A Week in Wales

Recently I went on a short week away with my Dad, Step Mum, Brother and his Girlfriend, Step Brother and his girlfriend and James. We went for a week in Wales, Amroth to be precise. I thought I would do a little blog post about all the things we got up to, however if you’re interested I also vlogged the holiday which I will also link below. The weather was amazing and the views were like nothing I have ever experienced in the UK before. Such a lovely place for somewhere that you can get to by car!

Day One
On the first full day in Wales, myself, James, Jack and Chloe got dropped off at a Pebble Beach in Newgale. My step mum then told us she would meet us in the next town, Solva in a couple of hours. We set off on our walk, little did I know it was more of a climb than a walk! Described as leisurely, as a non-walker usually I did find this a struggle at times with how steep some of the terrain was. The walk was approximately 5 and a half miles in total and it took us over 3 hours to complete. There really were some breath-taking views along the route and I got some lovely photos. Highlights of the walk included walking through a field full of cows! Not what we expected!

Day Two
Today we left early in the morning and headed to Tenby to get a boat across to Caldey Island, inhabited by monks. This little island had some shops, lighthouse and a church. There was a post office where you could get Caldey Island stamps, so I decided to send myself a post card as it worked out a similar price to do that than to buy one. I actually wrote it out to my cat in the end, and it arrived the next day! We had a lovely walk around to the lighthouse and saw some ponies on the way. My favourite part was visiting the chocolate factory where chocolate and fudge is made on site. The shop smelled delicious and I came away with a chocolate bar which I ate pretty much the same day. After our visit to the island, we headed back to the car and went to St Davids. This lovely little place had an amazing cathedral and plenty of places for afternoon tea. We had a scone, it wasn’t quite like a scone you would get at home mind you! More like a bread roll.

Day Three
Today we had a more leisurely day and headed to Tenby to do some shopping and explore in more detail. Tenby is a harbour town and seaside resort with the most amazing pastel coloured buildings. There are cobbled streets and many places to eat along the way. Tenby has plenty of gift shops and souvenir shops so I bought a few little bits from here. For dinner we went to The Amroth Arms, a local pub. Despite a mix up with our table due to having dogs with us, the food was pretty good.

Day Four
This day consisted of a visit to Heatherton World of Activities. Here you can buy tokens which then allow you to take part in different activities on site ranging from Go Karts to Archery. We started off with a visit to the Mini Golf. I really enjoyed it and scored 2 hole in ones! We then did some pistol shooting, archery and clay pigeon laser shooting. It was good fun and killed a few hours off. We took a packed lunch and arrived back late afternoon so decided to walk to Colby. This gorgeous area was right around the corner from where we were staying and the weather was so nice. We enjoyed a lovely walk before heading back to our accommodation for dinner.

Day Five
We went back to Tenby today to complete a treasure/adventure trail that my step mum had got for us. My brother and his girlfriend went off Kayaking whilst we did this lovely walk. Despite already going to Tenby, this walk took a couple of hours and we saw some places we hadn’t previously seen. We got lots of nice photos and managed to find out some history of the town. After we had finished our walk we met back up with the others and went to Penbroke Castle for the afternoon. I really enjoyed this castle, apart from the winding stairs up to the top of the tower, I hated coming down them! We went on a guided tour and found out that Henry VII was born here, it was really interesting. They also had the Pembrokeshire Falconry on display too.

Day Six
On our final day we decided to get some castle visits in so set off early to make the most of the day. We started out by visiting Carew Castle and Tidal Mill. The castle was great to look around, my favourite part being the room which was supposedly haunted by an ape! Most of the castle was in ruin but I did really enjoy looking around the different rooms and trying to imagine what they might have looked like hundreds of years ago. Included in the price of our ticket was a visit to the Tidal Mill, the only restored Tidal Mill in Wales and one of only 5 in the UK. There were a few floors to look around here filled with an audio tour and family friendly displays. It was also good that the dogs could come in with us too, although did struggle with the steps!

The next place we visited was Lamphey Bishop's Palace. When we arrived they were setting up for a wedding the next day. Not wanting to intrude, we skipped past the marquees and headed for the ruins and had a look around. The grounds were impressive. This was the treat of choice for medieval bishops seeking solace from everyday life. It was free to look around here so I am pleased we gave it a look on the way to our next location. We then stopped for lunch at Lamphey Hall Hotel which was delicious.

We then decided to check out St Govans Chapel which is on the side of a cliff. We walked down some steep steps to get here and it was really interesting seeing this building in such an odd place!

