Ruthin Castle and Chester

Good morning everyone!!!! I am so excited as I am on holidays!!! Let me explain: in the UK we have like a handful of bank holidays, by far the fewest in all of Europe. This year, Easter is really late (so no Elf Fantasy Fair that I could make) which gives us two bank holidays and therefore 4 days off. The Prince William is kind enough to get married the Friday after Easter giving us an extra bank holiday *does happy dance*. The the first Monday in May is also a bank holiday. And all of them being so close together, I just got 11 days off for the price of three!!! I didnt book anything (bad me) but I'm sure I will find lots of nice things to do and places to go :)

So here I am, on my roof terrace, in the scorching heat (it's not even 10am and already well over 20 degrees C) blogging outside, how cool is that!

You might have noticed that last week's Mending Week only had 5 days in it. I did have at least one more post and am sure I could have found another, but we were actually away on the weekend as it was the bf's bday :) The only thing he wanted was to sleep in a castle and travel there first class. My job: organising it. Strangely enough, not that easy... Scotland was way too far for a weekend away so I decided on Wales. I found this lovely castle in Ruthin, North Wales which still had rooms available. Of course we wanted a nice room (it was a bday treat after all) so I called ahead and asked what they had. They nicer rooms were extremely girly except for one and that one was exactly the only one left. Score! I got a really good deal online but as I wanted that room I had to call to confirm and they gave me their online rate also. They were so nice! Oh yes, and frst class train travel is definitely the way to go :)

Curious about where we ended up? Let me share some pics with you and tell yo a little about what happened.

Ruthin Castle, taken from the `12th century castle grounds.

It actually took us 1.5 hours to get here from the train station as the cab driver got lost... OMG... I mean, we wanted to see the country side but after an hour we were like: we've seen this already... Luckily we had a pre-agreed price so he didnt charge us extra. It was definitely an experience... hihi

The dark bedroom. It was all black and brown and the books are actually the wallpaper!

As a birthday treat I had requested champagne and chocolates (told you this was a great hotel!)

Then we decided to explore the castle, decending from the well-protected stairs.

The grounds were fantastic! The 'new' castle was actually built right next to the ruins of the old castle so there was much to see :)

I love this picture! Can you believe I took this with my Blackberry?

They had about 6 peacocks and they were everywhere! Very pretty :)

Then it was time for dinner. As this is a wedding hotel (which castle hotel isnt?), we had the dining room nearly to ourselves :)

Starter for me: salmon

Starter for the bf: scallops on black pudding. Might sound strange but so good!

Main course for me: lamb

Main course for the bf: duck

Before arriving I had made arrangements for the hotel to bake a birthday cake for the bf, they brought it to the table and started singing. LOL he said: 'I cant believe you organised a McDonalds birthday at a Castle!' Hihi.... I didnt request the singing but it was so funny! And the cake was wonderfl, it evern had text on it :)

No, these arent al mine... I only had about two glasses of wine. But here you do see the dress that I was going to share on the next day of Mending Week hihi. It took the bf a while to get used to it, it had too many colours ;) The look in this pic is great as it shows real satisfaction after a 7-hour dinner. Pic taken by the bf of course.

After a lovely sleep, we headed downstairs for breakfast where they even served pancakes!! Very happy me of course :) We then headed outside some more as it was a nice and sunny morning...

...of which the bf wasnt entirely convinced ;) I love this pic hihihi

I, on the other hand, loved the sun and happily enjoyed it :) (pic by the bf)

After checking out and getting a cab back to Chester (not taking 1.5 hours this time), we walked around Chester for a few hours. We took so many pictures it would be too many to share here.Chester is in England (so we actually crossed the border hihi) and is a very historic town. If you like that kind of thing and are ever around, a visit would be highly recommended. Only for a day though really...

After hours of walking with our heavy gear and on the way to the train station we actually passed a Games Workshop!! Of course the bf HAD to go in :) Check him out here proudly showing his purahase :)

We managed to get a train earlier back to London, giving us a little more time at home which was great as I was really tired after all that walking... I think the bf had a great birthday, I know I enjoyed it :)

Now to enjoy my Easter break, I will blog when I can but I need to get some sun first, it doesnt come around that often here...