Rhyl
Now since we were off to see my Mum and Dad in North Wales and Mark always wants to go to Rhyl for it’s …, well, I’m not sure why really, he just does, I finally relented and took a detour on the pretence of visiting Rhuddlan Castle. Since we have CADW (Welsh Historic Monuments) membership until October we may as well take every opportunity to use our cards even on minor, out of the way, monuments.
Before visiting the castle we stopped for lunch at the King’s Head pub in Rhuddlan - it was dead, but we were really hungry. Although the paper tablecloths desperately needed replacing we decided to stay and risk it because the restaurant had lots of windows and lovely plants which made it inviting and they really seemed to need the trade. The menu was limited but strangely diverse and we plumped for two butternut squash, spinach and walnut tarts with chips. I had visions of something inedible appearing on a plate in front of me. I was expecting simply to eat a few chips and run for my life. However, I was deeply shocked and delighted to discover one of the best vegetarian pub lunches I’ve ever had. It was delicious and the chips were fantastic. I’d definitely go there again if I was passing. In fact, now I come to think of it, Mark and I have eaten at many pubs in Wales in the past year and every meal has been good, if not excellent. It seems the Welsh are quiet culinary experts. I’m not sure why they haven’t mentioned this to anyone.
After lunch we drove the half mile to Rhuddlan Castle, only to discover it was closed for the winter.
On to Rhyl then. Oh great, a grubby, run down little seaside town, and worse still, out of season. Actually though, that’s not quite true. It is a bit grubby, many of the seafront hotels are crumbling, the fun fair is closed and has yet to be dismantled, there are a lot of ‘bargain’ shops, but we visited on a grey and dreary Monday afternoon in February and it was bustling. Not like it will be in the summer, but it was definitely alive and doing business.
We visited the Seaquarium first - it’s not very big, but it has terapins, tropical fish and seahorses - what more could you want for a fiver? We had it pretty much to ourselves too (there were no kids splashing the water and frightening the fish) which was nice. The obligatory shop is unusual in that it sells trinkets that you might actually want to buy for very reasonable prices - we bought two clownfish eggcups that are very Finding Nemo.
They also let you take photos, which is a bit unusual as many aquaria frown very much on flashes.
Afterwards we went for a bit of a wander around the town and Mark oggled Wiis in Game and Woolworths, but it turned out they hadn’t got any in stock anyway. It turns out that Wales, like the rest of Britain, is a Wii desert, there are no Wiis to be had anywhere. Wiis it seems are as rare as Welsh Dragons, or perhaps more so.
We then took ourselves off to one of the amusement arcades on the seafront. Brilliant. It had a fantastic selection of 2p machines, one of which paid out as much as we put in meaning we sat there for well over an hour winning our money back until we got bored and lost it all on a tuppenny flinger. It had a wheel of fortune at the top and a fruit machine in the middle which helped you win more tuppennies. Normally 2p machines let you win back between a quarter and half of what you put in so you might get 15-20 minutes out of a £1, which in fairness is still quite a lot of entertainment for a £1 these days.
I liked Rhyl I have to say. I wouldn’t want to stay there, but it’s worth half a day if you’re in the vicinity.