Finally we went to Manorbier Castle, where again they seemed to be setting up for another wedding. I was interested to find out that the castle has been used as a film location for “The Lion the Witch and the Wardrobe” 1989 and “I Capture the Castle” 2001. I was most excited about looking in the crypt, however this was basically being used as storage for a wedding. There were no signs to say we couldn’t go in and personally if people were walking around my venue whilst I was setting up I wouldn’t be too happy! There was a whole fridge of prosecco on show! Anyway, we had another walk around the castle which was nice and I read through the guide book as I went along. Pembrokeshire Falconry were also showcasing some of their birds and for £1 you could hold one, so a couple of our group decided to have a go! That was fun!

We ended our day by heading to Saundersfoot for some Fish and Chips – yum!

All in all, I had an amazing holiday. Be sure to check out my vlogs for more stories and footage of all of the places mentioned above. Have you ever visited any of these places?

New York Day 1 - Statue of Liberty, Ellis Island & Ground Zero

I am sorry that I have been a bit AWOL recently however I have had a good reason and that is my holiday to New York! Seven of us headed off for seven days packed with fun and sightseeing to celebrate my mum’s 50th birthday. It was amazing but very tiring. I did so much that I thought it would be easier to split each day into a separate blog post so that if you are going to New York and want to do a few things whilst you are there then you can read my posts and see what landmarks are near to each other.

Day one was officially my mum's 50th birthday and we hopped on the local subway early on during the day for our first event which was to go up the Statue of Liberty. The subway was an absolute life saver for us. Tickets cost $32 for a weeks unlimited use and we certainly got our money’s worth. Who wants to sit in traffic in a yellow cab all day?! – not me! Not only is the subway famous, it is clean and warm and we always felt safe. Some of the stations even had NYPD officers manning them. There were times (during rush hour) where we were practically pressed up against the next person but it’s all part of the fun of being in the hustle and bustle of New York City! We headed to the last stop on the J train and walked the rest of the way down to Battery Park. We were very lucky to book our statue of liberty tickets 6 months in advance which meant we could go right up to the crown. This is not something that is offered on a standard ticket and must be booked, otherwise you may only be able to view from the pedestal. After a traumatic (for me) climb up the small spiral staircase of hell as I like to call it, we finally reached the top. It was so worth the climb and the views were absolutely amazing. The one thing I couldn't believe was how small the viewing area was, the head always looks so big but you could barely fit 10 people up there. It was basically a metal shell so was pretty hot and stuffy up there too despite it being about 1 degree outside and very windy. The head was actually moving slightly in the wind which was an odd experience. It was pretty cold however we could cope with it, we got a Statue Cruises boat over from Battery Park to the island and had some amazing views of the skyline on the way. I recommend sitting on the right hand side of the top deck if you want to get the best photos looking back to the skyline.

After we had climbed our way back down we had a look around the museum at the bottom of the statue. We then visited the gift shop and I bought some reasonably priced fridge magnets. We took a few selfies and photos with her lady liberty and we hopped back on the boat which then took us over to Ellis Island. This was the gateway for over 12 million immigrants and I was keen to look for my family name on the plaques. It was really interesting and there was a lot to read up on, you could spend a long time here. You could also get some amazing photos of the skyline here, and there was hardly anyone in sight blocking the views. I imagine in the summer this would be a lot busier.

After Ellis Island we got on another boat which took us back to Manhattan. We popped into a Subway for a quick lunch as it was the nearest place and already we had managed to rack up about 5 miles of walking. We then headed to Ground Zero. It was very peaceful here which was nice to see. It was the day after the London Westminster attacks and they had upped their security in the area. They even had a plaque in place dedicated to London. I didn't film or take many photos here out of respect but it was so bizarre being here, but felt very calm. I imagine it is a complete and utter contrast to the absolute chaos and devastation that happened  during 9/11. We visited the 9/11 museum which was one of the best experiences on the trip and I got to see so much and learn so much about 9/11. I would 100% recommend going to this museum if you are heading to ground zero.

After we visited the museum we went for dinner at Bills Bar and Burger which was just around the corner. We had cocktails, nachos and burgers. We then found a subway station and headed back to our apartment. I hated walking around Brooklyn at night, by the end I was used to it but it certainly took some time. When we arrived back there was a police car and an ambulance outside our apartment which scared me slightly but it was nothing to worry about in the end and there were no further incidents throughout the duration of our trip. 

I also daily vlogged and you can see day one here:

Thank you for reading!