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Conwy Castle with Simon

By Friends & Family, Happiness & JoyNo Comments
Simon & Me.

To celebrate my upcoming 35th birthday, my good friend Simon and I visited Conwy Castle in North Wales.

Essential Info

  • Conwy Castle is a well preserved, grand structure that once was a medieval fortress.
  • It was impressively built in just 4 years.
  • Admission Prices can be found here. Due to COVID-19, tickets must be purchased in advance of the visit.
  • Opening Times can be found here.
  • Parking is available, charged using Pay and Display.
  • Conwy Town has little else to offer, apart from the Castle visit.
  • Conwy Castle can be easily found using Sat Navigation or Google Maps.
  • At the time of our visit walking along the inside walls was not permitted.

Here are some photos of the Castle, click on any photo for full size image:

Stairs to Conwy Castle Entrance.
Conwy Castle (outside 1).
Walk Along the Wall (1).
Conwy Castle Wooden Sculpture.
Inside Conwy Castle (2) – The Well.
Inside Conwy Castle (4) – A Tower.
Conwy Castle (outside 2).
Walk Along the Wall (2), view from arrow slit.
Inside Conwy Castle (1).
Inside Conwy Castle (3) – View from arrow slit in a tower.

Inside Conwy Castle (5) – One of the smaller fireplaces.
Inside Conwy Castle (6) – The Bridge.
Inside Conwy Castle (7) – View.
Inside Conwy Castle (8).
Inside Conwy Castle (9) – Window.
Inside Conwy Castle (10).

Blog soon,

Antony

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Thursday 13 May 2021

The Superb Blackpool Zoo – Get CLOSE to the Animals

By Friends & Family, Happiness & Joy, Nature3 Comments

Yesterday a good friend, her son, two of his friends and I went to Blackpool Zoo. It was raining heavily, but we didn’t let the rain dampen our spirits.

Blackpool Zoo is a superb Zoo, I can’t believe I’ve never visited it before. It is the perfect size, allowing you to see everything in a day at a stroll.

Blackpool Zoo has all the animals you’d expect in a Zoo (plus a few more) and you can get really close to them. The animals look happy and well looked after. Here are some photos from the day, along with my comments, click any photo to see the full size:

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The Elephants – Indoors sheltering themselves from the rain.
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The camels didn’t seem to mind the rain or the temperature that was significantly lower than their natural environment.
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Blackpool Zoo has Amazonia an exhibit where you can walk freely in an enclosure with monkeys and other wildlife from South America. It transports you into a rain forest like environment and is where we saw these cheeky little monkeys.
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I saw these gorgeous pink birds and just had to take a photo.
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A white wallaby. I’ve never seen a wallaby in real life, they’re so cute.
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The kangaroos were all taking shelter from the rain. The first time I’ve seen kangaroos. I don’t blame them for taking shelter from the rain, it was bucketing down at that point.
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Sea Lions. The photo was a lucky shot, as they were weaving around and in and out of each other quite quickly. As if they were doing some sort of intricate and improvised dance in the water.
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A giant in the Orangutan world – just look at the size of his face, never mind the rest of him.

I am particularly proud of this awesome photo:

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This photo of a penguin is most probably the best photo I’ve ever taken. The penguin was swimming at great speed, although you wouldn’t have guested. I looked at this photo when I got home and it looks like it was taken by a professional. A total fluke.

Here’s even more photos:

