Margate to Angelsey

Pat's cousin, June, will celebrate her 80th birthday this weekend and Pat was keen to see her at some point in the year.  As it happened, we have managed a visit on the day before her birthday.  June lives on Bodafon, the highest point on Anglesey and so it is not the easiest place to get to.  Fortunately, both her sons will be with her this weekend, and so we will be able to see all the family.

We left Margate at lunchtime after spending a couple of hours with Ernie. With a lot of rail track maintenance taking place over the bank holiday weekend and threats of rail strikes, we had been worrying about the journey, but in terms of time keeping, all has gone well. The journey takes us from Margate to London, London to Crewe and then from Crewe to Bangor.  A taxi was booked to collect us at Bangor Station and take us to our B&B. 

The train journey from London to Crewe was chaotic. We had seats booked, but there was no way of identifying which carriage was which.  Eventually, the system was rebooted and, having seen that there was no one booked into the seats that we were in and that we were getting off at the first stop, we stayed put!  According to announcements, the credit card reader was playing up and the wifi and various other things, were not working, but fortunately, we had a train manager with a sense of humour who just apologised for all the problems and wished those staying on luck with the rest of the journey before handing over!

Looking out of the window, the hawthorne trees have been absolutely magnificent; they are loaded with blossom from Margate to Crewe. 

All went well for the rest of the journey and we sailed along the north coast of Wales through seaside resorts whose names we remembered from our early childhood. 

Our taxi was waiting to take us to our accommodation, Llwydiarth Fawr, which was very comfortable and busy. 

The breakfast room and enormous Welsh dresser

View from the terrace

Fortunately, we were within walking distance of a village which had a pub. Our taxi driver couldn't recommend it, but it was all we had available. There was a disco going and a rather disgruntled group leaving as we arrived.  The beer was just about OK and they didn't mind us eating the sandwiches that we had brought from Euston as emergency supplies.

June's immediate family were all staying with her: son Mike and daughter in law, Lisa and son Nick and daughter in law Eleanor.  Lisa and Nick came to get us from the B&B and take us to June's house on Bodafon. 

This is June's house

And June's dog, Tomas

Lisa and Mike now have their own dog, Dylan, who is the son of Tomas but more like his mother a Labrador 

John was in charge of recording the moment: Mike, Lisa, June, Nick, Eleanor, Pat, John. 

Views from the cottage

We went with Mike to take the dogs for a walk up to the top of the mountain. 

When we got back to the cottage, more nieces and nephews had arrived and so there was a photo call for the Davies side. 

Lisa returned us to the B&B and we took the opportunity to take a short rest before walking to the village to find a sandwich and bottle of wine. 

We are now on the train to Manchester for a visit to another cousin.