The North Wales Vineyard Bike Tour

Well, who knew? There are vineyards and winemakers in North Wales. Well, we didn't, until Clare was given a gift of a tour and tasting day at a vineyard over near Conwy. After a lot of recent rainfall, the weather came good for us and conditions were perfect to add in a bit of biking to the adventure. Best of all was that we could cycle straight from The Cottage.

The skies had cleared, but the strong westerly gales persisted - perfect for traveling eastwards along the coast. Leaving the Ogwen Valley, we climbed up to Rachub and then traversed the hillside on back roads to Abergrwyngregn.

We shot along the cycle track above the sea and clocked 40kmph on the flat with the wind behind us.

The wind was also making some good waves which were wrapping around the point at Penmaenmawr.

The beach at Pen looked so inviting, that we decided to stop for a bit to give it some appreciation. I've probably driven past here a thousand times on the A55, but never stopped off to check it out.

The dunes were all covered in blue thistles, which I've since been told are called Sea Holly.

We had the place to ourselves...

It took about ninety minutes to get to Conwy, where the tide was in and the estuary full of activity.

As we were passing by so close, we called into Little Prov, for the best coffee in North Wales and a little pick up before the wine tasting began. 

Ten minutes more ride from Llandudno Junction and we found ourselves in North Wales' award winning vineyard.

And there were grapes galore.

After sampling a bit of Rose, the owner gave us a bit of chat and a tour, where we picked up a few facts and tried out some of the tech involved with growing grapes in the UK.

Then it was onto the good stuff - trying the wines that they make.

Which were accompanied by a splendid cheese board.

At about seven, we wobbled our way out of the vineyard and back to Conwy.

Back across the bridge....

And past the Castle, with the hope of finding some more food and drink.

However, we managed to find neither! Things nearly went awry, when we found that I'd miss read the train timetable. Not fancying the battle of a return journey into the wind, we made an exciting sprint back over the bridge to nearby Llandudno Junction station just in time to catch the train to Bangor. Somewhat surprisingly, (having not been out in Bangor very often after dark), we found that all eateries had stopped serving food at 8pm! On a Saturday night too! What a rock and roll town this is! Anyway, to our great delight, 'Wok and Go' on the high street was still serving food for another ten minutes, so while the shop was packed away around us, we procured two fine pots of piping hot noodles and sped off to eat them by the pier in the last of the light.

Feeling much better after the needed feed, we set off up the cycle track that leads (almost exclusively uphill), to The Cottage. Clare, on the e-bike led off with great ease at a blistering pace, while I pumped my legs as fast as they go to stay in her slip-stream...

Thankfully, we have good lights and apart from a few bats, had to share the trail with no one. Arrived back at The Cottage at about ten-thirty, tired, happy and buzzing. A fine tour indeed!