North Wales Trip 2005

The Annual North Wales Trip this year was attended by eight members, a good turnout considering it coincided with the Spanish Tour.

This year we tried a new venue the Grosvenor Hotel in Colwyn Bay, our hosts were to be Derek and Mary who had been very helpful with some last minute bookings I had been requested to make on a two occasions owing to a couple of associates passing the test and wishing to come along.

A good breakfast at Sennybridge, where the group from the west met the group from the east, set us up well for the trip. We were blessed with mixed weather mostly wet on the way up, although the ride was enjoyable and we were dry on arrival at our destination. We used a variety of different roads including one that can only be described as a farm track despite being shown on the map as a B road, thankfully nothing came towards us, but the hotel was only about 100 yards from the end of it. We made various stops and detours en route including a lunch break at Bala.

The hotel is conveniently situated on the edge of town close to variety of eateries and watering holes. The rooms were nice, mostly en suite with tea / coffee making facilities, there was a small lounge area and nice cellar bar with Pool table.

After a clean up and a rest (some had to be awoken) we met in the bar for a couple of drinks before venturing into town for some food, it was decided to dine Chinese style and the meal was enjoyable but somewhat drawn out. Our hunger satisfied we decided to return to the bar in the hotel for a couple more drinks before hitting the sack, well most of us did, two were lured by the night life etc and by the sound of their return they had enjoyed themselves.

The following morning was nice and bright and promised to be a better day and after a good breakfast we said our farewells and set off on the homeward trip, we were taking a more coastal route back stopping at various places including Barmouth and having lunch at Aberdyfi. We didn't run into bad weather until we reached Llandeilo.

This was the first time I have used the Garmin for a trip and have learned that as usual a woman can lead you astray. To be fair I now know that a lot more care is needed when planning a route on the computer before downloading to the Garmin but the system is still not foolproof.

All in all I think it was another successful trip and was enjoyed by everyone and the Grosvenor Hotel is worth another visit.

Paul Donovan.