Five things I really liked about Anglesey

1. It looks like Brittany...

Gill and I have a tendency to scoot off to the Med at the drop of a hat. However, closer to home, we have a real soft spot for Brittany. It was the first place abroad that we visited together, and when the kids were small we had some really great 'bucket and spade' summer holidays there - it is somewhere I envisage we will always return to. Anglesey, however, looks incredibly similar, particularly when you follow the narrower lanes around the coast, there is just something about the modern white-washed houses, the low rolling hills, the rocky inlets and sweeping sandy bays that reminds you of particular patches of the Breton coast. The advantage is..it's a tad less than three hours from our front door, even trundling along in Maisy at a steady 55mph.

Like the Crozon Peninsula (apart from the mountain in the background)

Like the area just to the east of St Malo (apart from the mountains in the background)

Like one of the inlets from the Gulf of Morbihan...honest!

2. Beaumaris -  friendly, charming and stylish in an old fashioned way...

Nice small pier

Overlooking Snowdonia

We had lunch at the cafe across the road - good food, chaotic service!

Fine castle

with somewhat truncated ramparts....

Gill with a gill, a somewhat eccentric alternative to a milk jug.

3. Newborough Forest

The estuary-side cycleway verges, covered with wild flowers

Lovely woodland walks

Wild carrot?

4. Penmon Lighthouse

Ok, it's not exactly Point de Raz, but it has stripes, a bell that regularly goes dong, in a dull metalic tone and, much to Gill's delight, a stepped shingle bank that has a satisfyingly pebbly scrunch as the waves break on it. The short clip below celebrates all these little excitements, as well as containing a snippet of conversation concerning dock leaves and other sundry maritime flora....

5. Kingsbridge Camp Site

A very blue 'green' campsite

As you might have gathered from previous posts, a favourite rant of mine concerns British campsites (overpriced, bungaloid, over-controlled...etc), and British campers... It would be great to say that the above site was not full of middle aged caravanners with a penchant for reading the Daily Mail a tad too publicly  (personally, I  have no issue with other people's taste for smutty reading matter, I just feel, in the interests of good neighbourliness, it would be better if they indulged unsalubrious predelictions in private). Sadly, UKIP man was out in force.

However, one cannot blame the campsite owners for the character of their clientelle, and I have to say, in every other respect Kingsbridge was a really great place to stay. Quiet, clean to the point of gleaming, with friendly, helpful owners, who were efficient but inconspicious. I really appreciated their efforts  to be 'green' minded, something that has earned them a 'David Bellamy gold award' for conservation. Well done! Their website homepage contains the following stap-line: "We believe in working with nature to minimise our impact on the environment, we care for the land we use for all to enjoy." Nice to see that, instead of some fatuous, David Brent inspired gobbledigook concerning quality or meeting customers needs.

So there you have it, I've found somewhere to stay that I'd look forward to returning to and its even north of Calais.....perhaps it's English campsites that get on my nerves...maybe Wales is the way to go....

A short clip of Kingsbridge life, birds tweeting away, and a particularly fatuous conversation regarding the question of whether feet should be included in any BBQ related footage.