Welsh Mountain Zoo

A weekend sometime long long ago we wanted to go the the Welsh Mountain Zoo and since it's a couple of hours drive from us we stayed over in Betws-y-coed. A charming tiny town or village? Heavily dependent on tourism. Nice cafes though! Perfect for a little stop on your drive through Wales. 

The minute we got out of the car in the zoo and I saw the setting: a cafe in a round building on top of the mountain, green grass field surrounding it, I knew I’d been here before. It just looked so familiar. Mr special said no way. I think the mountain zoo in Toulon? Just looks so similar.

Unfortunately we didn’t see any tigers. There was an enclosure but it was closed off.

Best part was when they let the penguins “loose” for their feeding time. They waddled up and down the grass field. And then the sea lion show started. They introduced them one by one (5 all together) and each went to the water to perform a trick - jumping high up to touch the hanging balls. I did make videos and boomerangs but unfortunately can't post them here :(

All in all a very small zoo - more of a rescue centre? but you do get a little closer to the animals than normally I think. 

Ttyl ;)

Jazzz...

Beast from the East

I've seen more snow here during this winter than I have in the last 7 years!

First time (December?) was awesome! Woke up early to go and take some pics as I'd know it would melt in a matter of hours.

Second time (Jan or Feb) was still thrilling, and there was more snow than before! People went out to make snow men and have snowball fights. Don't think I've ever seen some of my staff so happy :D (the ones who weren't working that is :D). It lasted a day.

Third time we got the Beast from the East and it crippled the town! Well actually in the town we had a reasonable amount of snow (for days on end so people started grizzling already) and nothing horrible as you'd read on the news. Panic! Mkm not here...

Oh wait... except for the fact we were completely cut off from the rest of the world... Most roads in and out of town were officially closed. And if you're one of the ones making fun of the brits for not able to cope with a little snow, just remember they do not have winter tyres! And roads are extremely narrow, and there's a f***** hill everywhere! Would you be happy driving in these conditions? Crazy eh? 

So that happened over the last weekend of Feb. No deliveries were able to reach any of the shops and of course EVERYWHERE ran out of MILK. And we have 5 big supermarkets + a few smaller convenience shops. People were asking on facebook groups "where in town still has milk??????" I don't understand the obsession... oh yeah... tea drinking culture... For the record I hate milk...

Then there were threats of the mini beasts from the east a few weekends after the original... It was supposed to come Easter weekend, totally killing our little tourist town... But the weather was actually quite nice, cold though but sunny.

I think it's only now it's getting warmer... Hey I even left my coat at home yesterday :D Oh I remember my first year here when we had heatwave in March :D

Ttyl ;)

Jazzz....

Austria

First proper trip of the year took us to Austria as we wanted SNOW. I love snow :) and if it's going to be cold it might as well have snow as well otherwise what's the point? Only snow makes the cold tolerable :D

We based ourselves in Linz, which is halfway between Vienna and Salzburg. An hour each way. Aaaaand don't be a muppet like Mr. Special and pay an extortionate amount for train tickets! There are two rail companies ÖBB and Westbahn. And yes we did our research and knew how much the fare was supposed to be... In theory. In reality we walked to the train station found the ticket desk (they gave us a yellow tulip as it was Valentines day! So cute :)) and paid A LOT of money... Mr. Special did question it and the answer he got was that it was an online company with no ticket desks and they do not know how we could buy those tickets... oook... So we had an hour for the train, the other company had two trains in that time and after the first one had been. Mr. Special went to the office to try and get a refund and get tickets to the other train. I was waiting outside and found an information board that said we could buy the tickets from the train or through an app on our phone. Easy breezy. Then he came back and said they were happy to give him a refund. :)

You think he took it?????? OMG he didn't because the man didn't know how to buy tickets to the other train and you get a fine if you board the train without a ticket. So he got scared and blerped... What a weirdo...

So anyway we did finally get to Salzburg - the town of the Sound of the Music: 

First up Mirabell Palace. Unfortunately inside is only a magnificent staircase and a hall where they have concerts at night. I was hoping for multiple rooms etc.

The way to the old town took us over a bridge with locks attached to its railings.

After walking about around town finding out that Mozart's birth place is now a Spar, finding a good Austrian place to eat (schnitzel obvs) we made our way to the top of town to the Hohensalzburg Castle. 

View from the roof, you could only get there with an audioguide tour and a group... We happened to get a school group on our tour... Fun... and the first part of the tour focused too long on the artwork in the first room... But the rest of it was much better (and quicker).

Back down there was a man at the top of the world.

Next day we knew better and got the cheap train tickets to Vienna. We actually bought them on the train and he said we'd get them even cheaper if buying from a Tabac :D

A photo diary from our day: it was all great all good and all cold :D

Third day took us to the little town of Hallstatt. Easily the highlight of the trip! How can you not fall in love with this little gem?

To get there we had to take a little boat trip across the lake €5 return trip. While there we just wandered around, took in the lovely views, got lost on the maze of streets halfway up a mountain range. My perfect day :)

What's up kitty cat?

Views for days man!

One of the biggest sights is the Skywalk viewing platform that you have to take a (rather expensive) funicular to. There are salt mines up there as well but unfortunately they were closed for the off season. When we got there we found ourselves in a big cloud, obvs not the best time to be on a viewing platform on top of the town.

After an extensive photo shoot and fighting for the best spot with another couple (plus a few others but they only took one or two photos and then left :D) we looked around and voila the cloud had cleared! :) Now that's what I'm talking about! :)

Last visit in the town was the infamous bone house. Due to the fact that the cemetery is quite small and room is an issue there was a time when bones were dug up after 10 years of being buried, painted and decorated and put on display. There are about 1200 skulls in this little room.

The morning of our last day we went to the Alice in Wonderland exhibition which was strange as promised. It started with a virtual reality device and then after took us through a church with every room decorated.

Ttyl ;)

Jazzz...