Begin at the beginning and go on till you come to the end: then stop. The King.

Monday was totally consumed with the computer replacement and install. The English seem to delight in making things REALLY, REALLY difficult and overly complex. But never mind. WE left late from Nunthorpe and drove 2.5 hours to our apartment in Chester.

The apartment is lovely! Despite the fact that it has only 2 tv channels, we have gotten along nicely here – making our own meals in the little kitchen.

Reesa discovered "dippy egg" on this trip (ie a piece of buttered toast that one might dip into one's fried egg), and thought it was a worthwhile "foreign" find.  John re-discovered "Ready Brek" which is -- are you ready for it -- PORRIDGE -- just like the 3 little bears ate!  And the rest of us chickened out & ate Cheerios.

It is on Chester’s main street (cars & police sirens screaming by all night), but it is also just a 10 minute walk into the pedestrian malls that are filled with holiday shoppers.

On Tuesday we went into North Wales to see castles! Our first stop was at Rhuddlan:  this area was closed, but we could still see the magnificent ruins:  right next to the new KFC.

Then we pressed on to Conwy, a castle Edward the I began building in 1283.  Becuase of the bitter cold and proximity to Christmas, the place was virtually empty.

The castle people do a fantastic job at telling the story of this castle to children with a treasure hunt/detective story that is really VERY FUNNY!  The kids really liked it!

The purpose of this was not only to educate and engage, but to attempt to impose some order on groups that might otherwise resemble a herd of untrained cats:

And they also warn you to be careful with funny little signs -- these folks had quite a sense of humor!

The sleepy little village of Conwy is still tucked into the original castle walls, as it would have been 700 years ago (although the wall around the town was constructed to protect the English settlement there against the Welsh who were very unhappy at the prospect of foreign occupation).

This is the fireplace in the "Great Hall":

Mara:

The views were simply breathtaking:

After lunch in a local fish & chips shop, we pressed on to Caernarfon Castle (the seat of power in Edward’s “Iron Ring” of castles around Wales -- yeah, just TRY to pronounce it!) to avail ourselves of the last two hours of daylight.

It was ALSO virtually empty (as it was past 3 & temperatures were plummeting precipitously!)

Isaac had a great time in the nooks & crannies:

Perfecting his trademark "You can't make me smile" smile:

While the walls of Caernafon are not as complete as in Conwy, the views around this walled city are as incredible:

We stayed until they whistled us out:  but, seriously?  What if you were lost?  They need to issue flares with the castle maps.  They closed this HUGE door behind us (and locked it with a teeny tiny key!)

A quick peek into a shop in the town nearby, but we'd spent all of the available daylight.

The scenic drive through the snowy mountains of North Wales was lost on all the passengers -- asleep in the back, or unequipped with night vision goggles.