Llandudno, Conwy, Bangor and Menai Bridge – Wales’s hidden gems.

A story of fantasy and engineering genius. You’ll be amazed at the history that is packed into this small remote part of Wales.

Hello and welcome to the Great British Biking Adventures Coast Series. In this series we are travelling around the coast on our motorcycle, a Honda VFR1200X Crosstourer.

A lot of our viewers are bike enthusiasts but this series will appeal to a wider audience. Why? Because there’s so much more to the Coast series than motorcycles. There’s the challenges, the journey, geography, history and people. You get to travel the entire coast of England and Wales with us, see how we did it, share our ups and downs, experience English culture, the history and hear about the people that made Britain ‘Great’!

What’s also good about the coast series is it doesn’t matter when you start watching, it’s like one of those open top bus tours – you can get on at any point and just keep going until you arrive back where you started.

Who are we? We’re a husband & wife living in an unremarkable coastal town in England. We’ve been married 35 years and were brought together by motorcycles. One day, Esther’s Honda Melody broke down and she brought it to Jarrod’s motorcycle shop – the rest (as they say) is history.

One cold February day, we started riding along the seafront and just kept going. We wanted to record the experience to have something to watch in the future – the YouTube channel was an afterthought. Take a look at those first few episodes to see just how novice we were, cobbling together what little phone footage we had to try to make a story. To make up for our amateur recording and shyness we added information in the editing. This set the tone and style of our videos, we hope you like it. We like to think we’ve improved and hopefully you’ll agree, take a look, compare our earlier videos with the later ones and let us know in the comments.

There’s also the filming and production journey. When we started we knew nothing about filming, video and audio production, editing, YouTube and the like. We’ve learnt loads and spent loads in time and money along the way but it’s been almost as enjoyable as the journey itself. You’ll hopefully appreciate how far we’ve come.

But what’s with all those bible verses we hear you say. We know some of you don’t appreciate this aspect, one or two have told us in the comments! That’s fine – it really is. All are equally welcome here, believers and unbelievers. It would be a pity if you enjoyed everything else but just stopped watching because of the Christian references but we completely accept you’re free to do as you please.

Our faith has prompted us to include a bible verse in our videos and sometimes a Christian perspective on the things we talk about. The channel is not about Christianity but our faith cannot be separated from it. We hope and pray that it will make you think, inquire and even bring you into a personal relationship with God through Jesus Christ.

I had a dream last night H I dreamed we were riding the bike and it wasn’t raining in fact the weather was wonderful hot sunny and not a cloud in the sky oh that sounds lovely where were we well that’s the thing I thought we were somewhere in the UK it almost felt

Like reality but as I progressed I realized it must be a dream because it was more and more Fantastical like Alice in Wonderland interesting why was that then well the perfect weather for starters but also we were on a Coast Road with miles of sandy beaches and

Beautiful blue green sea and then we came to a town the perfect seaside resort it was like a 100 years old but also like it was built yesterday if the people had been wearing Victorian clothes I would have thought I was in a time machine oh wow I wish you could

Take me there it sounds great it was great and you were there in my dream what more could I want my motorcycle great weather in you but like any dream it became more and more unbelievable oh why is that then well the town led to the most perfect biking Coast Road

You’ve ever seen it was perched on the side of a lodin shaped Hill the road went all the way round the hill and came back to the town it only purpose was for motorcyclists to enjoy its gentle curves while taking in the stunning scenery and sea views it was

Amazing hang on this is the place this is the town I was dreaming about really yes that Coast Road should be just along here well what a dreamer I hope you enjoyed Jared’s imaginative leap into the world of augmented reality have you made the connection yet did you know candido has

A strong link with Alice in Wonderland and the writer lisis Carol his real name was Charles Dodson and the books are inspired by Alice Pleasants little Carol was a friend of the little family and made up the stories to keep Alice and her sisters entertained in the 1860s he

