We have become parkrun junkies since we started running together a few months ago. With the drive to Wales on Saturday we didn't want to miss out on our weekly fix of free 5KM run. I planned ahead and on our journey to Wales we stopped off to take park in the Conwy parkrun. Conwy was excellent, the run started at the lovely bird sanctuary then out along the river up to the castle before continuing along the river before looping back. It is a flat and fast track which I managed to get within two seconds of my personal best and so did Kath. After the run we enjoyed a coffee while admiring the view of the Wildlife park. It was very picturesque. So as not to be sweat we went for a shower at the nearby Conwy leisure centre before continuing on to Bangor for lunch.
Kath and I lunched at bar called The Feral Cat, I had a huge Feral Cat burger and it was fantastic and well deserved after all the excercise we have done. As the check in at the hotel was in the late afternoon we decided not to waste the day and go to visit Penryhn castle. It is an incredible place, a huge castle to wonder around complete with a small railway museum on to the side. It was like something out of Downton Abbey and to be honest impressed Kath and I more than our recent visit to Holyrood Palace. It was certainly a lot quieter and easy to enjoy looking around, but its so well kept and full of interesting bits to see. Also (as it really paid off) we became members of National Trust, looking forward to local Cheshire (and not only) adventures, especially Lyme Hall for free!
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| Cookies on top of Snowdon |
After wandering round the castle and gardens we set off to Llanberis. We checked into the Y Gwennedd Inn. It is a small independent inn right in the centre of the village. The staff were really friendly but there were a few niggles with dodgy repair work, our shower head was held up with gaffer tape!
On Sunday Kath and I enjoyed the generous full English breakfast before heading out to make the long walk up Snowdon's Llanberis path. The path is 8 km from the Inn to the summit. At the top of Snowdon we reached 1044 meters above sea level. Unfortunately the weather wasn't the best. The visibility at the top was less than 100 meters. On the way down the rain hit us hard lashing down and turning the pathway into a river! What was really incredible was the number of people walking up a mountain completely unprepared for the moody forecast. The weather report was warning of high chance of rain and wind, yet they chose to walk in trainers and not bring waterproofs but umbrellas instead, incredibly stupid!
The day after we both felt pretty exhausted, but it was our anniversary! Two years and we are as happy as ever. We headed off home, stopping once more at Conwy for a walk around the walls and the town. It has been years since I spent any time in the town. We had a great time wandering around. We made one more stop on the way home at Cheshire Oaks. I treated Kath to a new pair of running trainers for our cotton anniversary, as she really wore off the old pair.
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| Panoramic of Conwy Harbour |
To finish our anniversary we headed out to the Odeon Screen Unseen in Trafford Centre. The film they played was Me Earl and the dying girl. Screen Unseen is a cheap ticket price but you have no idea what the film will be. We were lucky as it was an excellent film we both enjoyed and a great way to round off our day.
Today was Cycle to Work Day 2015 so I cycled into the office, it is about 9 miles each way. After getting home to stay on track with my training plan I went out for a run, it was only 8.5KM but I really struggled and had to stop and buy a Lucozade to get the energy to finish. Fortunately apart from a drop on the 5KM I managed to make it at a reasonable pace.
