant child. The infant child’s room was covered in blood and the cot was knocked over and the king could not find the baby. In shock and anger the king drew his sword and stabbed Gelert in the side. The dying cry/yelp let out by the dog caused the infant to start crying, and the king rushed over to discover his infant child safe in the room beside the body of a large wolf, which Gelert had fought and killed to protect the child. Realising what had happened and what the king had done, Gelert was given a special burial and his story became legend. It is also claimed the King never smiled again.
We went to visit this grave site, which is in the middle of a large field beside a stream, under the shade of two trees with a plaque depicting the story. There is a structure very close by with a dogs statue in it, however I am not certain what this structure is as of yet, as it would appear to be too small to be the kings hunting lodge. Perhaps just the room in which the incident apparently occurred??
From Beddgelert we travelled north to Llandudno. We arrived around 10:30am (late morning) and wandered down the promenade towards the grand pier. We took the tram up the hillside to the summit, and then took the cable cars back down to get a better view across the area. It was still a lovely sunny day, although a little cold with the wind up on the summit. After that we decided to leisurely start the journey home. The original (mostly motorway) route we had planned was extremely busy with huge queues right from the start of the journey, so we decided to head through snowdonia national park again for the return journey and return to Birmingham on a similar route we took to get to Portmeirion on the Saturday morning, as this was mostly country roads.
It was also quite nice to end the weekend on a relaxing countryside drive home rather than solid motorway journeys, so I’m quite glad we did detour for the journey home. It really kept the feel of the weekend.
This weekend we went to Yorkshire to visit my parents, and went to Fountains Abbey on the Saturday to look around and have a nice countryside walk around the ruins. The abbey is in surprisingly (to me) good condition and is still standing tall. The walk around the gardens and the woods around the Abbey was very enjoyable too, offering a nice sunny stroll and a lovely overlook of the Abbey itself.
We finished Saturday with a quiet drink at a local pub – which unfortunately left me with a slight hangover the next morning (I blame the alcohol combined with the sun all day for dehydration – as we didn’t drink that much).
The next morning Sarah and I joined dad for some clay pigeon shooting at his local club. We both did terribly, but we had a lot of fun. I used to be quite competent (but never competition standard) at it, but it would seem the adage of practice has some truth to it 
But as I say, we both had a wonderful morning. It was also nice to get some fresh air when the hangovers.
After the shooting we returned home and I cooked my parents a light chicken and Parma ham meal for dinner which I picked up a while ago from my Jamie Oliver podcasts. After which we sat in the sun for a little while before assembling a new gas BBQ which parents had bought on the possibility of having a BBQ in the glorious sun at dinner time. Unfortunately the regulator which comes with the BBQ did not fit dad’s gas canister, so we went out to a few camping shops (just dad and I) and managed to find a matching regulator for the canister. We then got some meat and returned home, by which time Marcus, Wendy and Isaac had arrived to visit. We had also really hoped to see Claire and George (Damon was out of the country), however once parents had returned from their usual Sunday morning activities (dad shooting, which Sar and I joined him for – and mum at the gym) and we had eaten dinner, it was already around 1pm. Unfortunately I didn’t think to get in touch with Claire a lot earlier in the week as she already had plans to see her parents for tea that day at around 4pm, and with Marcus also coming over to visit at 3 it didn’t work out possible for us to get over and visit. Dad was originally thinking of driving over and bringing Claire and George around to join us all for the BBQ and then driving them home afterwards, but we didn’t want to impinge on her current plans with her parents. Mum and Dad are planning on popping over to see everyone next week however and hopefully Sarah and I will catch up with them when we are next up (the weekend after mother’s birthday).
It was lovely to see Isaac, Wendy and Marcus again that evening. Isaac has also grown quite a lot since we were last up to see him. He is now saying a few words and very competently walking around (and occasionally falling over things). It is one of the shames of living so far away from everyone. I don’t get to see either of my nephews as often as I would like to. However I wouldn’t want to trade my Birmingham life either. Especially as Sarah’s family is here too and I wouldn’t want to pull Sarah away from her family. Its only 2 hours north so its not far, its more just having the weekends free to visit. We’re not close enough to just make quick pop-in trips. Plus the advantages of Birmingham life with regards to services (shopping, Internet, etc) whilst also having quite a lot of countryside around us.
All in all a great couple of weekends away. I managed to get sun burnt a little bit on the last day in Yorkshire, which I am still feeling on my left arm at the moment, and despite creaming up as soon as I got back from clay pigeon shooting. However the morning sun had already done its work by that point.
