Our honeymoon itinerary

Matt put this together, as he knows much more about cool medieval history than I do :-) We're both totally psyched for the hours we'll spend on bikes, perhaps a rainy day or two to spend in the lovely accommodations, and for the Welsh accent we keep hearing so much about! Alrighty-- The itinerary:

July 16: Depart Indianapolis for Manchester, UK.

July 17: Arrive in Manchester. Travel via train/bus to Caernarfon, Wales. Stay overnight at the Celtic Royal Motel in Caernarfon. This is a pretty nice, centrally located B&B in the city of Caernarfon, an old Welsh city and one of the original centers of British power in Wales. The B&B is located quite near Caernarfon castle (see July 18).

July 18: See Caernarfon castle and town. Caernarfon castle is one of the five castles of the “Iron Ring”; a group of five castles built by the British in the 13th and 14th centuries to serve as a defensive foothold in the (relatively) recently acquired kingdom of Wales. These castles represent the apex (in Matt's opinion) of high medieval castle design; we will be seeing four of them. In the afternoon, we will bike to Beaumaris, Wales, which is about 12 miles away on the Isle of Anglesey. We will stay overnight at the Bulkeley Hotel in Beaumaris, which is a very nice-looking Nineteenth Century building near the water.

July 19: See Beaumaris castle, and bike around a bit on the Isle of Anglesey. Beaumaris castle is another castle of the Iron Ring; it is the latest, and largest of the group. Sadly, the castle was never quite completed but, nonetheless, is probably the best-designed concentric-style castle in the world. The walls of the inner curtain (the second defensive wall) are approximately 20 feet thick and have passages through them which you can still walk through. After seeing the castle, we will bike around a bit more on the Lon Las Cymru bike trail on the Isle of Anglesey and stay overnight at the Bulkeley Hotel.

July 20: Bike to Betws-y-Coed, stay overnight at Bryn Afon, which is a very nice-looking B&B in the central Snowdonia region; we will be using this as a “home-base” for 5 nights as we relax and explore the surrounding environs.

July 21: Day trip to Conwy, which is another Iron Ring castle, with a nice little town attached. There appear to be many nice little restaurants and shops on the waterfront (in addition to the awesome castle!).

July 22: Day trip to Dolbadarn and Dolwyddelan. I don’t know very much about these ruins; apparently they were both tower-keeps of Welsh Princes at some point, but the scenery looks lovely, and ruins are always intriguing.

July 23-24: Various activities in Snowdonia National Forest. This will probably include hiking, relaxing, and possibly whitewater rafting (Brea is determined to find the whitewater rafting!). This is a pretty big forest preserve with a lot of outdoorsy activities to engage in.

July 25: Bike to Harlech, see castle. This is the fourth and final (at least for this trip!) Iron Ring castle that we will see, but it’s a good one. It occupies an extremely scenic position on a rock overlooking the seaport town of Harlech. We will stay overnight at Castle Cottage in Harlech.

July 26: Bike to Caernarfon, bus/train to Manchester. We will sightsee a bit in Manchester (it’s a pretty big city, so we have a lot of options) and stay overnight at the relatively plush Mitre Hotel; a relaxing final night in the UK before we head back to the States!

July 27: Fly back to Indianapolis.