Out of Cyprus in August

At the start of July, I wrote a longish post about preparing for summer in Cyprus. And that's the routine I followed, more-or-less, during July. I finished our 2024 photobook and had it sent to our elder son's home. I went out for a short walk early most mornings, around the block or to the local shop. And we ate different combinations of salad dishes as our main meal most days. 

We celebrated our 45th wedding anniversary in a fairly low-key way. It was too hot and humid to eat out anywhere, so we ordered food from our favourite Lebanese restaurant. It's theoretically a meze for two. It lasted us nearly three days.

On July 28th we finished all our leftovers, cleaned the fridge, packed our cases... and in the evening, our friend Sheila drove us to the airport for a break in the UK.

I really don't like night flights - this one left, in theory, at twenty to eleven, and in practice about twenty minutes late. I can never sleep on planes. I usually doze for a few minutes, then wake with aching back or neck, or needing to move my legs... it's exhausting and frustrating. But the flight was excellent value. 

Since we arrived in Gatwick around 1.30am UK time (which felt a couple of hours later) we had booked into the nearby Travelodge, as we have done before. I slept for about four or five hours, then we got up for breakfast. We were agreeably surprised to see that the restaurant area had been upgraded and modernised, and looked very smart: 

Revived by food and coffee, we went back to the airport, and the car rental place. We've tried several other car rental companies over the past few years, but decided, this year, to return to Avis. They're friendly, helpful and never seem to make extra charges (unlike other rental companies that may seem less expensive initially, but have ended up causing us problems, and often costing more). 

Despite not having used them for a few years, Avis upgraded us to an electric car which Richard liked driving very much but which wasn't really suited to narrow, winding roads...

Our first stop was my brother and sister-in-law who live about an hour and a half's drive from Gatwick. We were warmly welcomed and given an excellent lunch. It was good to catch up. After coffee, we set out on another ninety-minute drive, to Cardiff, where my sister and her husband live. They also welcomed us warmly, and we had a relaxing evening, reconnecting, and more delicious food. I was very tired, but never seem to feel brain-fogged or jet-lagged when flying out of Cyprus.

We stayed a couple of nights with them, then drove south to see Richard's mother, who moved into an excellent care home a few months ago. En route, we called in to see my one remaining aunt and uncle; it was very good to see them. I was their bridesmaid about sixty years ago...

Richard was able to go to a small family reunion on the Saturday, and we visited his mother's church, St Andrew's, on the Sunday. Then we drove to Birmingham and paid a brief visit to my stepmother. After a night in the Premier Inn nearby, we set off, nearly a week after we had flown, to the main focus of our trip: a week in North Wales, with all our descendants.

The reason we had chosen this area was that, forty-five years ago, we went on honeymoon to a little hotel just a few miles away.  This is a photo we took when we were there in 1980:

And here I am in 1980, looking out over the nearby lake at twilight:

In 2020 - before everything had to be cancelled - we had wondered whether we could go back there. Possibly with the family. But although it was listed online, there was no response to emails or phone calls. And, sadly, it is now falling down although the site is apparently being redeveloped:

So, as we couldn't stay there, we did some research and found a delightful (if somewhat remote) AirBnB a few kilometres away.

There was a very narrow road for about a kilometre off the main road before we reached it. There were brambles and nettles at the sides, and more than once we wished that our rental car was not quite so wide. 

Since one of our party has a lot of allergies, we had asked the owner to remove all cushions and throws, which they were happy to do. It was open-plan, spacious and comfortable downstairs:

This is the view of the living room area from the other direction:

There were four large bedrooms, which was perfect for three couples and two children. 

We had thought about having some organised outings while there. But the railway up Snowdon was very expensive, and fully booked anyway. 

Someone had recommended that we visit Caernarfon Castle, which wasn't far away, and we did consider that. But the children were more interested in running around and exploring wild areas, and Richard had a couple of days feeling unwell. 

So instead we went on lots of walks around the area.

On our first morning we set out on what was supposed to be an easy walk, not far away: 

After a while it became reminiscent of the book 'We're going on a bear hunt', which I'm surprised to find was written in 1989. I thought it was older and more traditional than that. More than one of us was muttering, 'Can't go over it, can't go under it. Oh no! We've got to go through it....' 

Fortunately, there were some ripe wild blackberries available for a quick fruity snack:

It wasn't all that long a hike, from the point of view of kilometres or steps. But there were a lot of steep hills, and some rather boggy patches as it had rained the previous few days. Still, we all managed it.

Another day we decided to drive to a nearby beach:

Nobody felt like swimming, or even getting their feet wet as it wasn't all that warm, and quite windy. But we had a good walk. At one end of the beach was a historic site, so we had to do a bit of hill climbing to get there: 

Another day, another walk... and we found a ruined tower which was much more interesting to explore (from the children's perspective, anyway) than a more organised tour or visit would have been.

I didn't go inside. I don't like heights, and I had slightly twisted my ankle a few minutes before we reached it. So I was happy to sit down on the grass for a few minutes. 

I was amused by the red sign on the side of the building, which reads:

'Visitors are warned to take every care to avoid accidents'.  

Good advice, but I think most people would do this anyway... and those that prefer to take dangerous risks are not going to be deterred by this notice. 

We took hundreds of photos, but I don't want to make this post too long so I'll just include a few more. We found a trail by a river that had a lot of small waterfalls, and this rather attractive one at the end:

We watched several steam trains that went around the area, but were not tempted to have rides. The smoke was not very pleasant.

Towards the end of our week, we tried another local walk that didn't need cars, and we found another sign that amused us: 

This was another walk with steep hills, and once again I decided I would sit down for a while and wait for the younger, more energetic members of the group to return:

And finally. .. an unexpected sight in a tree!

The weather was perfect, from my point of view: warm but not too hot, and with almost no rain. One of my sons did all the grocery shopping and cooking, so I didn't have to think about what to eat. When we weren't out or eating we played a large number of board games, we did puzzles online, and the children spent some time in the 'games' room next door to the house, which had darts and a pool table. 

It was a wonderful week, spending time together with the people we love the most.