Fun afternoon at Caernarfon Castle

We said goodbye to Helen and Tony just after 9:30am. They were headed back home to Somerset, England. We'll actually be stopping in there to say hi to them again in a couple of weeks time.

We headed about a half an hour south, across the bridge over the Menai Strait and past the town of Caernarfon to a waterfront spot overlooking the strait. As we passed the town of Caernarfon, we saw a huge castle!

Got ourselves parked up in a beautiful spot beside the water and on a fairly quiet road and did some research on what to see back in the town. 

It turns out the castle is well worth seeing. It's a bit pricey, at £12.50 ($21.50 CAD, $16.50 USD) per adult general admission, but our English Heritage card gives us 50% off. We like castles to begin with, and this one seemed worthwhile to explore.

It was only a twenty minute walk back to the pedestrian bridge into the town.

And, it turned out to be a beautiful day!

The southern part of the castle.

Caernarfon Castle was built between 1283 to 1330. The castle was a Royal Castle, signifying English rule over Wales. This rule still exists today, and then Prince Charles at age 20 celebrated his investiture as the Prince of Wales here in 1969.

Look at that blue sky!

Entrance through the town wall.

Huge castle walls! 

Statue on top of the old courthouse opposite the castle.

The inner courtyard.

A model of the castle.

They were doing a play for the kids.

A model of what the townsite would have looked like in the 1400's.

You are allowed to climb to the top of almost all towers and get some great views.

Looking down on the old town courthouse.

Another view of the courthouse statue.

View from Eagle Tower.

The pedestrian swing bridge. Max is parked about 2 kms down that road on the coast.

Looking down. The tide is going out.

Looking inland.

This is a very weathered statue of an eagle.

Ruth, heading back down the narrow spiral staircase.

You really had to watch your footing on the narrow stairs. One lady said to us "I'm surprised they don't make you sign a waiver coming up here!"

Another view.

Me, exploring inside the castle.

I took a short video for you...

Eagle Tower. We had been right at the top of the center of the three towers.

Looking down on the town.

Old door.

What remains of the kitchen area.

For the fifty years that the castle was under construction, there were 600 men working here who had to be fed each day. They were fed boiled meat. Life expectancy for a 25 year old male was about age 50.

Ruth, wandering the many hallways.

It's an impressive castle!

Busy parking lot.

They have a fairly large military museum included, but we went through it fairly quickly...

The Regimental Goat.

This seagull wasn't afraid of me. 

I had my camera about 6" from him and it didn't fizz him at all.

Ornate window.

One of the oldest streets in town.

Every time you climb a different tower, you get a different view!

The town square.

The tide is out.

Before we knew it, it was almost 4:00pm! We had spent two and a half hours exploring the castle. We figured that was enough, and exited the castle walls to go for a quick walk around the town.

Where is everybody?

Back at Max.

GPS 53.131623, -4.303019

While we had a nice day yesterday, we are back to pouring rain today and it's supposed to last all day. We're going to head into the town of Porthmadog and see if we can find anything indoors to do.

Oh, and we booked another house sit through Trusted Housesitters! We will be spending this coming weekend looking after Tigs, a 13 year old mixed breed. 

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Good deal on this Bluetti Power Station with a $90 off coupon showing.

And in Canada...

ThermoPro Meat Thermometer.