With a pretty dismal looking local forecast, and with no urgent commitments that needed dealing with, Clare and I decided to leave tow mountains, and head to ‘the city’ for change of scenery.

On the drive out, we stretched our legs with a walk along the promenade At Penmaenmawr and to view the ‘fish’ art.

Clare had done her usual job at researching us a fine place to stay, resulting in us having a really cool quirky hotel to check into on arrival.

We had a fun afternoon of window shopping, went for pre-dinner drinks in a cool bar and got dressed up for dinner. All the stuff that you can’t really do like this in North Wales! We pretty much also had a private breakfast room, as mid-week in January was about as busy as you’d imagine it might be. Breakfast cooked to order among some wild decor!

They must have had a great designer at the hotel as although everything seemed chaotic and random, it all ‘worked’. I enjoyed the tea cups and the squares of perspective trickery on the ceiling.

I also enjoyed the hall way decor outside the rooms. I’ve no idea what it was all about, but it was fun and suited us nicely.

We’d left home on Monday, intending to visit the climbing wall near Chester, but after 24hrs of cafes and bars we both fancied some fresh air. Clare had never visited the Clwydian Hills, so we detoured there on the way home.

The weather wasn’t ideal, but good enough for an ascent of the highest peak in the range – Moel Famau.

The views came and went as the clouds blew through and rain showers passed by.

There was even a bit of sunshine for final kilometre.

A fine hike. Just over 5km and with 200m of height gain. Enough to get my lungs working, but not too much to wear them out!

Arrived back at The Cottage to be greeted by the neighbours, who told us that we’d missed a huge storm last night! We got the fire lit and hunkered down for the evening as the gales returned… A brilliant little mini-holiday to what felt like another world!