Week 6: North Wales

Chester Cathedral

The Funky Cow

The weekend of February 16th-18th, I took a trip to North Wales. This trip was full of beautiful scenery and cute little storefronts. We started off the trip by visiting the city of Chester in the southern part of England. Chester was like many of the British towns that we've visited on our trip to Harlaxton, historic and charming. While we were in Chester we visited the Cathedral, the clock tower, and we walked along the wall that ran all the way through the city. We also found the cutest little milkshake shop called The Funky Cow where we HAD to stop and get milkshakes. I got a milkshake with brownies and peanut butter, and it was absolutely delicious. After visiting Chester and seeing all that the city had to offer, we got back on the bus and drove the rest of the way to a city called Llandudno, where our hotel was located. Llandudno was such a surprisingly scenic city and it was located right on the coast. We went to the boardwalk right by our hotel and walked up and down looking at all the mountains surrounding us. We also decided to get donuts at a shop on the boardwalk and as we were walking back toward our hotel, birds descended and tried to attack Molly and get her food. It was scary at the time but looking back on it, it's truly hilarious. She threw the rest of the donut in the air and screamed "YOU CAN HAVE IT" and we ran away. The next day we were scheduled to take a tour of a castle in Caernarfon. While we toured the castle we learned all about the history of Wales and Great Britain, and the reason why the castle

Before going into the Slate Mines

Swallow Falls

was built. After the castle, we visited the slate mines in Llechwedd. We learned a lot about the history of the slate mines and the terrible conditions that the slate miners often worked in. We also learned that many young boys began to work in the mines to make money for their families. We got to watch a demo of how the slate would be shaped for roofing and I even got a free piece of slate! For our final day in North Wales, we ventured to a small town called "Betws-y-Coedd" where we walked through the town centre and saw all of the small shops and restaurants that were within this little community. We decided to get fish and
chips for lunch from a little restaurant in the town before heading back to the bus so that we could go to Swallow Falls. Swallow Falls was a gorgeous waterfall in North Wales and it extended for what felt like forever. The scenery was unbeatable and it was a perfect way to end the trip.