As the bus came over the rise, Mary said, “And there on your right is the oldest building in the world.”

This trip was a crash course in the United Kingdom. We flew into Glasgow where we stayed two nights, then two nights in York, three nights in northern Wales, and two nights in Dublin. This may seem like covering too much ground but it also gives me the chance visit a lot of places in a short time. Here’s what happened…

The train from Llandudno Junction arrived at Holyhead after about an hour. The train station and the ferry station are in the same building and the transition is incredibly easy. The Irish Sea crossing starts in the station where we were herded onto a bus that took us to the ferry. After a couple of hours at sea (relatively calm in our case but not always), we entered Dublin Bay and passed the Poolbeg Lighthouse, which you can walk out to from the city.

Wales is also known as the Castle Capitol of the World, and we visited three of the hundred or so that remain intact in the country: Conwy, Penrhyn, and Caernarfon. These three incredible castles are spread across the northern coast of Wales to the east of Llandudno.

While hanging out at The Albert in Llandudno, we asked the bartender where we should go tomorrow when we travel to Snowdonia National Park. He, without missing a beat, said “Moel Siabod” (pronounced “mole sha-bahd” with the accent on the bahd). He explained generally how to get there and that it is something between a hill and a mountain. And so, we had our assignment!

The train pulled into Llandudno, the end of the line. We walked 10 minutes to our Airbnb on St Sieriol’s Drive where we’d be for the next three nights. We spent much of our Llandudno time on the road, climbing Moel Siabod in Snowdonia one day and visiting three castles the next. Click on each of those to read about those adventures.

We arrived in York at 2pm at the end of a three-and-a-half hour train ride from Glasgow. An easy 10 minute walk from the train station, across the pedestrian bridge that spans the River Ouse (pronounced like ooze), and we arrived at our Airbnb on St Mary’s Lane. We headed right out to explore the medieval, walled city.

We landed in Glasgow at 8am on a Thursday after a one hour flight from Dublin preceded by a seven hour flight from Chicago. The Glasgow Airport Express is an easy way to get from the airport to several stops downtown for about $8 one way. We got off the bus at George Square and walked 10 minutes through the city to our Airbnb on the corner of Howard and Stockwell Streets. Our main problem at that moment (9am) was that our check in time was at 3pm. We dropped off our bags and dragged our exhausted butts around town for the next 6 hours.