There was major reason to celebrate in February this year – Paul turned 60!

Back in 2017, we went to Barmouth for Paul’s birthday weekend and stayed at this lovely cottage called Tre Mynach.  It has held its place as one of our favourites since then so I decided Paul’s 60th birthday year was an excellent reason to return. It used to be the gymnasium of a school but it now a cleverly converted 3 bedroom cottage with ensuite bedrooms, an excellent open plan living area, a tiered garden and lovely views out to sea. Although it was Olaf’s first time there he was very pleased – especially with the garden and had quickly mapped out a sniffing route that needed to be followed on every visit into the garden!

We arrived on Saturday afternoon and had a wander around the shops of Barmouth (and sampling some ice cream from one of the only places open to sell it) before heading back and settling into the cottage for the evening.

Sunday was the big birthday day – Paul opened his cards and presents when we got up and then we headed out to do the panorama walk which gave us some lovely views across the Estuary.  We finished off with a trip to Barmouth beach and Olaf had a little run about and we listened to the local samba drummers playing on the beach.  Back at the cottage, we had some Battenberg birthday cake before heading out again for dinner at Dylans – it was in a great location with lovely views and the food was really nice too.

On Monday we drove north and parked at Tal-y-bont and walked along the beach to Shell Island and back.  It was a beautiful beach and the forecasted rain stayed away.  We went back into Barmouth in the afternoon and had a wander around the shops again and found somewhere to have a drink before collecting fish and chips (sausage and chips for Paul) to take back to the cottage for our dinner.

On Tuesday we packed up and left Tre Mynach vowing not to leave it another 9 years until we next return… We stopped at Coed y Brenin Forest Park for a walk and then for some lunch at Model Bakery in Blaenau Ffestiniog.  Paul had spotted this very unassuming bakery when he was watching an episode of the Hairy Biker’s when they did a great sales pitch for the place.  We got a selection of sweet and savoury things to sample including the baker’s famous Kurdish pasties – very nice!

So although the 60th birthday celebrations continued throughout the month, Barmouth provided an excellent start to them!

Here are some pictures from our weekend!