North Wales (cont...)

[poliphilo]

 We checked out house prices while we were bimbling around. I thought they'd be sky high and they're not. We could exchange our terrace house in Oldham for something similar in Holywell and not be out of pocket. Holywell is lovely and rural and highly desireable from that point of view but it's not within reasonable commuting distance of any hub of business or industry so the movers and shakers don't want to live there.  The nearest big city is Liverpool and that's across water and in a different country.

Monday we set off along the coast for Conwy.  As we were driving over the Great Orme the sun came out- ever so briefly.



The hotel on top of the Great Orme (see below) once belonged to the middleweight boxing champion Randolph Turpin and the bar is now a boozy shrine to his memory. His glory is that he once beat Sugar Ray Robinson and Robinson was the best there's ever been. Professional boxing is a filthy business and Turpin- like most great champs- was fifty percent fucked-up little shit and fifty percent victim. He beat his wife, stood trial for rape (he got off), was shystered out of his considerable fortune and committed suicide at the age of 37. It took two bullets- one to the head and one to the heart. There are- of course- those who say he was murdered. 



Conwy is a medieval walled town. And the walls are complete. It's the Carcassone of the north. I'm in two minds about Conwy: one it's magnificent, two it's a symbol of Empire and oppression and the Welsh would be justified in bulldozing it to the ground. 



While we were there two army transports flew in low over the bay.

Comments

[goddlefrood.livejournal.com]

Conwy's great and has the UK's smallest habitable house, or so it claims.

[richenda.livejournal.com]

How about Anglesey?

The new road across Anglesey, plus the improved Cardiff - Bangor rail service, plus the air service Cardiff to Valley, have all encouraged much bilding of new houses and restoration of buildings that have been derelict for thirty years.

I'm told that the demand has slowed for the winter, so this might be a good time for you to lok at this

[richenda.livejournal.com]

>> I'm in two minds about Conwy: one it's magnificent, two it's a symbol of Empire and oppression and the Welsh would be justified in bulldozing it to the ground.

Esp as one of the motives for building it just there was to conceal the burial place of Llwellyn

[pondhopper.livejournal.com]

That first photo is amazing. The opening in the cloud cover, the light streaming through *just so*, the shiny path on the water. Opportunities like that are very scarce and you captured it perfectly.

What magnificent walls! I´m aware of the reasons for bulldozing but I still think it would be a historical crime of sorts to do so. There aren´t many sights like that left in the world.

[veronica-milvus.livejournal.com]

If you send that sunlight on the water shot to the Welsh tourist board they should buy it to use in their calendar!

Great piccies
V

[le-oef.livejournal.com]

ahhh i can almost feel smell taste the air.

[suemars.livejournal.com]

thats just incredibly beautiful. could you live near the water?

[mummm.livejournal.com]

You are SUCH a good photographer! I love all of these shots!

[jackiejj.livejournal.com]

To be able to move to such a place, with these views of water! I'd be shivering with impulsive plans.

It's fun to know you two are traveling these days. I still tell my family about Tony and Ailz going to Spain by train over the mountains to see Picasso's exhibit. It sounds so exotic (she gushed).

[fickleasever.livejournal.com]

Ah - 'Blake Lines' (what my husband calls the rays of light shining down from the clouds).

Very beatiful photos.
:)

[fickleasever.livejournal.com]

Typo. Photo. One at the top. Not sure about the... what is it, a microwave tower or something?