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Blackpool Zoo even has an exhibit of Farm Animals. These animals included two Shetland ponies, goats, donkeys, pigs and sheep (photo is of one of the sheep).
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A pair of attention seeking otters. Wonderfully fun, playful and liked to upstage one another. I love the spirit of these animals.
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Look how close we got to this tiger at Blackpool Zoo. In Chester Zoo I don’t think I’ve ever seen a tiger, let alone been able to get close enough to appreciate its stripy beauty.
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Another of the beautiful tiger. Blackpool Zoo have two tigers from what we saw. The tiger is more than slightly moist because of the rain.
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Lion: *yawn*
Me: I totally understand how you feel. I’ve walked around Blackpool Zoo all day.
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This is how close we got to a Lion. Able to look in its eye and see the intelligence, along with the hunter instinct. He appeared to be eyeing us up as a snack. Blackpool Zoo had two male Lions living in the enclosure together from what I saw. They seemed pretty well bonded and one went and groomed the other while we watched.
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Quickly becoming my favourite animal, the giraffes. What I love about giraffes is that every time I’ve politely called over to one (in different Zoos I might add), they come over. They look at me with their big black eyes and some times, if I’m really lucky, they let me take a photo before they walk off.
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Another photo of the giraffes. I had politely called out to the one in the foreground.

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Essential Info

  • Parking: There is an onsite car park, with overflow parking. It is charged reasonably at £2.50 for the day.
  • Opening Times: Vary throughout the year, click here to see opening times.
  • Admission Prices: Vary throughout the year, but are cheaper if you buy them online.
  • Facilities: Toilets, two gift shops, a cafe, a Starbucks Coffee at the entrance, a small train that takes passengers (for a charge) from one end of the Zoo to the other, an indoor children’s play area (separate to Zoo and doesn’t require Zoo entry), experience days.

Chester Zoo VS Blackpool Zoo
I couldn’t help but compare my many visits to Chester Zoo with my experience in Blackpool Zoo. Chester Zoo could learn a few lessons from Blackpool Zoo including:

  • Have more of the bigger and more popular animals. Chester Zoo’s selection of big and popular animals is pitiful when compared with Blackpool Zoo.
  • Ensure good viewing opportunities for visitors in enclosures. Blackpool Zoo have done this really well. It makes visitors feel that they can get really close to the animals. Chester Zoo hasn’t got this right.
  • Make it realistic to visit everywhere in the Zoo in one day. Currently to see everything in Chester Zoo you need about a day and a half of rushing around.

We had a brilliant time at Blackpool Zoo and I would highly recommend it to you all.

Blog soon,

Antony



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Sunday 9 September 2018

Chester Zoo with Jayne

By Friends & Family, Happiness & Joy, Nature2 Comments

On Monday, my good friend Jayne and I visited to Chester Zoo. The weather was glorious, sunshine, temperatures 30+ °C and not a cloud in the sky. It was so warm that Jayne and I were grateful for Chester Zoo’s unlimited refillable drinks cups for sale at around £10 each.

Jayne hadn’t been to Chester Zoo for years. These days Chester Zoo is massive and I’d recommend that you do visit the zoo over two days to see everything.

Here are photos from the day, click on any photo for full size image:

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The elephant family.
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A close up of the baby elephant.
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The smiley bull elephant.
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Exotic squirrels.
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An exotic squirrel eating a grape upside down.
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My new lover! He’s the strong, wooden, silent type.
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Deer.
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Butterfly (1).
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Butterfly (2).
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An Okapi.
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The Giraffes.
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This gorgeous beauty came to say hello and flirted with me (by winking with her big eye and long eyelashes) when I said ‘Hello Gorgeous.’ to her as she passed by.
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My gorgeous giraffe at a distance.
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The pink flamingos.
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The penguins (1).
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The penguins (2).
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A rhino.

Essential Info

  • A massive zoo with a variety of animals.
  • Opening Times: See opening times here.
  • Admission Prices: See admission prices here.
  • Parking: Ample free parking.
  • Facilities: toilets, restaurants, refreshment stalls, gift shops, experience days.

Chester Zoo is a brilliant day out. It was great to see volunteers around the zoo.

However it’s a large zoo with not enough big animals. Jayne and I saw quite a number of empty enclosures for larger animals. They should put better signage up on the Islands Exhibit to direct visitors back to the main part of the zoo.

The zoo is so huge now, that they really should consider transportation methods in the zoo. The monorail is too limited. Perhaps they could look at golf buggies for hire or something similar. This would enable visitors to get around and see the whole zoo in one day.

