Holiday On Anglesey

The teddy bears have been enjoying their latest holiday on the Isle of Anglesey, just off the north-west corner of Wales. It's one of their favourite places. On their way to the cottage they were staying in, they called in at Penrhyn Castle. They had visited there the previous year when Charlie had been captivated by the trains on display. This time they looked round the gardens.

The grass under the trees was covered at this time of the year with an astonishing number of daffodils, their yellow heads bobbing in the wind and brightening up quite a dull day. Lizzie was reminded of William Wordsworth's poem "Daffodils" and couldn't help reciting a few lines which seemed very appropriate.

"When all at once I saw a crowd, a host of golden daffodils; beside the lake, beneath the trees, fluttering and dancing in the breeze."

They hurried on from the castle as the clouds started to gather, and they were soon at their holiday cottage, settling in.

The weather hadn't been very promising when they set off, but it did improve as the days went by. Anglesey is only a short distance away from mainland Wales where the high mountains of Snowdonia are. They could see the mountains from the cottage they were staying in and, after a particularly cold and wet evening at the cottage, they woke up the next morning to see that the mountains were all covered in snow!

"Gosh!" exclaimed Edward. "Look at all that snow! And yet the fields around here are all still green and there's no snow anywhere! How does that happen?"

"It's because the mountains are so high up," explained Scary. "The higher up you are, the colder it gets and the more likely it is that rain in the area will fall as snow."

"If I zoom in with my camera," said Bubbles, "or you look through your binoculars, you can see how thick the snow is up there. It's more like staying in the Alps than in Wales!"

Because there was no snow in the lowland area their cottage was in, the bears decided that it was a nice day to go out exploring. They had visited the South Stack Lighthouse on previous visits but they liked to go and use the big telescopes there to watch the sea birds flying over the sea, or sitting on their nests on the cliff face. Their favourite bird of all those they saw was the puffin.

Puffins are really comical-looking birds. Lizzie likened them to parrots because their beaks are so colourful. In fact, they are known as 'parrots of the sea'. Some people liken them to clowns too because of their bright colours. The bears had seen real puffins a couple of times when they had visited Elin's Tower, though those times had been later in the year. They didn't expect to see any puffins so early in March.

As they came up to the tower though, Richard exclaimed "Look! A puffin!"

Everyone looked where he was pointing and then all burst out laughing. There was a large plastic display model of a puffin right outside the building! Very funny!

?" They went into the tower and looked through the telescopes and on the screens available, at all the different other seabirds flying around or resting on the cliffs. There were seagulls, guillemots and razorbills, and in the heathland behind there were choughs which are quite rare to see.

After a while the bears decided to walk up to the Visitor Centre where there was a café where they could enjoy some warm drinks - it was a little on the chilly side at this time of the year. There was also an RSPB (Royal Society for the Protection of Birds) shop that they could look round and Bubbles bought another bird book to add to his collection.

They then set off for a nearby seaside village called Trearddur Bay. It had several nice restaurants where they could have a yummy meal - specialising in fish dishes as they were so close to the sea. And then there would be a visit to the RNLI (Royal National Lifeboat Institution) shop where they could buy a few interesting items, mainly on a marine theme, and their money would go towards keeping lives safe at sea.

Edward had found a jigsaw showing a picture of an exciting lifeboat launch. Vicky needed some new pencils so bought them there so that her money would also be going to a good cause. Charlie bought a new notebook to keep track of all his measurement and projects. There were lots of fun things to buy.

They followed this visit up with a walk along the beach, watching the sea foaming and waves breaking on the rocks. They were quite wet with spray as they ran up the steps onto the promenade where they had a better (and drier!) view of the sea.

It had been a long day and some of the little bears were getting very tired. The bigger bears gave them piggy-back rides to the carpark and their transport back to the cottage where they made cups of tea all round and settled down onto the comfy sofas and chairs to chat about what they had seen and done all day. Tomorrow would be another fun day but first they needed a warming meal and a good sleep.

If you have never visited Anglesey before, why don't you try it for your next holiday? There are lots of things to see and do for even the smallest bears!