In order to make the most of Claudio's last full weekend here, we decided to take a little trip away.
Initially, we'd been thinking of going up to Nottingham to see my old university, or possibly to Manchester, where neither of us have been before. But hotel and train prices are so steep at the moment, that it didn't seem worth it.
I then started looking at places a bit closer to home, like Bournemouth, where prices were better, but still not great considering a lot of hotels were badly reviewed. But looking at the different hotels, many of which had swimming pools, made us realise how much we wanted to go swimming! I hadn't been swimming since August last year, and Claudio hadn't been swimming for over a year, and we both were really missing it.
My dad suggested that we try Swansea - it's the city where my Nana was from, and we used to go on holiday there when I was little. So, I looked up Swansea on Hotels.com, and was very pleased to find a reasonably-priced hotel there - with a swimming pool!
The hotel we chose is part of a chain of hotels called Village Hotels. I'm not sure how long they've been running for, but I just started noticing them popping up on Hotels.com over the last few months. They all have a swimming pool and gym, but are quite reasonably priced (especially the one in Swansea, compared to those in England).
The Village Hotel Swansea is located in the docks of the city, which is quite a picturesque and modern area.
We were pleased to find that our room was very spacious and comfortable, and even had a bathtub.
After checking in, we went off to find some lunch at the India India all-you-can-eat buffet, which is about a 15 minute walk from the hotel. It had lots of different curries to try (including several veggie ones) and all of the delicious Indian side dishes you could wish for, as well as some tasty dessert options. We'd definitely go back!
We walked off our big lunch with a stroll along the beach and the marina. Even though the tide was out and the beach was a bit muddy, it was great to have some sea air.
Back by the docks, we had a look at the Norwegian Church, which is actually now a nursery.
We then went back to the hotel to try the swimming pool!
In fact there was more than just a swimming pool to try out - there was also a sauna, a steam room, a jacuzzi within the pool itself (the same temperature as the pool water), and a hot tub outside of the pool (with hotter water). Although the steam room was a bit too hot for our liking, the other facilities were really nice to use, especially the hot tub.
The only downside was that the pool was open to members of the public as well as hotel guests, so it was busier than we would have liked. We went back again the following morning before breakfast, expecting it to be quieter, but it was actually even busier then.
But overall, it was really nice to swim again for the first time in ages, and to use spa facilities for the first time in years.
After our morning swim and breakfast at the hotel's Starbucks, it was time for us to see some castles!
We started off by walking into Swansea town centre to see the castle there. There's not so much left of it compared to other Welsh castles, but it's still quite dramatic to look at.
We then took the bus down to Mumbles to visit Oystermouth Castle. This is probably one of my favourite castles that I've visited in
Wales! Not only is it a beautiful building, but it also has amazing views over the sea.
You can pay to explore the entire castle, but we chose not too, as there's actually a lot you can look around for free. We spent quite a while there taking it all in.
Next, we went for a stroll along the seafront, picking up some delicious gelato at Verdi's along the way.
Past the pier, you can find Bracelet Bay beach, which is a really unspoilt beach with stunning views of the lighthouse.
We spent a really nice time there paddling in the sea and enjoying the views.
Overall, we had a great couple of days in Swansea, and felt like it was a nice contrast to previous trips we've taken. We realised that during a lot of our recent trips, we've walked for miles each day seeing different sights and often queuing at overcrowded attractions. While we love sightseeing, we definitely do not love crowds, and although we've still got a couple of very touristy places on our bucket list, we'd like to generally stick to more peaceful areas for our holidays in the future. We're not the sort of people to spend a whole week on a sunlounger without going anywhere, but we did appreciate the slower pace of this trip. We still walked lots on both days, but we didn't have to queue even once, and we felt quite restored after the trip, rather than exhausted!
Changing the subject to what's coming next on this blog, the truth is that I don't have any travels planned for the time being. We've got some BIG plans for December and January, but we want to save up a bit before then. Hopefully, once Claudio's got his visa, we'll do some little trips together, but for now, I'm going to focus on creating different kinds of posts rather than just write-ups of trips we've done. That's actually quite exciting, because I haven't really had the opportunity to try different things on this blog for a while, and I've got lots of ideas! My next post will be about a topic I find very interesting, and hopefully it'll be here on this blog in a week or two...
