"Oh what to do", the fair maiden cried, "to tempt hubby darling away from those pretty in another country?". As she pondered her fate, a plan came to mind... A few google searches later and hubby was on the next plane home and ready for his motorbike adventure to Snowdonia. And that, ladies and gentlemen, is how we came to set off to them yonder valley on a Honda ST1300 Pan European bike. (Hold on to your hats...)
To begin the story properly, I need to remind everyone of the b-day pressie of 3 years ago when I hired a BMW bike and we did 2000 kms to the Fish River Canyon and back in a weekend. I had vowed never again. But seems 'never again' and 3 years equates to roughly the same, which meant that Thinus went to pick up his replacement joy on Monday morning. We did a quick test run to Hatfield House that afternoon, and I seemed to live to tell the tale. This meant that Tuesday we had a quick (and by quick I mean speed not time) ride to visit the other Kochs for the evening, after having spent the day navigating London traffic to Travalgar Square and SA Home Affairs. [Now a quick tangent if I may - you can take Home Affairs out of Africa but you can most certainly not take Africa out of Home Affairs. Enough said, but application for replacement passport is now thankfully underway.]
Okay, so as I was saying - this brings us to Wednesday morning and being faced with a 230 mile trip to our first destination of Rowen in Northern Wales. Our first night was to be spent at the rather charming country house of Tir y Coed. A very yummy dinner awaited us, complete with wine and personal service. The next morning Thinus looking rather pleased with himself over a cup of coffee in the lounge. And then we were off to Conwy. By this time I was getting good at taking pictures whilst riding. This called for supreme balancing and trusting Thinus to take corners decently. 
Past the Conwy Castle and onwards to Llandudno. Now, this seaside town may have the same name, but the SA version is definitely prettier and 90% of the population does not consist of the blue rinse brigade!! 
At Llandudno one can take a one way road around the little jutty out piece of the mountain. Similar to chapmans peak, albeit on a slightly smaller scale. But, given that there is a distinct lack of mountain where we live, this was super exciting! The 2nd picture shows the view I had for most of the way (if you disregard the parts I was closing my eyes in prayer!) 
Next it was onwards to Anglesy, which is a little island part of Wales, where we headed to Beaumaris. Now when Kind Edward of England battled it out with the Welsh, he ordered various castles built along the Welsh coastline. Conwy and Beaumaris castle are 2 such examples (as well as Caernafron which we visited a little later...) Beaumaris castle was however never properly finished, but the little town is quite pretty for lunch anyways! So on the way there, lovely little tree fringed roads - reckon the picture does good justice to how it feels seeing everything swoop past you! 
At Beaumaris it was low tide which meant that all of the boats are out of the water. They are apparently designed for this though, as they have 3 fins on which they balance! 
After a quick lunch it was onwards to Caernafron and to visit the castle. This castle is where Charles (prince of Wales) swore his allegiance to the queen in 1969. The castle was never used properly though, and areas like the kitchen and some internal gates are not quite finished. Still nice to poke around though! 
Thinus challenged me to a game of pool which I nearly won! (Okay, not really, but I had only 2 balls left, so not too bad either). 
The 2nd night we stayed at the Old School. The school was built in 1808 and used back in the day when the families were larger and there a few more dwellings in the area. Now, it's in the middle of nowhere and makes a delightful little get-away-from-it-all B&B. Dinner was at The Goat pub, and then time to rest and prepare for day number 3. 
Sadly the next morning we woke to much mist and an unhappy blonde person. Now I had quite enjoyed the previous day's riding as it was slow and comfortable and dry. And even though we drove through some of the best scenery on this Friday morning, it still filled me with dread and clinging on for dear life. Anyways, getting ahead of myself - our first stop was at Portmeirion which is a little dorpie designed to show how architecture and nature can be integrated, or something like that. Anyways, not a real town, but a pretty stop along the way. 
Then it was up north to Betws-y-coed, along some rather scary mountain passes. Thinus was happy. Ronell was not. By the time we reached Betws-y-Coed for lunch, it was time to ponder this clever plan of the bike hire. 
Have to admit though, the scenery was breathtaking! Sadly the mist limited some of the views, but it was just such a treat to see some mountains and trees and rivers etc. etc. I think the pictures speak for themselves in this one! 
So we took a little walk through the town (the kids were swimming in the river, crazy!) 
and then had some lunch, before it was off on some more B roads and up and down-ness. 
Finally we reached our last destination of Graig Wen B&B where I tried out some of the camera's settings at the George III inn (for dinner). 
I think Thinus looks quite good in this picture! MMM... The place we stayed at used to be a slate factory, and they overlook the sea inlet / bay area. 
Views were definitely stunning, and the next morning I took a quick walk down to the seashore. More stunning views, even though the 600m steep walk back up was a little much! And so sadly our little Norwegian holiday had to also come to an end. Back on the bike it was and at record speed back to Borehamwood. Now Thinus is wanting his own bike, and I'm going to prepare myself to be a weekend widow. After all, 'never again' takes about three years...
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