Caernarfon Keyfob

To visit or be placed in caches near historic sites of interest ... and to one day return to Caernarfon Wales.

We spent many enjoyable days in September 2003 traveling about Wales, or Cymru in Welsh. One of our primary activities was the exploration of the numerous historic sites including many castles or the ruins thereof.

One of the more widely known (and therefore famous?) castles in Wales is Caernarfon Castle (pronounced like Kar-nar-von), located in the town by the same name, in the northwest part of Wales. It has been the scene of much recent royal pageantry including the 1969 Investiture of the Prince of Wales.

The castle was actually begun in 1283 for King Edward I for both a residence as well as the governing centre for northern Wales. Today what remains is a vast expanse of seven large towers and two gate houses situated on the coast. Visitors are free to roam through the halls, dungeons, towers and ramparts. There's also a few museums also located on-site.

CADW (pronounced cadoo, the W is a long oh sound) is the Welsh government body that oversees most of the historic monuments. Their web site can be found at:

http://www.cadw.wales.gov.uk

The Caernarfon Keyfob is a keychain that depicts the castle which we purchased in the gift shop on-site. Feel free to pass this travel bug from site to site and wherever possible in caches near historic sites of interest. (Please tell us something in the travel bug log about the places the bug has been!) And after some time has passed, whether it be a year or hundreds of years, the final goal is to return to Caernarfon. We suggest whoever has that honour may want to print out the travel bug's log and present it to the CADW folks - they may be interested in its travels!