Caerphilly Castle

First up is Caerphilly Castle which is one of the biggest fortresses in Europe, and the second largest in Britain, behind only Windsor Castle. The castle dates from the 13th century and lots of later castle designs were based on this one. Caerphilly was the first concentric castle in Britain and in the late 13th century, it was a revolutionary masterpiece of military planning. It was built by Earl Gilbert de Clare, at beginning of 1268 to frighten Llewelyn, the last native Prince of Wales from fighting the Normans in the southern part of Wales. By the 15th century it had fallen into disrepair but the Marquesses of Bute, (who I'll mention again later on) bought the ruin in the late 18th century and along with successive marquesses carried out extensive restoration of the castle. It has been used as a filming location for numerous TV shows like Doctor Who and Merlin.

There are trains from Cardiff to Caerphilly every 20 minutes and it's only a short walk from the train station so even if you're only visiting Cardiff for a weekend you will have time to see this enormous monument that dominates Caerphilly town centre. The park behind the castle is the perfect spot to have a picnic and make sure you take some bread to feed the ducks in the moat.

Castell Coch

Castell Coch (Red Castle) is a 13th century medieval castle that was restored by 3rd Marquess of Bute and Lady Bute in 1871.(I said he would crop up again) It is a little different to other castles in Wales because is relatively modern and is an excellent example of Victorian Gothic Revival architecture. The 3rd marquess of Bute gave William Burges free rein to create a fantasy castle like his main residence, Cardiff Castle. The interior of the castle is covered in hand painted murals, over the top furnishings and beautiful tiled floors. This stunning castle has also been used as a filming location and has featured in Doctor Who, the Worst Witch and Robin Hood.

Castell Coch occupies a stretch of woodland on the slopes above the village of Tongwynlais and the River Taff, about 6 miles north of Cardiff. You can reach the castle by bus, car or take the Taff Trail route to the castle from Cardiff on a bike. 

Both Caerphilly and Castell Coch are maintained by CADW along with most other castles in Wales. Cadw is the Welsh Government’s historic environment service working for an accessible and well-protected historic environment for Wales. They conserve Wales’s heritage, help people understand and care about their history and help sustain the distinctive character of Wales. Cadw is a Welsh word meaning ‘to keep’ or ‘to protect’.

If you want to take a look inside the castles there is a fee which is normally around £5. If you're going to be in Wales for a few days and visiting lots of castles you can buy an Explorer Pass and and visit as many as you like for one price. These cost £26.00 for one person, £42 for a couple and £51.20 for a family so you get a good saving.

Have I temped you to visit Wales this summer?

On my recent holiday to Austria Martyn and I took an excursion to the beautiful Krimml Waterfalls (Krimmler Wasserfälle).With a total height of 380 metres they are the highest waterfalls in Europe, they were a pretty impressive sight.‬

The falls are on the Krimmler Ache river and are located near the village of Krimml in the High Tauern National Park in Salzburg state. We took a narrow gauge steam train from Zell am See to the falls. The local Pinzgau train has been around since 1898 and I loved the slow and romantic trip through the wonderful Upper Pinzgau landscape. Most narrow gauge railways only run for a couple of miles and are run by enthusiasts but this one was run by SLB and covers about 56 kilometres of track. You can take both modern and steam trains along the route. There's plenty of other stops you can get off at and explore and you can find the full route here. The Steam Train 399.01 which I rode on was built in 1906 and is almost as old as the track itself.

The waterfall begins at the top of the Krimmler Ache valley, and plunges downward in three stages. The upper stage has a drop of 140 metres, the middle of 100 metres, and the lowest a drop of 140 metres. It takes about 2 hours to climb to the top and even though there is a path it is pretty steep so I wouldn't recommend it to anyone with mobility issues. We walked about two thirds of the way up and got some spectacular views over the valley and the falls.

About 400,000 people visit the falls annually so it can get pretty busy. The misty spray of the waterfall creates ideal growth condition for hundreds of mosses, lichens and ferns. The surroundings are the habitat for 62 bird species so there is plenty to see and the falls are a full day out if you get the train there and back. The Krimml Falls are also of historic note and the path over the falls was used by Jewish refugees after WW2 as an escape route to Italy and Palestine.

I would love to return to the Tauern National Park in the future and explore more than just the waterfalls.

Skin is made up of an outer layer, the epidermis, and a layer of soft tissue underneath called the dermis. The epidermis constantly grows upwards and sheds dead cells. Skin acts as a barrier to protect our body from the environment. It also does loads of exraordinary things like regulates temperature and detects and fights off infections. The skin is one of the biggest and most complex organs of the body, and contains hair follicles, oil glands, sweat glands, nerves and blood vessels. If our skin can do all of this (and how amazing is that?!) we should really look after it. If we can give it a little helping hand to protect us it would silly not to.

I've been using my anatomicals scrubs to gently polish and brighten my skin by removing dead, dull skin. At £3 a tube and £1 a sachet it doesn't break the bank and does a great job of leaving my skin soft and refreshed.



I've recently started a job where the air-con dries out my skin so if you could recommend a product to help with that I would be very grateful.

What are you favourite skincare items? I always want to try something new so I'm sure I'll be trying out loads of your picks.