Now that we have had some time to settle in (today marks day 48 living in England), we decided it was time to take our explorations a bit further than just around our home. We thought Wales would be a fitting first trip – not too far, but also far enough to feel like we were in a different place. It did not disappoint!

We started our hour and a half drive after work on Friday and arrived at our dog friendly cottage in time to make a late dinner and relax for the evening. We stayed in Llanrwst (pronounced Lan-roost), a Welsh market town just outside of Snowdonia National Park.

The next morning, we enjoyed cooking breakfast in our cute, homey little place -except for the piercing heat/fire alarm that went off every time we opened the oven… very poor placement in our opinion. Brindle was not a fan of the noise at all.

We packed up and headed to our hiking spot for the day – a 20min drive from where we were staying. We had to drive on a lot of narrow winding roads and backup down the bridge we tried to cross (a common occurrence we learned – as the bridge is only wide enough for one car, but traffic goes in both directions).

The area around our cottage had a nice river view and the sights only got better as we neared the park. We got lucky and had some sunshine, but as it was a beautiful winter day – it was busy and we had to park about a mile away from the trailhead on the side of the road. Brindle was ready to hit the trail. Our ~3 mile loop around the lake was beautiful. We got a bit of a workout climbing up and down the almost 900 feet of elevation change and were rewarded with a great view. We finished our ~5 miles of hiking back at the car with some BLTs (on our homemade bread). Brindle was tuckered out and ready for a nap.

We headed back to our cottage to relax with our books while Brindle slept before we headed to another nearby village for dinner, Betws-y-Coed (meaning Chapel in the Woods). We were quite hungry after our adventure and enjoyed some Welsh beer and food and each other’s company at a cool local pub.

We didn’t have much planned for Sunday and decided to stop at Angel Bay on our way back home. We got to see some great coastal sights, seals, and hike around the Rhiweldyn Nature Reserve before resuming our drive home. We ended our weekend with more reading at a local Tarporley coffee shop. It was a quick trip, but one for the books for sure.

Thanks for reading,

– Amber