Spent many summers at the Little’s holiday home on cled no’s West Shore it’s been long speculated that Carol’s stories are based on Alice’s Adventures in candido either way it hasn’t stopped the town making the most of it ever since in 1933 former Prime Minister David Lloyd George unveiled an iconic

White Rabbit statue and today there are various Wonderland Town trails and a veritable Army of statues and carved figures to see going back to Jared’s dream if you haven’t seen it we ended last week’s episode riding this amazing Coast Road it was the end of a long day that we

Covered in the last three episodes which included merys side Liverpool the WHL and the North Wales Coast the road is so good we just had to do it again this morning with the sun on the other side of the hill we hope you enjoy riding it Again This trip has been an amazing experience and the great arm has to be among the highlights quite an Accolade considering the places we’ve been don’t worry if you’ve only recently joined us though if it feels like too many episodes to catch up just stay with us from here and pick

Up episode one at the end in fact we’ve already started to go around Again what’s the plan today then pilot well we’re making our way to angle se but I’m not sure we’ll get there in this episode we’ve got Conway and bangard to tick off before then right now we’re heading down the West Shore of ladno to ladno Junction where we’ll be crossing the

River Conway into the town it’s a fascinating old place dominated by the castle and Old Town walls today there are four ways to cross the River Conway into the town the first Crossing was built by Thomas Telford in 1826 to replace the ferry you can see how tord designed the bridges supporting

Towers to match the Castle’s turrets between 1848 and 1849 the two tubes were built by Robert Stevenson to carry the railway the bridge wear Crossing was completed in 1958 and tford suspension bridge is now for pedestrians only but since 1991 there’s also a tunnel that carries the North Wales

Expressway the castle and town walls were built by Edward I as part of his ring of iron during his conquest of Wales they are part of a world heritage site castles and town walls of king Edward in gwynned people born within the town walls of Conway are nicknamed Jack doors after

The birds which live on the walls there’s so much to see in this small but perfectly formed historic town all within easy walking distance it’s one of those places that’s like a Living Museum and another great example of why the UK doesn’t need theme parks to top it all it also has

Britain’s smallest House This is part of the a55 commonly known as the North Wales Expressway that runs from Chester along the North Wales Coast to angle SE the road has gradually been upgraded over the years and is now a major dual carriageway primary route but not quite a Motorway for obvious reasons

We’ve been avoiding it as much as we can but for the next 6 miles there’s no alternative even if there was there’s no way you could get closer to the coast unless you were riding on the beach this section has required some impressive engineering to be able to navigate two major headlands

Work has involved The Cutting of Several Hard Rock tunnels over the years and the road has eventually evolved to what it is today the road has replaced the original Coach Road built by talford in the early 19th century cut into the cliffs by hand telford’s narrow winding route hugged

The Contour around both steep Headlands thankfully the old Route has been preserved and is now a cycle way the engineering is meant that the carriageways diverge for much of this section and provide a distinctly different experience so we rode back to conwi so we could take it all In [Applause] oh [Applause] Oh I feel like I’m going to bang my Head Clan something a small Welsh town with a very long name all that island is out there oh look at we’re going to have to change sides I’m rather enjoying the colors of these Terrace houses look at that nice pastel Seaside colors beachart colors aren’t they gorgeous absolutely gorgeous

We need to load a map so we’re hoping that we’ve got a connection what’s this is this a canal that’s coming down a river a river off the mountains isn’t it so we’re not sure but we think that could be bangle Castle I don’t know yeah I think it must

Be Castle number two of the day okay there it is sorry it says it on the side penin penin Castle not at Banger yet then That this is banger if that lady will give us away oh no it’s a bloke love him oh very nice go wind’s coming in there do that so that’s appear ble oh bless its proper name is G pier and it is a fine example of a Victorian Pier built primarily to provide passengers

With an easy and pleasurable walk to and from paddle Steamers does it go all the way across no yeah it almost looks like it does doesn’t it wonder where the was but no it doesn’t it’s as if they got halfway across and for just a bit

