This is our report on the final day of our 3 day Welsh adventure. You can read the other parts here.

Castell Coch

The third day in Wales started out quite foggy and as we weren’t sure how the weather would develop, we drove to Castell Coch.

Castell Coch is set within thick woods and the fog that surrounded it on the day gave it a mystical aura. It could have easily been in a Harry Potter movie.

Kitchen inside Castell Coch

The Castle was built in the 19th century on the foundation of a much older Castle.  It is very well maintained and we especially admired the intricate works of art which were crafted into the ceiling of the main rooms. Visitors can get an audio guide and find their way through the Castle. The audio guide was really good and took you back in time.

Unfortunately for our companions, it was once again only available in English and Welsh language.

Castell Coch is a decent location for a rainy day.

Ceiling inside Castell Coch

As the weather had brightened up by the time we finished exploring the Castell, we headed to Wiggleys Fun Farm.

Wiggleys Fun Farm

Donkey at Wiggley’s Fun Farm

This is mainly an attraction for children but adults that have kept their inner child are also welcome to visit. My father grew up on a farm and I remember fondly visiting my grandparents’ farm during the summer holidays. The Fun Farm took us a little bit back there and he really enjoyed it.

Amongst others, they have very hungry pigs, naughty goats and some adorable ponies.

Visitors can also purchase special animal food to feed them. We purchased three bags and fed the animals which was quite fun. Thinking about it, fun is really the only sane explanation for paying to feed someone else’s animals. This is quite a smart thing to do for farms and zoos.

Aside from the animals, there is a kids playground (indoor and outdoor) and you can do short and easily accessible woodlands walk.

Another great fact about the farm visit is, that it was the first place we’ve been to where adults pay substantially less entrance than the children.

From fresh farm air we headed towards the ocean to get some fresh sea air at Coney Beach in Porthcawl.

Wiggleys Fun Farm in Wales

Coney Beach in Porthcawl

Coney Beach in Wales

This beach also had a fun fair which, according to Wikipedia, seems to have had numerous fatal incidents since 1994.

Fortunately, we weren’t there for the fun fair and just to suck in the warm sun and ocean air.

Near the beach were also some strange rock formations which made it seem a little bit like another planet.

It is a great place to go for a walk and the perfect ending for the 3 Day Welsh Adventure.

Details of the visit of Castell Coch

Opening hours

1 Mar – 30 Jun: Daily 9.30am – 5.00pm*
1 Jul – 31 Aug: Daily 9.30am – 6.00pm*
1 Sep – 31 Oct: Daily 9.30am – 5.00pm*
1 Nov – 1 Jan: Mon to Sat 10.00am – 4.00pm and Sun 11.00am – 4.00pm*
Closed 24th, 25th, 26th of Dec and 1st of Jan
*Last entry 30 minutes prior to closure.

Entry fees
Adult: GBP 6.00
Family: 16.20 (2 adults and up to 3 children)
Children under 16, Students and Seniors GBP 4.20
Children under 5: Free
Disabled and companion: Free
Website of Castell Coch

Details of the visit of Wiggleys Fun Farm

Opening hours
Mon – Fri (during school term) 10.00am – 6.00pm
Sat – Sun 10.00am – 5.00pm
School Holidays 10.00am to 5pm
Xmas Eve, New Year’s Eve and Day: 10.00am – 4pm
Open 363 days/year except for Xmas day and Boxing day

Entry fee
Children over 90cm: GBP 5.95
Children under 90cm: 3.95
Babies in arms Free
Adults: GBP 1.00
Adults (with one paying child): Free

Website of Wiggleys Fun Farm

Sunny Afternoon at Coney Beach in Wales

This is the report on day 2 of our 3 Day Welsh adventure. You can read the other parts here.

The next morning we headed to Chepstow which is a beautiful historic market town in Monmouthshire, Wales. It is located on the border to England and one can easily walk across the river Wye via the Old Wye Bridge to Gloucestershire in England. Since May the bridge is undergoing restoration works and when we visited only pedestrians can go across it.

The town is crowned by its majestic Chepstow Castle (see entry details at the end of the article). The Castle ruin originates from 1067 when William Fitzosbern began building it after the Norman Conquest.

Especially its size and the views over the area make it a must see sight. You can spend quite a while exploring it.

Chepstow Castle Interior

You can get free brochures (in English and Welsh language) at the ticket office that guide you through the Castle. They had a brochure in German language but this one cost an extra GBP 2.50. The additional fee seemed quite odd especially as it wasn’t anything special compared to the other brochure.

