I surprised my girlfriend with a weekend away in Wales. It was our first trip to that part of the world and we didn’t have enough time to venture too far West or North. We stayed in the Vale of Glamorgan, near Barry for two nights.

On the Saturday we ventured out across the Gower Peninsula after a surreal stop in Porthcrawl where the entire town was celebrating the life of Elvis for the weekend. Despite the sunny start to the day we were treated to typical Welsh weather by the time we made it to the beach at Llangennith. The rain hadn’t stopped all the eager surfers who were in their 5-10mm wetsuits learning how to stand on a surfboard while your body shivers uncontrollably.

We spent the whole day driving around the beautiful peninsula and ended up in Mumbles, taking photos of the amazing Mumbles Lighthouse. As a last minute decision we decided to head into Cardiff and catch a comedy show at the Glee Club. The comics were hilarious but sadly we weren’t treated to any local acts.

On the Sunday we passed by Barry Island but kept our stay very brief due to the rain. It started clearing up as we approached Coch Castle and then made our way to Caerphilly Castle. We decided to squeeze one more castle (and a cheese festival) into our trip by visiting Cardiff Castle on the way home. Even though we wanted to be brief they wouldn’t let us in half an hour before the cheese festival closed, so we hit the road and made our way back to London.

The weekend was a great introduction to Wales. Next time we’ll be sure to go deeper into the country and experience the mountains and beaches further North.