Llandudno Wales Swim Camp And Mini Holiday - 18th February - 22nd February 2020.

Orion Swimming Club Swim Camp.

It's my half term holiday from school and I am going on a four night swim camp to Llandudno in North Wales.  

There is a group of approximately 60 swimmers going on the camp, most of them are mainstream swimmers from the club.  I would find this group a little bit hard to be around due to my autism and anxiety, so my family are travelling with me and we are staying at a different hotel just down the road from the main group. 

On the way to Wales we stopped at Cheshire Oaks Designer Outlets for lunch.

My favorite shop the Haribo store, with every type of sweet you could think of. 

We purchased a years worth of sweets :-).

Llandudno, North Wales - Tuesday 18th February 2020.

Home for the next four nights - St. George's Hotel.

                                                          

They have put the red carpet out for me!

Our room on the third floor.





Room 323.

The Bathroom.

We have a corner room overlooking the seafront.

There are four windows in our room and we have some amazing views.

The sea is very calm at the moment.

The tide is coming in.

The whole view.

We have some visitors that keep looking through our windows.

There is a different seagull at each window.

Sorry no food for you.

This one wanted to watch T.V.

This one kept tapping on the window with it's beak.

 Time for an explore before my first evening swim.

All around Llandudno there are  lot of statues and carved figures celebrating the story of Alice in Wonderland.

 It is thought that Lewis Carroll who wrote the story stayed in Llandudno with  family friends  who's little girl was called Alice, and Lewis Carroll was inspired by all the adventures Alice had on her holidays to write the famous story 'Alice In Wonderland'. 

I love walking on the beach.

So many pebbles.

I love skimming stones on the sea.






Time to join everybody else  for my first of seven swimming sessions over the next four days.

 This one was a two hour session.

 The pool is about a 10 minute walk from our hotel.  On the way back we found another statue, this time the Mad Hatter.

Next Morning - Wednesday 19th February 2020.

My first early morning swim.  At the pool for 7am for some land training then an hour and a half in the pool.

The sun is just rising.

After training a big breakfast back at the hotel.

Time for an explore before my afternoon training session.

A walk on the pier.

Can you see my hotel?





There are lots of amusements and shops on the pier.





It is quite a long pier.

Behind me is where you can get the cable car up to the top of the Great Orme headland.
  (The cable car is not open until March).

Time for some slot machines in the amusements.

I love playing the 2p machines.

You can win tokens on some  machines too. 

(At the end of my stay I had enough tokens to claim a pack of playing cards with the Welsh flag on them).

More time on the beach.

Rock skimming.

Pointing to my hotel.

There is sand on this part of the beach.

Can you see what I wrote?

Llandudno
Coventry City
On Tour
2020.

My hotel again.

One road back from my hotel there are lots of shops and places to eat.

I bought this penguin from the RNLI - Royal Lifeboat Institute.  I saw it in the window and as he has the same name as me. I had to get it.

Swim three completed - One and a half hours in the pool.

 

Time for dinner at an American restaurant called Harvey's.

No Daddy you can't eat it like that!

You cannot go to the seaside without having an ice cream.  No matter how cold and wet it maybe! 

Thursday 20th February 2020.

Morning swim at the pool for 7am.

 Finished by 9am - breakfast, before heading out for the day.


We have more time in between swims today.  So we drove across to the west coast of Wales to near Porthmadog.  Then we drove back through the amazing Snowdonia National Park.

We stopped at some of the stations on the Ffestiniog  Railway.  The trains are not running this week.

Exploring the old station.

There are sheep everywhere.

To the trains, but not today!

Can you see how fast the water is coming down the mountain side?

The water is running very fast due to all the rain we have been having lately.

Next stop - Betws-y-Coed.

First stop the train station.

I enjoyed looking in a model train shop.

This village is known as the gateway to Snowdonia.

The water is again very high and very fast flowing here.

Time to head over the bridge to the famous fish and chip shop.

Wow - they taste amazing.

Time for a walk.

It's a good job this raised path is here because the water is very high.

Having a bit of a climb.

Driving through Snowdonia National Park.

Spot the sheep!

Can you see the snow on the top of the mountains?

The water is flowing really fast down the mountainside and overflowing across the road.

We had all weathers today whilst exploring, including snow!

Back to the hotel for a rest before an
evening swim session 7pm-8pm - just a short session tonight in the pool.

Friday 21st February 2020.

My last morning swim session 7am-9am.



It is very windy today and after breakfast we went for an explore of the Llandudno West beach.

We found the Cheshire cat.

Trying to just stand up is really hard -  it is so windy!  This is the west Llandudno beach.

This special statue is for Lewis Carroll.

The White Rabbit statue to celebrate Alice in Wonderland.

The Queen of Hearts.

Next we walked up to the Happy Valley on the eastern side of the Great Orme.

You can see some great views from up here.

The area is all landscaped and there are some special gardens and  rock areas to enjoy.

Can you see the Alice in Wonderland characters?

This land and fountain were donated to celebrate Queen Victoria's Golden Jubilee.

Here's the white rabbit again.

A special carved wooden seat with the caterpillar.

I really like this area.

A picnic beach with a difference and another rabbit.

What do you think this is?

Another Cheshire Cat.

A stone circle built in 1962.

Back to the hotel for a rest before swimming.

The Under 20 French Rugby team are out training on the promenade.

The main team is playing Wales in Cardiff tomorrow in the Six Nations competition.

I really enjoyed watching them out of my hotel window.  They are staying in a hotel just down from our hotel.

Final swim session.

Back to meet everybody else at the pool for our last training session.


Then we had a little party and a karaoke session at the hotel before bed.

Singing Karaoke with some other swimmers.

Singing with Steve one of my coaches.

Chatting with my para swimmer friend Scott.

Saturday 22nd February 2020.

Everybody is heading home today. 

 Before we head home we are completing the local Conwy 5KM Parkrun.

It is still very wet and windy but the run is on.  It was cancelled last week due to the storm.

Look at that view.

We are off  - we have a castle and boats to look at and enjoy as we run today, a bit different to our normal view at Bedworth Park.

Here's the castle.

Here's Daddy and me finishing.  Mummy has already finished.

We are very muddy and covered in salt water from the wind, but I really enjoyed this Parkrun.

Can you see all the puddles?

What a nice Parkrun.


Time to head home.

I'm feeling very fit and strong from all my training, and it should help me swim even faster at my next gala!

My souvenirs.

We've had a great few days in Wales even though the weather wasn't the best it hasn't stopped us from doing anything :-).