Chepstow Castle

Overall the sights we visited in Wales don’t really seem up for providing other language brochures or audio guides. This was quite disappointing and felt somewhat arrogant in comparison with some other European countries and surely won’t help the local tourism. When asked, one of the local tourist info offices said they used to print them but now people have the internet to translate – not a great help to a casual visitor there for the day. Of course you don’t expect Swahili but a basic leaflet in French/German/Spanish/Italian/Mandarin would be appropriate.

Chepstow Castle is set on a hilltop cliff right at the river and this is where we headed to after the Castle.

You can walk along the scenic Welsh coastal path at the river. We walked until the point where the main road bridge was crossing the river. You can also see the old Severn Princess Ferry there.

The Severn Princess

It is the last one of the River Severn ferries that used to operate on the River Severn.

We don’t usually bother visiting smaller churches in Europe but our guests were curious about the local church and so we headed there next.

The priory Church of St Mary was established at the same time as the Castle in 1067. It is beautiful little church and worth seeing when you are in town.

Aside from the above, Chepstow has a small variety of shops to explore and one can walk through the historic town gate.

Church of St Mary in Chepstow

After the church we headed back to our car which was parked in a carpark not far from the town gate. At the car park we had another humorous moment. My father and his lady friend own a German version of a Vauxhall car (i.e. an Opel in Germany). They had never seen their car with the Vauxhall logo on and they wanted to take a photo of it.

In the carpark were several Vauxhalls parked. The funny thing was that they chose to photograph the one parked right next to us and whilst they took a while to get their camera out of their bags, the owners of the Vauxhall returned to their car just as my father’s girlfriend found her camera and started to point at their car.

The elderly Welsh couple was a little bit puzzled…especially as they were told in German that they only wanted to take a photo of the Vauxhall sign. They didn’t understand what my father’s companion said and when I realized what was happening, I quickly joined in to translate it. The Welsh remained confused and so we quickly took the photograph and they drove away. They must have been looking for the hidden camera…

As the day was soon coming to an end, we drove to Barry Island. Barry Island is a seaside resort. There is a scenic beach, a fun fair and small cafes and pubs where one can enjoy some time near the ocean.

I had been to smaller beaches in the UK before but never realized that some of the major beach resorts in the UK usually have a fun fair nearby which seems to be there long term rather than just a few weeks like I know it from Germany. We purchased an ice cream and then headed to Friars Point for sunset. It is the perfect spot to see the Whitmore Bay with Barry Island Promenade and on the other side you can look into the sun setting beneath Barry Harbor.

Barry Island Beach Promenade in Wales

Note: You can purchase a print of the Barry Island Beach Promenade photo – just click on the image to get to the sales page.

Details of the visit of Chepstow Castle

Opening hours (last entry 30 min prior to closure time)

1 Mar until 31 Oct: Open daily from 9.30am until 5.00pm
1 Nov until 28/29 Feb: Mon to Sat 10.00am until 4.00pm and on Sun 11.00am until 4.00pm
Closed 24th, 25th and 26th of Dec and on 1 Jan.

Entry costs:
Adults: GBP 6.00
Seniors, students and children under 16: GBP 4.20
Family (2adults and all children under 16): GBP 16.20
Children under 5 as well as disabled (disabled with companion) admitted receive free entry.
Website of the Cadw – government office looking after the castle

This is the first days’ report of our 3 Day Welsh Adventure. You can read the other parts here.

In October we took my dad and his girlfriend from Germany with us on one of our adventures. It was a travel adventure for them as neither of them speaks English and hadn’t flown for a while. We flew from Frankfurt am Main to London Heathrow. Frankfurt is not one of our favourite airports for several reasons – security is at the gate (so you cannot really relax in the lounge or take any water or soft drinks through to the airplane), and it is not a particularly pleasant design.

British Airways Airplane at Heathrow Airport seen from rental car pick up area

The plus were that the security staff on our flights were friendly and one lady even praised me as I was so organized with my hand luggage 😉 if she only knew how much training we had over the years. Prior to our flight we were waiting in the Japan Airlines Lounge. The lounge wasn’t anything special. They served some spirits, beer, wine and soft drinks and the food was limited to Frankfurter sausages, sandwiches and cake. Overall it was ok for European standards. If you were to compare it with other JAL lounges, then it was rather below average.

I thought my Dad might be amused by the special Japanese toilet but something else came to his attention.  At one point he remarked “Everyone is on their laptops!” He is old school and likes to chit chat with strangers. They were a bit nervous on take-off but everything went well and at the end my Dad reminded us of the days on holiday charter flights when some passengers would clap for the pilot after landing (fortunately he didn’t clap). Back then I always thought to myself “no one claps for me when I finish my work…”.

