At the end of my UK Trip post for day 3 I said how I used my walk/hike that evening to de-stress from the run around from British Airways…to read that click here.
While yes, this post is about day 4 it really starts on day 3, kinda…
Earlier in the day on Day 3 I called the delivery company that would be bringing my suitcase to see if I could get them to rush it since British Airways was being incredibly unhelpful. The guy there said British Airways told them that due to the place of delivery (Wales) the suitcase couldn’t be delivered any earlier than 2-3 days so the delivery company automatically put it in to a unit destined to deliver using that timeline and they couldn’t expedite it without British Airways say-so. OMG say what?? I explained that I was leaving the delivery address they had on file from British Airways and that the longer they took to deliver to me the farther away I would be from them. They took the address I would be staying at the night of Day 4 and said they would deliver it there. I told them I wouldn’t be there until an unknown time in the evening and requested they leave it at the front desk. I then called that hostel to explain what was going on and asked if they wouldn’t mind taking custody of the suitcase until I checked in, the lady was very nice and said that wouldn’t be a problem.
After my walk/hike I called British Airways to try to get an update, the first call the lady disconnected cause she said it was too windy where I was and she couldn’t hear me, the second call I was told they absolutely would deliver my suitcase that night, but they didn’t say by what time. This meant I was once again trapped in the dining room since it is the only room in the hostel with a view of the driveway, sigh. After dinner, which was a lovely goat cheese and tomato quiche, I sat with my cards, my book, and a diet coke and waited…and waited…and waited…I couldn’t decide what time would be the cut off time for a delivery person when it came to luggage, part of me thought no later than 10pm but then I extended that to 11pm juuuuuust in case. Regardless, it never showed so off to bed I went with a renewed sense of anger towards British Airways because not only did it not show but I stayed up later than I wanted waiting for the suitcase cause they promised it would be delivered that night. Arg!
The morning of Day 4 I got up nice ‘n early cause I had to be on the road hopefully by 9am. I wasn’t lol. This didn’t surprise me but I wasn’t running too late so that’s good. I had my full Welsh breakfast, left my contact info with the hostel so if my suitcase did show up they could let me know and headed off to Beaumaris.
Oh, before heading off I spoke with British Airways to give them a piece of my mind in regards to the lack of delivery even though it was promised. It didn’t get me any results, or even an apology but the venting kinda felt nice lol
So off I went to Beaumaris, which is pronounced how it is spelled in case you were wondering.
Beaumaris is the first place I found on this trip without getting confused or lost, yay! The super kind people at YHA Llanberis Hostel printed me out some google map directions and the road signage was a better than the signage on my way to Llanberis so no wrong turns for me! 🙂
There is a lot more to do in Beaumaris than I realized. My original plan was to go to the Gaol (that’s a prison) and the Court House, they are both Victorian era and have been turned in to museums, I looooove stuff like that! There was also a castle there to explore, a pier to walk along, boat tours, fun little shops and more. I planned to wander Beaumaris on this particular day because I wanted an easy day after climbing Mt Snowdon, as we all know by this point an easy day wasn’t needed since I didn’t get to climb the mountain but that just means I had more energy for exploring. 🙂
I went to Beaumaris Castle, it was built, well, ordered to be built since I doubt he did any of the work lol, by King Edward 1. To build the castle the English forced an entire town of people to move so they could have unlimited space, rude! 😛 This was the last castle built by King Edward 1 in Wales and it never got finished due to the Welsh being able to get the English out of their country, and lack of money. The style of castle is called concentric and that means there is no central keep, really, there is no centre at all. The castle has a high inner ring of defenses surrounded by a lower outer circuit of walls.
It was absolutely beautiful! The day was sunny and warm, entrance was cheap, and you were left to your own devices so I was able to take as much time as I wanted to explore the nooks and crannies of this castle. 🙂
The entrance, you can see the moat that surrounds the castle.
You can climb up to the top walkways and walk around the perimeter, you get great views!
One of the stairways to the top, not the widest of things lol
View through one of the peep holes/archers spots.
My only regret about the visit to the castle is that when I was in the gift shop I saw a necklace I reeeeeally wanted, it wasn’t out of my price range but I opted to not buy it because I thought I’d find something I would like even better later on in the trip and I didn’t want to buy my memento item so early without seeing what else was out there. Bad move! Bad bad bad move! I never found anything else I liked nearly as much and I really regret not purchasing it, sigh. I can’t remember the name of the company that made the jewellery so I can’t even look for their website and buy the necklace online. *rolls eyes at self*
Other than that my time at Beaumaris Castle was so enjoyable! 🙂 I highly recommend it to anybody who will be in the area. For information on where it is and hours of operation you can check out this website…
http://cadw.wales.gov.uk/daysout/beaumaris-castle/?lang=en
I’ll put the next part of my Beaumaris Day in a new post since this one got long awfully quickly lol
The Amazing Shrinking Woman 