A thousand mile journey . . .

My dream trip began yesterday with an uneventful flight. Although I had bits of sleep on the bus and planes, I was pretty weary when I arrived at Birmingham Airport. it was clean and everyone was helpful. The rental car is cute, but My first 10 miles or so were harrowing. The manual/stick shift on the left wasn't too bad and there are rotaries every 5 miles or less, so I got used to those quickly. My GPS worked extremely getting me right to Caernarfon, where my fist stop was the castle, of course.

So here's a bit of info about the castle. it was built on the orders of King Edward I in his efforts to bring the rebellious Welsh under Norman dominion as part of his "ring of iron." Construction began in 1283 on the foundations of an earlier Roman fort and 11th century motte and bailey castle. While my castle interest is purely Romantic from an early over-consumption of romance novels, the essence of this building is raw power. the inner Bailey is massive . . . The photos speak for themselves -- if the link works! Click here for Caernarfon inner Bailey!

For more details on castle history and construction: http://www.castlewales.com/caernarf.html