After our endless week of COVID, which resulted in needing to cancel the first two days of holiday, we were finally well enough to drive to Wales on Wednesday! Well, my fiancé was well enough to drive, and I felt better enough to be up and about again, and sit in the car! I was not sleeping well enough to drive yet.
Powis Castle
To break up the long drive we stopped about half way at Powis Castle. It’s a really lovely place for a stroll around the gardens and inside the house. Unfortunately, they’re rewiring the castle at the moment so not all the rooms are open, but what we did see was interesting!
It was well worth going inside to see the incredible miniature portrait of Sir Edward Herbert, later 1st Lord Herbert of Cherbury (1581/2-1648) by Isaac Oliver. It’s easy to miss in the room as it’s small (about the size of a sheet of paper) and it’s protected in a glass cabinet in a dark room, but the NT staff member in the room should illuminate it for you.
I thought it was brilliant, I don’t think I’ve ever seen so much character in a Jacobean portrait! You really get a sense of the personality of the man!
(Side note: our route took us through Welshpool, and the whole time I was thinking about Deadpool & Wolverine! We are very excited for it to be out of DisneyPlus soon we we can watch it a third time!)
Aberystwyth
We then went on to Aberystwyth! I had never been before, and only really knew it as a University town. It has a few beaches but they’re very pebbly – as I remember Welsh beaches being from my childhood! Even though we’re in October it was quite warm, the sun was still out when we arrived so we had an ice cream on the sea-front with the low afternoon sun on us. Actually, our ice creams were melting faster than we could lick them! I guess maybe the wind wasn’t helping!
We had a fun time in the arcade on the tiny pier. The 2p machines are always fun!
We ended up with only 27 prize tickets which we forgot to exchange, though all we’d have gotten for that were a singular 2 Fruitella sweets! I’d rather have them for the scrapbook!
Dark Skies
My favourite thing about the place we stayed was that it was far enough away from the light pollution of the town that when the clouds cleared, we could actually see the stars at night! This is one of those things that was incredible but also made me a bit sad that we had to travel to a designated “dark skies” spot to be able to see the stars. As an adult, who lives in a city now, I can’t remember the last time I saw stars in the sky. I remember looking at the stars at night in the back of the car while my parents drove home from somewhere. I grew up technically in the countryside but our farm is so surrounded by motorways that we never got true dark skies.
It was incredible to see so many stars! I think this might now be criteria for future quiet country breaks, and hopefully next time I’ll actually be able to identify some constellations.
The Devil’s Bridge
The Devil’s Bridge is a lovely waterfall with a walk down and back up a lot of slate steps. It was really beautiful with the trees turning for autumn, but it’s also quite wet and a little bit slippery with the falling leaves if you don’t wear some sensible sturdy footwear.
Those steps are fucking steep! I was glad I’d read some TripAdvisor reviews to prepare for it. Going down was nerve-wracking because I’m scared of heights and that doesn’t help me feel steady on my feet! They have really good railings the whole way though, so I could cling on to those.. and because we went first thing in the morning in a quiet week there was nobody else there so no worries over trying to retain any dignity!
This was another one of those moments where I felt so appreciative of my fiancé, because he was just as nervous as me on those steep steps and he was very patient with me taking my time!
Once we got down the worst bank of super steep steps the path led to a horrendous little metal bridge over the gorge! It was made of a steep metal curve, that was quite slippery, and it was narrow coupled with very open sides which gave a great view of the plunging depth below. I did not like it! but I survived,
Afterwards, I started to feel that that bridge was very familiar, and I think I might have been there before as a child and also hated that fucking bridge (and the steps). I’ll have to ask my Mum about it when I see them this weekend!
I did really enjoy our walk down and up Devil’s Bridge though! Since we were the only ones there it was a nice relaxed little adventure for just the two of us!
Attingham Park
To break up the drive home we stopped at another National Trust place, Attingham Park near Shrewsbury. We didn’t get long here, and it was also very grey and rained a bit so I didn’t take many photos.
We had a nice – albeit drizzly – mile long walk around the grounds to stretch our legs and then headed into the house.
I was pleasantly surprised by the house. It is one of the most complete houses the NT have received, as in they got a full house of stuff and haven’t had to furnish it from other properties. We were told it is very much as the previous owners left it. It has gorgeous ceilings, and some nice “modern” elements to it like the circular staircase that felt unusually glamourous in a more 1920s way.
Attingham Park has a “downstairs” route as well through the servant’s quarters which was surprisingly interesting (I’ve been in many of these houses in my lifetime, and I didn’t think there was much new to see!). The rooms here were quite large and comfortable. They also had a lot of fun looking activities on for children, with it being half-term time in some areas.
There was an “example” of embroidery as part of a display and I hope that was done by an NT employee because it did not impress me! Very sloppy stiches, like a child had done it!
It was a short trip but we had a lovely time, and I think we’ll definitely be going back to Wales in the future!
