Today we drove about an hour into Whales, to a town called Llangollen on a beautiful setting next to the Dee river.

“Llangollen is a small town and community in Denbighshire, north-east Wales, on the River Dee at the edge of the Berwyn mountains and the Clwydian Range.”

We first hiked to the top of a huge hill overlooking the town, with the ruins of a 13th-century medieval castle at the top. The Welsh call the castle, Castell Dinas Bran. Castle is Castell in the Welsh language.

We walked around the town, alongside the river, got a snack and headed back home to let the dogs out.

Laura and I both thought that this might have been one of the best days on the trip thus far as it was so beautiful hiking of the hill just steps away from grazing sheep, at the top amongst the ruins and the views in every direction… including looking down at the town and surrounding pastures.

The roads on the way up to the hike’s parking were very narrow, one-lane streets, surrounded by green pastures full of sheep. In fact, one sheep got out of the pasture and was so scared of the car it tried to run over a cattle guard and got stuck. Steve and Andres had to get out of the car and lift it off and place it on the other side with all its friends.