If you told me eighteen months ago that I would have to travel three hours across Wales, I would have thought it was for a chore rather than a holiday. Becuase Covid put a stop to my usual travel jaunts, one night in west Wales was ultimately something to look forward to, albeit with no airport floor sleeping and duty-free tobacco.
Since my last holiday to Athens in February 2020, I had missed out on trips to Rotterdam, Helsinki, Dublin, Sofia, France, Belgium, Rome, potentially Azerbaijan… and that’s without any non-football trips.
Aberystwyth was initially booked as a Christmas gift for Mikayla to visit in February, but our hotel was swiftly cancelled early into the new year, so we instead gambled on a weekend in July. I called it a gamble just in case I would have to instead attend Wales in the Euro2020 final, but that wasn’t to be.
We set off from Newport early on Saturday morning with Google telling us it will take 2.5-3 hours to arrive. This doesn’t account for stopping, getting caught behind a tractor or, even worse, someone doing 30mph on a 60 road. Those people driving so “safe” it’s dangerous.
We travelled through the Brecon Beacons, curving around Pen y Fan and a few quaint village towns including Llandovery and Lampeter and had a decent run, but I would still allow 4 hours for the journey to be safe. We arrived an hour before lunch and headed to Aberystwyth castle as planned. There’s not a lot left of the castle (bit rich coming from a Newportonian), but the area sits in a green field with a large play area, mini golf and panoramic views out to the Irish Sea. Although the actual castle remains are minimal, it’s a good open space. At this point, looking out to the horizon with that salty smell/taste in the air, it actually felt like a holiday!
After a leisurely stroll through the small town centre, we had our hearts set on fish and chips and were not disappointed by a friend’s recommendation (The Chip Box 4). Sitting on a promenade bench seemed like a good idea, but after two minutes we were joined by militant seagulls staring at us in the hope of sharing. Although very discomforting, share I did not.
Walking off the food, we ambled to the other end of the promenade where Constitution Hill stands, towering over the relatively flat rest of the town centre. As we got closer our aspirations of walking up soon faded as there was an option to use a funicular, which is a kind of a mountain railway operated by cables with ascending and descending cars counterbalanced.
Now one simply does not refuse a ride on such method of transport, even though this was wooden, slow and creaking, but safe. On a side note, I am led to believe that the funicular I visited in Zagreb was one of the shortest in the world. We thought of the rather pointless one in Ebbw Vale, which can’t be much longer. If anyone with more enthusiasm wishes to check this, be my guest.
Given the views offered at the top of the hill, I certainly consider it a must do if you visit. There’s a cafe on the top and you can join the walking route along the coast. I think I read somewhere that Wales is the only country in the world that has a continuous coastal path around its full water border. In any case, it’s longer than coastal paths belonging to Switzerland, Lesotho and Paraguay (in fairness they don’t have a coast, muahahaha).
To prove that we weren’t THAT lazy, we did indeed walk back down from the hill after a quick drinks break. Once on the flat we were now able to check in to our hotel. I must suggest staying in one of the local hotels in the area but given the consumer aspect of rearranging/refunding and an unlimited breakfast we stayed in the Premier Inn. Given that we were ahead of schedule we were able to have a few hours in the hotel before heading out for tea.
We did intend to visit the National Library of Wales at this point, but unfortunately the exhibitions were still due closed due to Covid, and only pre-booked students could enter the premises. Considering this was one of the initial main reasons for visiting this was disappointing. Nevertheless we did pay a quick visit in the car for a few photos and a nice view of the town – I even caught a glimpse of Aberystwyth Town FC playing a pre-season friendly in the distance (probably not worth a mention but hey-ho).
Wanting to make an occasion out of our very short trip, we booked in to one of the highest recommended places in the town, a Mediterranean restaurant called Medina. It was delicious to us, but I can’t quite tell you how good it was, as we’re just not that used to enjoying nice food! I highly recommend the spiced sea bream fillet and whatever Kay had off the specials board, with a side of posh chips (cumin potatoes FFS) and a breadbasket with olive oils.
With the night still young we made a quick visit to the pier and found the most expensive-looking outlet for an ice-cream to walk along the front (half eaten in the photo, I’m not a professional remember…). It was only at this point I remembered another recommendation from a friend. I “needed” to kick some barrier to bring me good luck. With the possibility of England winning a major championship the next day, there was no way that I was going to pass this up. After having difficulty finding the exact location of said indistinct rail, we walked ALLLL the way along the beach to Constitution Hill and started kicking random metal bars.
We would have looked like complete lunatics, but to be saved by a bloke having a jog who had a delicate clip on one before turning around and getting on with life. Not only did kicking this bar bring the desired luck (football’s going Rome etc) but we were also caught by the setting sun starting to disappear over the horizon. Two hundred photos later, the day was complete.
The next day…
Not many things get me out of bed at 6:45 on a Sunday morning, but the prospect of an unlimited breakfast ticked the box. To no-one’s surprise being the first to be seated, I speedily greedily ordered my 3 sausage, 3 bacon, 3 hash brown, mushrooms, beans, tomato and toast. Disappointed by the portion size of the unquantifiable options, this turned out to be one of two courses! Table service all-you-can-eat just isn’t the same (backed up by the Harvester salad bar and Toby Carvery roast since then!).
Already clock-watching to ensure I had time to get back and have a few pints before the Euro2020 final kicked off, we left the hotel and headed out of town to our first EVER escape room located at the Silver Mountain Experience, about a 20-minute journey based in Llywernog. We didn’t expect it to be this far out so glad we had the car. Ultimate Xscape Aberystwyth is just one thing to at the location, given its name by the silver-lead mine that you can also visit. Being our first game, I couldn’t tell you how easy/difficult the “diamond heist” escape room was, but it was challenging and thoroughly enjoyable. We managed to escape with about 20 seconds remaining, so will look to improve on that when we undoubtedly visit more (The one in Newport is yet to reopen after Covid, however I was surprised to see Cardiff have about 5 different companies all offering multiple adventures!).
For our last port of call, thankfully on the way home, we visited Devils Bridge, a small area crossing the river Mynach. In addition to a steam rail and a nature walk, the main attraction is the “three bridges” bridge that crosses the waterfalls. There are actually three bridges built on top of each other! This blatantly stolen from Wikipedia will explain:
The most recently built, in 1901, is an iron bridge which was erected above the older arches. The original bridge is medieval and the second one, a stone structure, built in 1753 and upgraded in 1777 and in 1814, was erected when the original bridge was thought to be unstable.
There you go. Please do visit the website for a lot more interesting information about the area! As the weather started to turn, we decided on the quickest walk, a user-friendly ten-minute stair climb to the “punchbowl” to get up close to the waterfalls and a decent photo of the bridges. There was plenty of parking a nice restaurant nearby and undoubtedly numerous caravan parks.
So, there we have it, not the most-productive second day in the area, having visited the waterfalls after midday we still made it back (and therefore to the pub) before teatime! Thanks for reading.
How Not 2 Life 