Wet Christmas in Wales Part 1

Hi all,

I just came back from a weekend road trip to Wales. It was a 4 days 3 nights with the Snowdon gang plus another family. As my sister said, geng makcik-makcik. Since I'm currently residing in Bristol, I have to go to Coventry on Xmas Eve to meet up with the others as our journey starts from there. 

Day 1

We were supposed to start our journey at 5 am as daylight was very limited during winter season and we wanted to get as much out of it as possible. However, my friend's car decided that it was too cold and want to stay in bed (read: car won't start). Luckily she has good neighbors that helped her out and managed to jump start the car with another car. At about 6.45 am we started our journey to the first pit stop of Brecon Beacon National Park. We had high hope for the day to do some walking around the national park. Sadly the weather decided to betrayed us as it rained heavily the whole day. So when we went to Breacon Beacon Information Centre to meet up with the group from Bolton, we only had toilet breaks here before deciding where to go next. Since we can't even have our planned picnic breakfast here, we decided to have breakfast in the car before heading to Llangorse Lake.

Breacon Beacon Information Centre - it was close on Christmas Day

Only the birds were enjoying the "shower"

Despite the wet weather, it was quite an eventful day actually. The GPS decided to take us to a different lake (no lake at all). It took us to a farm that actually supplies meat to M&S. How cool was that? However, on our way out from the back, one of my friend's car stopped abruptly and couldn't start again. He tried everything (that's what he claimed) but I guess the car was a bit too advanced for all of us to know what's wrong with it. He called the rental office (mind you it was Christmas Day where everything is shut) and a person came but we had to wait for an hour for the guy to come. I really pity the guy as he might be at home with his loved one celebrating having Christmas lunch somewhere fancy. 

The car issue was finally solved and we made it to Llangorse Lake only to see it overflowed. I guess due to the heavy rain, the lake itself overflowed. Later we got to know that Northern part of England was flooded due to the heavy rain and some people had to cut their holiday short. 

The overflowed Llangorse Lake. See that tiny hut there? That's the counter to rent boat, and its surrounding is flooded. 

Llangorse Lake. Can only enjoy it from afar

The crew

Since it was already 2.30 pm by this time, we decided to head to our accommodation straight away as we were also running low on petrol and the 5 petrol stations that we went to were all closed. I guess people don't really go out on Christmas Day. So, if you're planning to travel on Christmas Day, make sure your tank is full the day before or don't travel at all. 

So, we've checked in at our accommodation at Brigend, had late lunch/early dinner and decided to head back out as it was still early. Hence, we head to Cardiff and just roamed around the City Centre which was literally like a Ghost town. Although one or two convenient stores were opened. Thank God! After about an hour around the town we decided to call it a day.

The Ghost city of Cardiff

Cardiff Castle

Day 2

BOXING DAY!!! Dush Dush..

It's not literally boxing, but I guess it's boxing with people trying to get the best deal in shops. A must day for all shopaholic besides Black Friday. We decided to spent our Boxing Day at Brigend Designer Outlet. Having been to both Cheshire Oak and Swindon Outlets, I was a bit disappointed as I was not able to find the stuffs that I wanted. But I did manage to get a comfy pair of formal suede wedges from Clarks and a few other stuffs that was still within my budget. Surprisingly, we finished shopping by 1 pm ( we though we were going to spend the whole day here).

Brigend Designer Outlet

Since we still had a bit of daylight, we went back for lunch before heading out to Swansea, Three Cliffs Bay specifically. The tide was low and we did a bit of walking while the daylight permits, but the wind was so strong and part of the pathway was flooded a bit. At least we did a bit of walking that we didn't do the day before.

This guy was guarding our car for us. He was just outside the parking lot. 

Three Cliffs Bay, Swansea

The view from the start of the walking route

Travel buddies

After the sun sets, we head to Reyhan Restaurant for a Middle Eastern dinner. The food was quite good actually and the portion was very big. Our stomachs were about to burst since we were so full, so we decided to walk around Swansea city for a bit before heading back to our accommodation. 

Delicious food at Reyhan Restaurant

Abah's Alma mater

Oh Swansea, coming here always feel like home. A place that I used to call home for 4 years. I can't believe that I still able to come here after 16 years and hopefully one day I'll be able to bring my kids here as well to see the place where their mummy grew up. 

To be continued..