Last Two Field Trips

We had our last two field trips this past couple weekends. Two Sundays ago we went to Conwy Castle (above) and the Welsh Mountain Zoo at Colwyn Bay. Conwy is a neighboring town to Bangor and its traditional industry is the mussels industry. When we arrived at Conwy we walked the perimeter of the old town on top of medieval wall there. It was fun because we got a different view of the town and the castle. This wall is mostly intact, 3/4 of a mile long, and has 21 towers. It was built with the castle to act as part of the defence. The castle was another built by King Edward I in the late 1200s, and it is considered to be one of his most impressive. It was a little different than the others because there seemed to be more rooms and less open space in the center, and in the middle of the castle was a giant well. Though the dark winding staircases can get a little tiresome, my favorite part of the castle were the towers.

The zoo was fun. It was small but had some interesting animals. The main reason we went were to see the British species such as the red squirrels and mountain goats but we saw tigers, monkeys, penguins, and other animal too. My favorite part was watching the chimpanzees. They lived in what looked like a giant room with no ceiling and giant glass windows for us to see in. They seemed to have there own little gangs and personalities. While we were watching them, one ran right up to our window and threw itself at it a couple times while yelling. Fortunately, the glass was sturdy, making it awesome instead of terrifying. We also watched a bird show with owls, parrots, and a penguin parade at the end. We were told there is a huge zoo in Chester, so we now want to go there before the end of the semester.

Our last field trip was a little one to Penrhyn Castle, a country house built in the early 1800s. The Pennant family who lived there made their fortune from Wales' slate quarries and Jamaican sugar. It is estimated they bought it for 150,000 pounds which today would be 49,500,000 pounds or $79,200,000. The house is incredible; it has an amazing staircase with intricately carved stone railings, walls, and ceiling. There was a bed entirely made from slate and a Victorian kitchen full of giant copper pots. The family was friends with the royal family and on numerous occasions, they would come stay at Penrhyn, including Queen Victoria herself. There are so many rooms, one could easily get lost, and I decided it would be the ultimate place to play hide-and-seek. Penrhyn also had some beautiful gardens. We visited a walled in Victorian garden which was very beautiful despite the light rain. There was also a swamp garden. It looked like a mix between a swamp and a jungle. It had the ginormous plants with leaves that were 2-4ft big. It was a wonderful day and a perfect place for our last field trip.