I call this my Why Did I Ever Leave Europe Video (Part 1). Mostly England, Scotland and France with bits of Italy, Germany and Holland. Includes the castle where they filmed Monty Python and the Holy Grail, climbing of the Eiffel Tower and that church we got kicked out of on Easter Sunday.

Spring Break - Beddgelert, Caernarfon, Beaumaris, Holyhead (North Wales)

I have inherited the Pollack gene for obsessive picture taking, so it has taken me forever to create some semblance of order out of the (literally) thousands of pictures I took over spring break. Here’s the start in North Wales.

Mum and Dad came up to Aberystwyth for a day. We visited the crumbling castle and attempted to play frisbee golf and then hit the road.

We pretty much followed Rick Steve’s Great Britain 2009 (with foldout color MAP) through North Wales. To start we went up to Beddgelert, which is really just a little picturesque Welsh town. I was somewhat disillusioned to learn in my Welsh History class that half of Welsh history is entirely made up so the Welsh could feel more like they had a grand national tradition and less like the backwater cousins of the English.

The story that was made up to make this town interesting goes like this: Prince Llywelyn has a dog named Gelert. Lly goes hunting and leaves baby son with dog (responsible parenting of the 13^th century). Lly comes home to find blood everywhere and crying baby. Lly kills dog. Lly sees dead wolf in corner and realizes dog killed wolf to protect baby. Lly is sorry and builds elaborate grave for dog. (bedd=grave, Gelert=dog).

True story: Town named for 6^th century saint. Fake story and grave created for visitors.

Rick Steve says: “To this day, local kids love to spy on gullible tourists mourning at the grave.”

I didn’t actually learn any of this until leaving the town, but it makes me feel better about being too lazy to actually walk out to the ‘grave.’

Then on to Caernarfon. Huge, pretty castle. Another one of Edward I of England’s Welsh castles. This was meant to be the royal residence in Wales, and Edward promised the discontent Welsh people that his son would be born there, named Prince of Wales and wouldn’t speak a word of English. Edward’s son Edward II (imaginative royal naming practices) was born at Caenarfon as it was still being built. Edward (I—see, it’s confusing) apparently presented the baby to the Welsh and said something like, “I have fulfilled my promise. My son, Prince of Wales, was born here in Wales and, see, he doesn’t speak a word of English.” Haha. Oh, Ed I, you pretty much decimated Wales, but you were kind of ridiculously awesome.

In modern royalty, the stone circle thing there in the foreground of this picture is supposedly where the English princes sit when they are crowned Prince of Wales as well. I think this has only been done for Charles so far.

On to Beaumaris. Yet another of Ed I’s Welsh castles. This is turning into a good way to revise for my Welsh History exam.

And finished the day with Holyhead. Not much to see in the city. However, we did get out to the Valley Air Force base where Grandpa was stationed in WWII. There were signs that said stuff like, “No spectators beyond this point” and “This is a prohibited area within the meaning of the official secrets act. Unauthorised persons entering this area may be arrested and prosecuted” but we didn’t let that stop us. A guard did come out to make sure we weren’t spies or something, but he didn’t confiscate our video footage or anything so it was all good.

11 Countries in 22 Days

Month-long Spring Break starts tomorrow! Here's the plan:

3/4 - 4/4: Aberystwyth (Wales) with Mom and Dad
5/4: Caernarfon, Holyhead, Conwy (Wales)
6/4: Chester, Leeds (England)
7/4: York (England)
8/4: Edinburg (Scotland)
9/4: Stirling, St. Andrews (Scotland)
10/4: Glasgow (Scotland)
11/4 -12/4: Paris (France)
13/4: Trier (Germany)
14/4: Mosel (Germany)
15/4 - 16/4: Rotherburg (Germany)
17/4 - 19/4: Venice (Italy)
20/4: Bratislava (Slovakia)
21/4: Vienna (Austria)
22/4: Zurich (Switzerland)
23/4 - 24/4: Amsterdam (Netherlands)
25/4: Brussels (Belgium) and back to Aberystwyth (Wales)

St. Fagans and Cardiff

Took the bus out to St. Fagans for the day. It’s a cute little Welsh village with part of a castle and amazing gardens. There were fields and fields of daffodils.

This is a wall painting on the inside of a Celtic village hut. It looks like a guy either shooting a bow and arrow or killing another guy. I somewhat doubt the authenticity of these drawings since there is also a heart and the word Hi.

Then back to Cardiff for some shopping. My credit card hates Cardiff, but the rest of me loves it. I bought some tights (all the Welsh girls wear thick tights under mini-skirts and boots and I was going to attempt it), a cap, and a shirt. I also got a tank top without realizing the store was Benetton, which I have always somewhat associated with the devil because of their crazy shock advertising. Anyway, it’s a nice tank top.

Oh, and there’s also the equivalent of the Dollar Store here and its called Pound Land. Haha.