So it's been a while since the last update which saw us leaving Llangollen on the road to Llandudno. We visited a few castles along the way and also Valle Crucis Abbey, well worth a visit. Eventually we rolled into Llandudno, checked into the hotel, slung the gear and headed out into the great metropolis. Weather was good so we walked the very long beach promenade and it took ages to get into the town centre. We saw a big Wetherspoon boozer and headed into the very Grand Palladium, this pub is the former Palladium cinema, built in 1920 on the site of the Market Hall. Say what you like about Wetherspoons but think about all the beautiful buildings they have saved and this is yet another one - It's vast and I'm pleased to say was doing a rip-roaring trade. Long may it continue. Being the degenerate gamblers we are we hit the slotties. This was quite amusing as Grant got ID'd by a young spotty who was working there. Not bad for 29 years old. Anyways, we bailed from there and meandered up the backstreets back towards the hotel - This a busy place and seems to be doing pretty well commercially. Heck, they've even got a lot of different Bank branches here from Barclays to Santander, you don't see that very often, so the cash must be flowing here. There's lots of independent shops, pubs and restaurants. One particular boozer I liked was the Apple and Cask - basically it did what it said on the tin and was selling an array of interesting ales and ciders. We visited this place a few times and the locals were friendly A big shout out to Craig and Rosie if you're reading. We stayed a couple of days and visited a few castles and then headed down the coast for a few days in our caravan near Llanarth. We managed to get a few walks in and did a bit of fishing on our little boat. Highly enjoyable. So that was June Sewn up. We managed to make the most of July and August's good weather and spent most weekends out west.

Staying Alive

September saw Lord Gibbs and myself heading to Northern France. Clive and Gail were heading to Southern France and said why didn't we grab a lift with them and we could spend a couple of days in Arras. This was an offer we couldn't refuse as Lord Gibbs has been trying to visit the war grave of his Grand Father for a while now. Gail and Clive had visited the site previously so knew how to get there. It took a few hours to get to Arras, Clive did the driving, I did the coughing (had a bad cold). First time I've been on Le Chunnel train - I was expecting my old mate Claustrophobia to show up and give me a case of the massive hee bee gee bees - but thankfully that didn't happen as there's actually Richard, a fair bit of space on that train, you can get out of the car and stroll about the train carriage. So that helped enormously. We all stayed in a nice apartment in Arras - turns out it was a ten-minute walk to the impressive town square - which we frequented on quite a few occasions for some excellent food and grog. The purpose of the visit was to visit the war grave of my Great Grand Father - He lost his life in the last month of the Great War. He was 29 years old. His resting place is in Morval in a very small plot which contains the headstones of 56 soldiers from the Welsh Regiment and a lone headstone of a German Soldier who fell in the same location. This area is around the Somme and there are absolutely hundreds of war memorials. Every politician from around the world should be taken here and shown every memorial. We visited a couple of the larger memorials and rounded off the day at the absolutely huge National Canadian Memorial at Vimy. Canada's memorial to their 60,000 fallen. This memorial is built on the battlefield and all the craters are visible. A trip to this area will leave you with a sense of despair. We visited the source of the Somme and that was a very pretty area with large lakes and very picturesque. We ended the evening at the town square in Arras. This place is also very much worth a visit. A big thanks to Clive and Gail for getting everything organised for us. A trip we won't forget in a hurry.