Bodnant Garden, 2022

We visited Bodnant in 2016, and pronounced it the best we'd seen. In 2022, I think we saw it in its prime, and again have to give it the superlative. All these gardens we are seeing are different and incommensurable, but Bodnant has the greatest variety, drama, color, peripheral features, and so on. And then there's the Laburnum Arch, one of the most stunning things one can see in the garden world. Our pix from 2016 are here. But I think our pictures this year even better represent the place. And we saw not much more than half the place before our legs and senses gave out.

The Laburnum Arch, 55 meters of glory

Generations old

Bodnant House, privately owned, not part of the tour (the National
Trust has many different kinds of deals with its benefactors)

Many varieties of trees, but a surprising number of
British magnolias

The conservatory adjoined to the house

Nearly everything in bloom

Ha-ha

Quite a few of these unusual bark trees around...
an acer griseum, from China

Ugly Tree, maxime deformis arbor

Under the Ugly Tree, betula pendula

Three huge beeches in a row

Llandudno, On The Welsh Riviera

We were just the one night in Llandudno, a beautiful old resort town on the Irish Sea, but we made the most of it, taking in the scores of Victorian hotels (including ours), the beach, the Parade, the shopping, a fine fish and chips dinner for me, and a full Welsh breakfast the next morning. It's not the season here yet (July?), cool and cloudy, and although our hotel was fairly full, not much else seemed that way. Llandudno struck us as fairly stuck in time, Victorian time--not a bad place in some ways--but certainly not what would attract younger people these days.

Many Victorian beauties such as this

Our hotel, the Winchmore, is the coral one

Looking down the Parade, the two miles of sand, shingle, and 
pebble beach stretching between the two heads, the Great Orme 
and the Little Orme

Other way, the Littel Orme or possibly the Grand one, with the
19th century pier and amusement park

Lined with hotels its length

Amusement park

No Fidos!

Apart from things like latitude, climate, etc., Llandudno has a
sea gull problem; the front of this hotel looks like it's been carpet-
bombed by the birds; every building along the Parade suffers
similarly

Interesting water feature; locally sourced

Famous Victorian writer, cultural critic

Adverts everywhere, special specials for week-days

Not everything is Victorian

One block over from the Parade is Mostyn road, the shopping/
eating area

Gotta' like a place that sells Monkey Puzzle trees
right on the main drag

Full Welsh breakfast

To Llandudas, Via Snowdonia And Betsy Coed

From Llanfair Caerinion we drove on to our next stop, a hotel on the beach at Llandudno, from which we would visit the great Bodnant Garden, one of Wales, and Britain's many gems. The day's slow drive took us across the Snowdonia national park and old friend Betys-y-Coed, known universally among the English-speaking peoples as Betsy Coed. Below mostly are pix by Vicki, who dislikes mountain driving and distracts herself by taking photos.

Click to enlarge and you'll see a stone fence going right up the
mountain and straight through the immense rockfall; they make
good neighbors 

The usual narrow, twisty roads, with lines down the middle mostly
for bicycle traffic

In a town on the way

Today's fixer-upper

Hard to tell tailings from mountains here

We stopped for lunch in Betys-y-Coed, outside
the train station; we've been there before, mostly
for the scenery and the abundant hiking and
camping stores--at our present age and status, alas,
somewhat of less interest than in bygone years

An old railroad car now serving as a restaurant

Betsy Coed was as amusing and youngish a place
as ever; here, some soft sculpture

A rhino made of bottle caps