More we could have made a bridge out of it yeah it was opened on the 14th of May 1896 like many peers and other Grand structures from the Victorian era it fell from fashion and became an expensive hindrance in 1971 the pier closed on safety grounds it eventually

Ended up in the hands of the local bough Council in 1974 who took the immediate decision to demolish the peer but Banger city council objected the peer was saved and restored and event reopened on the 7th of May 1988 the fact that it already extends over half of the meni straight has not

Been overlooked and periodically it is suggested it could provide pedestrians and cyclists with a dedicated Crossing despite having a population of only 18,000 Banger by virtue of its Cathedral is one of wales’s Seven Cities but it’s by no means the smallest which has a population of a tenth of that size banga is wales’s oldest city and the first of five that we will be

Passing through on our Coast Adventure can you name the other four let us know in the comments look at that Banger owes a lot of its prominence to the road that passes through the middle of it and Crosses into angle SE and onto hollyhead from where Ireland

Can be reached via the port it’s the A5 not the a55 we were on earlier it runs for about 243 mi from Marble Arch in London to the Irish sea in many parts the route follows that of the original Roman Road which the Anglo-Saxons called watland

Street in 1800 the act of Union unified Great Britain and Ireland and the decision was made to create a root between the two capitals as well as wling Street existing Turnpike roads were bought out and improved and where necessary new roads were constructed this made it the first major civilian

State funded Road building project in Britain since Roman times Thomas tford who was already a renowned engineer was put in charge of the project Telford designed it so that the road’s gradient never exceeded 1 in 17 the route through Wales retains many of the original features of telford’s Road and has been

Recognized as an historic Route worthy of preservation about 40% of the original Road and its anciliary features surviv these include features such as toll houses depos distinctive Gates milestones and a away Bridge so the meni Bridge built by Thomas talford telford’s Road was complete with the opening of the meni suspension bridge in

1826 suspension bridge put his angle SE technically is an island isn’t it yeah very close to the mainland but technically an island there the other the other bridge over there not quite sure what that one’s called but that’s an equally well not sure equ but it’s an old bridge

Still we come across the famous Mii Bridge the meni Straight separates the island of Angley from Mainland Wales it is 16 Mi long and varies in width telford’s Bridge takes advantage of the narrowest point and spans a quarter of a mile at its widest the straight is

Nearly 5 mies before the building of the bridge various feres VI for trade but by all accounts it was a very perilous Crossing with constant strong currents and winds there was no rail Bridge until Robert Stevenson completed the britania bridge in 1850 it was a replay of the two great

Engineers accomplishments Over the River Conway Stevenson once again used a tubular design for the rail bridge this is unusual with only four notable Bridges having ever used the design worldwide the Conway bridge is the only remaining tubular Bridge because on the 23rd of May 197 the britania bridge was heavily damaged

Boys playing inside the structure dropped a burning torch setting a light the tar coated wooden roof of the tubes it was impossible to extinguish and the fire traveled the full length of the bridge before burning itself out the towers were retained but the rest of the structure including the inative tubes

Were replaced with a more conventional deck supported by Steel arches the new design in Incorporated a road with the addition of a second deck this is now the primary road crossing and we can say welcome to angle SE we’ve run out of time this week we hope you enjoyed this episode there is

Lots to show and tell you about as we ride around Angley so we will leave this episode here and take you with us next time for now we will finish with a couple of outtakes one that will bring a smile but the other won’t join us next week for more Coast

Adventures and we can say welcome to abaris withth or even anel see where did that come from welcome to avarus no invited to a party by some by a girl and we went to the house and her parents had gone out and locked the house so we

Decided to go down to the tube for a walk well now how did you come to light a a fire or strike a match or whatever it was what happened well there’s a page of a book on the floor and I had my my lighter and we l the paper and threw it

In be one look good us I wish we hadn’t gone to no part know