Tuesday September 25th 2018 - Going home via Conwy

I woke that morning to a partly sunny/partly cloudy day with the wind back again, and after a leisurely breakfast I started the packing up process - it was much earlier than I would normally pack up but I wanted to give myself enough time to stop off somewhere on the way home and also to get to the far side of Manchester before the late afternoon rush hour started. Taking the tent down in the wind wasn't too much of a problem using my tried-and-tested system but trying to fold up the huge footprint groundsheet was another matter entirely - it didn't want to play ball so in the end I just bundled it up any old how and squashed it in the back of the van.

I was ready for leaving the site at 10.45am and just as I normally do I drove down to the beach to take Sophie and Poppie for their last walk of the holiday; there wasn't all that much beach to walk on though as the tide was in and the sea was right up to the promenade wall and the base of the cliffs, so we kept it short and set off for home at 11.15am.

Over on the mainland I started to leave the cloud behind and the further north I got the better it became until I was driving in brilliant sunshine with blue sky overhead. There was one particular place I had in mind to visit so I turned off the A55 and went to Conwy, and I was lucky enough to be able to park for free in the shade of an overhanging tree on a side road across the river from the back of the castle.

As a long-time follower of the Quest tv programme Salvage Hunters (I can quite happily watch the repeats of the repeats of the repeats!) and just for curiosity I wanted to have a look in Drew Pritchard's shop. It wasn't easy taking a photo of the outside of the shop as there were too many people and parked cars around but with a lot of patience I finally managed it; taking photos inside the shop was better although not being sure if I was supposed to or not I did it quite surreptitiously.

To be honest I wasn't terribly impressed with the stuff in there; with the exception of a couple of things which I really liked most of the items were well worn, horrible, and very overpriced. The place reminded me of an old 1970s junk/second hand shop but with grossly inflated prices, and as for the furniture - I've thrown out nicer looking stuff than what's in that shop, but I suppose some people with more money than sense will buy some of it.

Just inside the window was some sort of mechanical contraption fixed to a trestle, there didn't appear to be any description or price on it but it looked like it had been cobbled together from various bits of an old car engine. The carousel horse was featured in a programme quite a while ago, I can't remember how much it cost him to buy and have restored but the price on it was £4,500. There was one thing upstairs which I did like - a very unusual early 20th century Tramp Art dog kennel for a small dog. It was priced at £3,400 though so I'm afraid at that price my two will be keeping the beds they've got! The other thing I really liked - or rather two things - were a couple of brightly coloured stained glass panels; unfortunately I couldn't get close enough to see the price as other things were in front of them but I did manage to get a decent photo.

When I'd looked round the whole shop twice and still not been impressed by much I went for a wander up the street and came to the attractive Lancaster Square with its statue of Prince Llewelyn, then from there I made my way down to the quayside and part way along the nearby gardens before returning to the van and setting off homewards once more.

When I got to Colwyn Bay I turned off the A55 and did a reverse of my previous route through Old Colwyn and Abergele to avoid the roadworks, then called to see Eileen again but unfortunately I missed her this time as she was out somewhere. With the warm sun and blue sky I was very tempted to stop off somewhere else along the coast but if I did that I would probably end up getting stuck in the rush hour traffic near Manchester so I continued homeward, arriving back at 3.30pm and still in bright sunshine. In spite of my holiday being shortened and the wet and windy start I'd still had a good break and I'd managed to pack quite a lot into the few days - and having taken 286 photos in just five days I can't complain too much.



** That short holiday may very well be my last camping trip of the season until next year as I've got some pet sitting engagements coming up soon and my next break away will be a few days non-camping in Ireland in early December, but until I update this blog with another trip with the tent tales from my everyday life can always be found here.