Today I was So Happy

21 Miles (34km)

So I wake up in the big soft bed, with a feather pillow in a fantastic remote B&B right up on the coast. I can hear soft rain falling on the windows and I'm reading Harry Potter (still).

I get up and have the most amazing full breakfast I've had for ages including wonderful smoked salt... Yup, smoked salt. We then go back to our room and spend perhaps an hour (perhaps an hour and a half) finding reasons not to leave, reading Harry Potter mostly. By the time we leave it's stopped raining; win!

Now this is really where the happy begins: out of the yard and down the road, wet glistening road and an easy ride into Beaumaris. The castle is fantastic, it's huge, round and you can walk all through the walls, it's basically as good as any small man's imagination could want. A few photos taken, oh and the fact they invited our bikes through into the castle against policy.


From the outside


Inside one of the towers


The chapel


From the top of the walls

Then as if just to lift my spirits even more, we found this little bakery and £7 later I had a full load of bakery treats and drinks for lunch for both of us.

In the afternoon, after some lolling in the town square, we rode across the giant bridge and over towards Llamberis.


Just outside Llanberis

Beautiful and hilly; we rolled into town enjoying views we missed out on last time in the dark and rain. We rode down the high street enjoying the names of interesting shops to explore later flashing by - it was even better than last time. I really love this town.

The place where we are staying has the most awesome shower, powerful and hot. I say again, powerful and HOT. Then I flipped open the laptop, hooked into the free wireless and found a site live broadcasting Le Tour with 20min to finish on stage three. It turned out to be a fantastic finish with a significant break away succeeding, a wonderful sprint by the Manx Missile and Lance picking up 20 seconds on Contador.

By now I have a huge grin on my face, but I'm not done yet. You see I've been talking about 'The Spice of Llanberis' since we got home last time, and we popped in again for dinner. Would it live up to expectations ? Oh yes, a mixed grill, naan bread and a pint of Cobra beer. Totally fantastic.

Today I was so happy.