11 Sep. - Conwy

Image: Kitchen display in Plas Mawr

Conwy - my words struggle - is it simply weariness from a day of walking + constant wonder?
Perhaps resort to a simple list.

+ Llywelyn Ap Iorwerth's grant to Aberconwy Abbey.

+ Llywelyn Ap Gruffud's recognition as Prince of Wales, the first!

+ Edward I's new walled town rising to dominate + subdue the Welsh.

+ Conwy Castle's astounding 'truth' in portraying 13th Cent. military architecture.

+ Thomas Telford's 1826 suspension road bridge.

+ Robert Stephenson's 1848, first (and only surviving), tubular iron rail bridge.

+ Aberconwy House - The best surviving medieval town house in north Wales.

+ Plas Mawr - Robert Wynn's 1576 Elizabethan town house - the finest surviving in Britain.

+ Parisella's of Conwy - ice cream!

Notes: For us, one of the great joys of travel is to do as little preliminary research as possible, such that everything is a delightful surprise. I have long known of Stephenson's tubular bridges, but had no idea one still existed, or that we would find and travel through it. A highlight for me! Everything we encountered in Conwy (and many other locations) was similarly unexpected. Such wonder.