London to Llandudno, North Wales

June 11, 2013

Our breakfast dining experience was just as elegant as everything else that we have experienced at Coombe Abbey.   And, after breakfast, we wandered the grounds a bit.  We discovered, in an undeveloped area behind the main complex, a large ruins of some sort of a building.  The length of one wall appeared to be at least the length of a football field.  It was a pleasant misty cool morning.

We boarded the bus for another full day of touring.  Our first stop was at Warwick Castle where we dropped off about half of the folks who chose that over the visit to the auto museum at Gaydon.  Janine chose tour the Castle.  She says that it was similar to the London Tower.  It was furnished with items from various periods that depicted the times from the Castle was built up to the 1940.  The displays included very life like mannequins of kings all of the way to Winston Churchhill. 

The staff demonstrated the use of a Trebuchet (catapult) throwing large stones on the grounds.  They also had two trained eagles, a trained vulture, and a trained falcon.  (I had the camera so Janine couldn’t take pictures.)

At the Heritage Motor Centre in Gaydon, we saw a huge collection of all kinds of

British cars.  The majority of the cars were related to cars that William R. Morris, the founder of Morris Garage and producer of MG, Morris, and later Austin autos. 

The town and the Museum also show a

large presence of Jaguar and Land Rover.  They have an off-road track over which they take one of their new Discovery Four Land Rovers to demonstrate the car’s capabilities.  We got to ride with a young lady who know the car and knew how to put it through its paces.  I was impressed by its automated capabilities as she drove it over boulders, 45 degree slopes, a roller pad on which 3 wheels would

spin while the fourth wheel pulled the car along up a hill.  She traveled through mud, water, steep slopes and at one point a road so rough that one wheel was actually in the air while the car teetered along.  It was fun.  A neat, really expensive car.

We picked up those who had gone to the Warwick Castle and headed west on our coach.  Our destination was the Welch resort town of Llandudno which is located on the Irish Sea.  It is a beautiful town that was used by the Brits as their seaside resort.  The town is located on the shore of a deep “C”- shaped bay which has two huge “rock of Gibraltar” outcroppings, the Little Orme

Llandudno with the Little Orme in the background

and the Great Orme, that are at each end of the bay.  The drive into the town provided a breathtaking view. 

Our lodging for the following two nights was the grand and glorious Imperial Hotel, one of many that line the shoreline of this ancient old town.  It is old, but elegant.  Our room has a balcony that looks down the shoreline toward the Little Orme.  The dining was, as usual, was also elegant.