Wales/Cymru: Beaumaris Castle and Llandudno

Next up on our castle-day itinerary was Beaumaris Castle, on the island of Anglesey, just off the coast. This one is famous as the unfinished masterpiece of a medieval castle. Edward I ran out of money (plus he had to head north to deal with some troublesome Scots) and it was never completed. However, what was erected is pretty dang impressive.

For one thing, as you see here and above, there's an actual moat!

And of course, arches...

...and a chapel:

The castle was designed to be concentric, giving the defenders, in case of an attack, two layers of protection:

So there was more than usual to explore...

(Check out the Wikipedia article linked above for an overhead view of the castle that shows off its beautiful design perfectly.)

Although the towers weren't finished off, and not as tall as originally planned, the views from the battlements were still impressive. Here's one, which included the carpark where we left our trusty van:

You can also see part of a playground in this shot, which of course we took full advantage of. But there were other activities for kids, too, like this room with percussive instruments that could be "played"...

...and lots of nooks and crannies to explore:

I was more of a fan of the ramparts you could walk along...

...and enjoy the views:

cows! not sheep, but cows!

We opted to stop at two castles, skipping the most famous one, Caernarfon: it was a bit more out of our way, plus we knew it would be crowded. And, well, you can get castled-out just as you can get museumed-out, no matter how wonderful these places are.

So we picked Llandudno to finish out our day, moving forward in British history about 500 years. This town was popular in Victorian times with well-to-do English wanting to enjoy the seaside (although, as the Wikipedia article I linked here indicates, there were Stone Age settlements on the site long before the railroads came).

This photo was taken from out on the pier, full of the kind of amusements you'd expect at a seaside resort, including an arcade that completely over-stimulated our almost-three-year-old.

But the Llandudno shore is really quite lovely, and has this handsome war memorial lending a little more dignity to the space:

We chose not to dip our toes in the Irish Sea, as it was a little chilly and the tide was partially out. But we found a nice Victorian pub for dinner...

...and left for home well-fed and ready to rest up for our next day's adventure: mountains!

coastline view from Llandudno