Llandudno in Wales

I contemplated going to Llandudno in Wales. I've been to Bournemouth and Brighton, and they were disappointing compared to the beaches we have in South Africa. But judging from this picture, Llandudno in Wales looks like it is worth visiting.

My favorite beach in the United Kingdom is in Northern Ireland. I went to Portrush a few times, and even swam in the sea. The sea there is a silver sea, and there are some castles and volcanic rock formations nearby, the most famous is called Giant's Causeway.

I didn't see much of Wales during my 2 year tour of the UK. I went through Cardiff once in Wales, by train, on the way to somewhere else. And I once went over on the Stena Line from Rollslare in Ireland, to Fishguard (Pembrokeshire) in Wales.

Place names in Wales are totally different (and often unpronouncable)to the rest of the Kingdom. The language is totally unique. It's not even Gaelic. Rather, Welsh belongs to a branch of Celtic, which is an Indo-European language. The people are famous for their singing, and if you're ever lucky enough to hear them sing at a rugby match (as I have) you'll get goosy with the emotion they stir up.
The leek, a member of the onion family, has a strong smell, and is the national emblem of wales. (My surname, van der Leek literally translated means from the leek, although Leek is probably a town in Holland, not a vegetable, but who knows...)

Most believe the modern Olympics were born or revived in Athens by French Baron Coubertin in 1896. But Coubertin was inspired by something he saw at Much Wenlock, a little village in Shropshire, just over the Welsh borders. In 1890, Coubertin wrote an article that was published in a Greek magazine. He stated the following:
Much Wenlock is a town in Shropshire, a county on the borders of Wales, and if the Olympic Games that modern Greece has not yet been able to revive still survive today, it is due not to a Greek, but to Dr. W.P. Brookes. It is he who inaugurated them 40 years ago, and it is he, now 82 years of age, but still alert and vigorous, who continues to organize and inspire them.

If I ever find myself back in Wales I will get around to climbing Mount Snowdon, going on a steam train through the Brecon Beacons, or doing a horseriding thing from Cae Iago along the edge of the Cambrian Mountains.

One my dad's best buddies is a Welshman. A retired engineer who used to work in for Ave Arup (the world's biggest engineering company). He was based in London. His brother died earlier this year, doing work in Iraq. My dad met him for a sailing trip around Greece earlier this year.
http://www.britannia.com/celtic/wales/facts/
facts2.html#vegetable