Write soon,

Antony

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Tuesday 3 July 2018

The Hadrian’s Wall Adventure (Part 4) – Warkworth Castle & Tynemouth Priory and Castle

By Adventures, Friends & Family, Happiness & Joy, Life, NatureNo Comments
Walkworth-Castle-Simon-and-I-May-18

Simon (right) and me (left) at a services stop for dinner.

 This is the fourth part in my Hadrian’s Wall Adventure with my good friend Simon. You can read and see the photos from Part 1 here, Part 2 here and Part 3 here.

Yesterday Simon and I set out to do the last leg of our Hadrian’s Wall Adventure. It was my birthday. The day was gorgeous, sunny, around 19°C all day and not a cloud in the beautiful blue sky.

There aren’t many specific Hardrian’s Wall sites near the Newcastle end of where the wall would have been. So we decided to do Castles near Newcastle.

Our first castle was the magnificent impressive Warkworth Castle. Before you see the photos, first let me apologise for any fingerprint marks on them. The lens of my iPhone had fingerprint marks on, but I didn’t realise because of the bright sunshine.

Here is Essential Info and are some photos:

Essential Info:

  • A castle including remains and a keep with Duke room’s.
  • Highly recommended.
  • Admission Fee: Adult £7.50 with gift aid (£6.80 without). Free admission to English Heritage Members.
  • Opening times: View here.
  • Parking: Plenty in front of the Castle. However even English Heritage Members are required to pay (rather than the usual free parking with sticker in car). The shop does refund the cost of parking, but this was disappointing and we could seen no reason for this.
  • Toilets: Available in the carpark.
  • Has a very small gift shop. Free audible guides available.

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Entrance to Walkworth Castle.
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Outside of Walkworth Castle.
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The most well preserved keep.
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Remains of Walkworth Castle (1).
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Remains of Walkworth Castle (2).
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A selfie of Simon (right) and me (left).
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An iron fireplace in the Duke’s rooms inside the keep.
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The view from inside the Duke’s rooms.
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A view from an archway (1).
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A view from an archway (2).
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One of the many tunnels to rooms in the remains.

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Our next stop was Tynemouth Priory and Castle. Here is Essential Info and are some photos:

Essential Info:

  • A priory, castle and World War 2 defence station.
  • Highly recommended.
  • Admission Fee: Adult £6.50 with gift aid (£5.90 without). Free admission to English Heritage Members.
  • Opening times: View here.
  • Parking: Follow signs for free parking.
  • Has a small gift shop.

Tynemouth-Castle-May-18-0

The view from the top of the hill near the entrance to Tynemouth (1).
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The view from the top of the hill near the entrance to Tynemouth (2).
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Tynemouth Priory and Castle remains (1).
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Tynemouth Priory and Castle remains (2).
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Tynemouth Priory and Castle remains (3).
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Stone coffins.
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Simon (right) and me (left) in the stone coffins. I couldn’t believe that we both fitted perfectly.
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Tynemouth Priory and Castle remains (4).
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A carving that looked similar to The Green Man on the entrance to the priory.
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Tynemouth Priory.
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Tynemouth Priory stained glass window (1).
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Tynemouth Priory stained glass window (2).
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Tynemouth Priory stained glass window (3).
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Tynemouth Priory stained glass window (4).
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Inside the Priory, photo of Priory door. Reminded me of the door to heaven.
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Tynemouth graveyard and World War 2 defence tower.
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Tynemouth World War 2 defence gun.
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Shells for the gun in bunker.
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Tynemouth Lighthouse.

We had a great time. Next year we are going to visit the fine city of Newcastle including Newcastle’s castle.

Blog soon,

Antony

Edit: 16/05/18 18:30 – Used GIMP to remove some of the finger prints in some of the above photos. If you click on the photos for full size, you will see the updated photos.

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I aim for posts on this blog to be informative, educational and entertaining. If you have found this post useful or enjoyable, please consider making a contribution by Paypal:


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Tuesday 15 May 2018
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