observation full and felt.: conwy, beaumaris, portmeirion, delamere.

{school bus, in conwy; bws, is the welsh way to say/spell bus}

because my post last week was quite long, and due to the fact that i got to visit many places this past week, i've decided to do a mostly photo post.

on one of my days off, i decided to explore the nearby town of conwy. conwy, is home to the conwy castle, king edwards second largest castle. i've been able to visit the first three in order of descending size. thankfully, the weather couldn't of been nicer. while in conwy i visited the bustling harbor, travled along several footpaths, and walked all along conwy's outer walls. like caernarvon, conwy was built with bordering walls both for protection and seclusion.

{just off conwy harbor}

{boats on conwy harbor}

{conwy town walls}

{wee lads practicing british football}

{sign tied to a docked boat on the harbor}

{conwy rail station}

when i asked the train conductor if he would stop in conwy, he replied "wish i could but, that'll make me late for tea". funny british.

{beaumaris pier}

last friday, my friend melanie and i ventured to beaumaris. beaumaris is a town located on the isle of anglesey, just across the menai straits from bangor. beaumaris is home to the third largest castle built (and never finished) by king edward. in addition to seeing the castle and walking around the city we took a footpath which led us through a cliffside cow pasture which hovered over the menai straits, and a beautiful rocky coastline.

{looking out on the menai straits}

{walking through the cow pasture, looking out to the menai straits, welsh mainland, and snowdonia national park}

{rocky coastline}

"i gotta go julia, we got cows" -twister
{that was mostly for ariele}

{taken while waiting for our bus back to bangor}

{entrance to portmeirion}

on saturday, i went with the bangor photography society (photosoc) on a field trip to the village of portmeirion. portmeirion is a small fake italian village built and designed by a welshman(sir clough williams-ellis)who had never actually been to italy. and according to my italian friend, he didn't get much right, however he did manage to create quite a quaint atmosphere. it is both very strange, and very intriguing. in addition to snappping shots of the tiny town, we wandered around the surrounding nature. we found a footpath that led us through the woods, to a super windy overlook of the irish sea, as well as down to the sandy beach coastline. i'm quite certain that i will never see anything like portmeirion again. apparently not even in italy.

{yes, this looked like a doll house in person as well}

{on the beach along the irish sea}

{wind surfing}

{taken along our walk to the apple orchard}

on sunday, we furthered melanie's autumn family tradition of apple picking. after doing some research she was able to find one orchard situated on the border of wales and england. it took us three hours on a train, and then another 40 minute walk, but we eventually made it. the small town ended up being a hub for various outdoor pursuits. we passed many hikers, bikers and fellow apple pickers. the stroll down the road to the orchard was very pleasant complete with befriending a lone horse, hills of cows and the bright sun sneakily shinning through the surrounding trees. not to mention it ended with a bag full of delicious hand picked apples. (and some pears) this was my first experience picking apples, and it will be quite hard to top.