The road trip to England and Wales mainly takes you past cities with a varying historical content. The Towns we visit in Wales have some very nice castles.

We start in Kent in Canterbury, with the most beautiful cathedral in the United Kingdom, further castle  Canterbury and the old town with many half-timbered houses and picturesque streets.

On the way to Rye we pass Tonbridge with Tonbridge Castle and here and there half-timbered houses.

Rye is situated on the coast, a small picturesque town with again beautiful half-timbered houses and 2 typical defensive castles overlooking a lagoon.

Oxford is the next destination a typical student city dynamics against a historic backdrop, special in all its facets, including the Ashmolean Museum and the area around the Castle-Prison museum is a wonderful environment  

Stratford-upon-Avon on the River Avon is Shakespeare's home town, has a small historic centre.

The next destination is Aberystwyth in Wales located on the Irish Sea, a university town

The university is located next to the castle ruins on the beautiful boulevard. At the highest point of Aberystwyth we have a distant view of the top of Mount Snowdon which we encounter later on the route.

North we continue the route to Campsite Cae Du in Beddgelert, a small town with a beautiful bridge over the Afron Colwyn River, the base for several destinations.

Beddgelert has a station of the narrow gauge Welsh Highland Railway with historic locomotives and carriages, enjoy if historic track appeals to you.  

With the Welsh Highland Railway, a trip can be made to, for example, a hike over Mount Snowdon, get off at Rhyd Ddu station, a hike over Mount Snowdon and downhill again to Snowdon ranger station.  At Snowdon station decide to continue to Caernarfon or back to Beddgelert.  

The Snowdon Mountain Railway Llanberis Gwynedd can also reach the top, however this line is very busy so it is wise to book.

From Beddgelert  can we visit Harlech with Harlech Castle.

We continue our route to Caernarfon with Carnarfon Castle which is the strait of Menai  defended, this is where the inauguration of Prince Charles as Prince of Wales took place. Beaumaris castle defended the other side of the strait.

On the way to Conwy you can visit Castle Penrhyn, this castle is, in contrast to the previously visited defense castles, a residential castle, a huge complex with the Walled Garden and the castle is completely authentically furnished.

We then reach Conwy with an imposing castle to defend the crossing over the River Conway and reached via the equally imposing Chain Bridge.

Now for a bigger bridge to the next destination Lincoln, advice to approach the higher Old Town from the south via Steep Hill, it is a climb up the hill but the walk through this beautiful Steep Hill will pay off a lot to eventually see the beautiful area around the Cathedral and Lincoln Castle.  

Then follows Peterborough, a beautiful center square with the Peterborough Cathedral on the east side.

We continue the route to the third university city of Cambridge with a historic city center where the beautiful university buildings dominate the city center and the vast  Fellows Garden along the River Cam.

The final destination is Rochester, with Rochester Castle along the River Medway.

Back to Dover for the Ferry crossing or to Folkestone for the train.