It was quite fun travelling with them especially my Dad’s commentary in the midst of the usual silent business travellers. Whilst Paul was sorting out the rental car at Hertz Heathrow, we were watching the airplanes coming and going. The rental location is immediately adjacent to a runway and it must be heaven for airplane fanatics.

This photograph shows you the welcome sign when entering Wales.

From the airport we drove for about 2 hours to Newport in Wales where we settled into our hotel and later on we ate dinner at a British carvery chain restaurant. We always wanted to show them this British roast meal experience where for a low price you can choose from a variety of freshly cooked roast meats (often turkey, beef and/or pork) with a wide variety of vegetables and potatoes.

Day 1 Drive Brecon Beacons National Park and visit Carreg Cennen Castle

After a good sleep, we all met up for breakfast the next morning during which I quickly rescued my dad from an unintended taste of Marmite as he thought it was jam 🙂 Marmelade is a similar German word which means jam. Marmite is a salty savoury paste that should be sparsely spread onto bread. It is quite good on a sandwich or toast but is not comparable at all with sweet jam!

Thereafter we headed to the Brecon Beacons National Park which is one of three National Parks in Wales. We headed to Abergavenny and thereafter drove via the A40 along the northern part of the National park to our destination which was Carreg Cennen Castle. The weather started out a bit foggy but the higher we got into the mountains the better the weather became. We were so lucky with the weather there and the drive was beautiful. We drove past picturesque villages, enjoyed mountain vistas and of course encountered the Welsh sheep along the road.

*Sheep In The Welsh Countryside* You can purchase a print of this image – just click onto the image to visit the sales page.

At one point the road became very narrow and it was delightfully enclosed by hedges. About 10 minutes before we reached the castle, we reached a crossing and stopped to take in the view over the area. You could see the castle set on the hill and the surrounding area. It was simply beautiful. Thereafter we headed to the castle and parked for free near the tea room and craft shop. The Castle ruin originates from the 13th century and is right on the edge of a 100 metre high cliff. From below it almost seemed as if this cliff was especially carved for the Castle. Prior to our exploration we quickly had some lunch at the tea room and craft shop. The food was fine and so were some of the staff members.

As it was a beautiful day, we decided to skip visiting the actual ruin and instead take the walking path around the castle. There are two trails (one short and one long) and they are freely accessible. You only have to pay if you want to walk up to the Castle itself which is accessible via a gate separately from the two trails. The path to both walking routes starts just to the left hand side near the main entrance to the Castle ruin.

Entrance to Carreg Cennen Castle and the woodlands walk

At first you walk downhill. You will soon reach the woods below the castle and a bridge across the Cennen River. If you were to cross the bridge then you could take the longer route which is about 5 miles long.

Walking trail around Carreg Cennen Castle

Our companion adventurers preferred the shorter route which is about 2 miles long and so we didn’t cross the river but followed the main path to the right below the castle and then walked back up along the road until we were in a field near the car park.

At one point I was a little bit behind the others when an Australian lady came past me. She soon reached the others. Paul said hi and then ahead of him some ways she came across my Dad and his lady friend and greeted them with “Hi, how are you?” They didn’t realize that I was quite a bit behind and that she was talking to them and somehow they did not respond and all. The only response the Australian had left was “really nothing?” My dad then then talked to her in German and she was like “sorry I don’t understand foreign, bye”. Paul had heard all of this and it seemed quite amusing.

The field near the car park offers a great angle for photographs of the Castle. If you are going into the actual Castle then make sure to bring a torch with you as this allows you to go to through the underground tunnel to see the natural cave within the rock that was used as a storeroom and Dungeon.

Carreg Cennen Castle view from field

After the Castle we drove back to Newport. The quickest route would involve more of the M4 but it is not really nice to drive along motorway when trying to take in a place and so we took the A465 and thereafter the A470.

The A470 is supposed be one of the most scenic roads in the UK which is probably true if you were to drive through the National Park, however, we just drove along it after the Park and by then it wasn’t as spectacular. We actually preferred the route that we had taken in the morning. On our way back we went to a Sainsbury’s, a UK mid-range supermarket chain. The self-service checkout (where you scan your own shopping and pay a machine rather than interact with a cashier) was another new thing for my Dad and his lady. They don’t have this where they live in the German countryside.

Details of the Castle

Opening hours

Summer from 09.30am until 05.30

Winter from 09.30am until 04.00pm

The entire site is closed (including car park) daily at 6.30pm.

Entry fees

Adults: GBP 4

Students (with ID), Children (5 to 16yrs) and pensioners: GBP 3.50

Families (2 adults and children under 16): GBP 12

Click here to visit the website of Carreg Cennen Castle

*View of Brecon Beacons National Park along A470* You can purchase a print of this image – just click onto the image to visit the sales page.