The Lady was very tired; I made it to breakfast while she snoozed. A first! I got up before the Lady!

Walked to the Castle from the car park near the B+B. Stopped by “Tower Coffee House” for a coffe and donut. Small incident with a bee in the window, but it was no match for me and the large magazine that hit it. The coffee shop was neat – right inside one of the original Castel Wall towers! Not many places you can have an espresso while looking out a window surrounded by 800 year old stonework! Wonderful view of the bay from the window.

Took a self-tour of Conway Castle. Impressive- built in 1283-87. It wasn’t really crowded, and though it threatened to rain, it held off long enough for us to climb to the top of a few Castle towers and walk around on top of the wall. I bought some Wales souvenirs at the gift shop.

Made our way back to the car, and off to London!

Shortly after starting back to London, stopped at a “Little Chef” (chain restaurant, like Shoney’s). It happened to have wireless Internet access, so I was able to check email and post the first two blog entries of this series. The Lady was able to lookup more specific directions to the Hotel in London. Ain’t technology great? :)

Arrived in London in about 5 hours (it’s about 240 miles from Conwy). Took us another ~45 minutes to find the hotel (Hotel Kensington Gardens; it’s next door to the Best Western Phoenix Hotel, and affiliated with them). London isn’t small. Or easy to get around if you are brand-new and driving!

I had planned to drop off the Lady (and the other bags) and then return the car, but at 10pm I didn’t want to try and find Heathrow (the only National/Alamo car place open on Sunday). So I just parked, we checked in, and then walked down the street to have dinner. Had a nice dinner at Bella Italia on Queensway, around the corner from the hotel. I had “Cassereci Salsiccia Piccante (Spicy Napoli Sausage, roasted peppers, red onion, garlic, and fresh chillies on penne pasta).

BUT, the night did NOT end well. We got up to leave, and my camera bag (which had been hanging on the chair I was sitting in) was GONE. STOLEN! What a bummer. My renter’s insurance will cover it (I hope), but the whole day’s pictures were gone. I had fortunately copied previous days’ pictures to my laptop). I think I had some really nice ones of Conwy and the Castle there.

Scumbags are everywhere. Naturally, *after* I had my bag pinched I started noticing all the signs, seemingly everywhere, saying to “Beware of Pickpockets and Bag Snatchers. You may be being watched as a mark right now” (or something to that effect).