Aktuelles

I think this deserves a single post.😁 Gerallt suggested to visit Portmeirion, which is just outside of Portmadog. Unfortunately no bikes and dogs allowed but I still had a quick visit. It is a fascinating but quite odd little Italian village embedded in Welsh mountain surroundings.

Portmeirion Village, built in perfect Italianate style, is the product of the vivid imagination of architect, builder and bird of paradise Sir Bertram Clough Williams-Ellis (1883-1979). The village is picturesquely situated on a small peninsula, on the sandy estuary of the River Dwyryd to Tremadog Bay.

Already as a young man, Clough Williams-Ellis had the fixed idea of creating an Italianate village with colorful facades, classical colonnades, fountains and statues directly on the sea. He searched for a long time for a suitable location anywhere in the world and finally took the most obvious option - he bought Plas Brondanw, a villa with an overgrown park on a peninsula not far from his family residence, for £ 5,000. Of the promontory on the coast of Snowdonia National Park, he wrote at the time, "A neglected wilderness long abandoned by romantics who had realized the unique charm and possibilities of the area, but who had allowed themselves to be carried away by the grandiose scenery... to a sad bankruptcy."

Here, between 1925 and 1976, he realized his vision: by building the village, he wanted to show that a scenic area can be built on without being destroyed. The backdrop for his village came from everywhere. The architect literally collected houses, different building materials such as stones, archways, columns, windows, wrought iron gates and in this way saved many buildings from decay.

Many famous artists and actors were fascinated by Portmeirion, including H.G. Wells, George Bernard Shaw, Noël Coward, the architect Frank Lloyd Wright but also Gregory Peck, Ingrid Bergmann and Paul McCartney. In the 1960s, Brian Epstein, manager of the Beatles, frequently rented rooms in the Gate House during the summer months, and George Harrison celebrated his 50th birthday here. In 1966/67, the place became the setting for the cult TV series The Prisoner (German title: Number 6). ...

I had some electricity yesterday, so I checked out some of the insta 360 x2 videos.
It's amazing, what you can do with it. For proper editing I need to do it on my computer. but I think it is so cool, that you can decide which view you want to have while editing because it films everything around you. I'm quite excited about it😍
@insta360 ...

Before I was going to sleep behind the pub, Lois came to me while I was drinking my cider in the pub and invited me to shower at her place and for a coffee in the morning. I was waking to glorious sunshine with a view down the peninsula. Lois picked me up and took be to her house with a stunning view across the ocean! I learned alot about the Welsh and before letting me leave she gave me lots of food for me and Zuri to get us through the next days. I followed the route she suggested and the views where just magnificent. Glorious bays, mountains and the sun following us all day. We cycled around the whole Llyn peninsula until Porthmadog. Here Geralld took us in. We met each other in Scotland last year and he took an amazing shot of us cycling past him up a mountain. We had a great evening together with Gin tonic, pizza and some Cider. 😍 And I and Zuri could sleep in an old church, he recently bought.Through cycling you can see a country in a way more indept way. What I already learned about Wales, I would never be able to learn by just being a standard tourist.. I had such a great time and I feel so blessed to meet all these lovely people, who share their stories with me and help me along the way! Thank you so much everyone! 😍👍🐕🚲 ...

After a glorious sunset, I woke up and everything was cloudy. We cycled straight to Llanfairpwll­gwyngyllgogery­chwyrndrobwll­llantysilio­gogogoch, the village with the longest name in Wales (longest Railwaystation name in the world). Just as we reached it, it started raining (and didn't stop for 6 hours). We found a really nice local Cafe (this one allowed dogs inside compared to the fancy one for the tourists) , were we stayed for 3 hours (by then I stilled hoped the rain would pass at one point). The owner told us about this crazy house (which we saw when crossing the bridge back to mainland Wales) in the river, where people live inside. 4 times a year with high tide the water runs through the ground floor. They just leave both doors open and live upstairs. At one point they close both doors and catch a lot of fish to eat. Crazy way of living! We then continued to the Llŷn peninsula. Just as we reached it, the rain finally stopped. The views where stunning but we had quite a steep hill ahead of us with 17 %. After pushing it up we reached a small village. And Owen, who runs the local pub there came out right away and offered us a place to sleep on the pub backyard. 😍 It's a lovely pub there with a really nice atmosphere! I enjoyed spending the evening and night there a lot 😊🐕🚲 ...

I'm a bit behind now but these are some beautiful pictures from Anglesey. We cycled all around the island. The first night we slept in the north east. I went into a pub there and met 3 nice old men from the village and they told me a brilliant place for the night with a view to the cliffs. The next morning we were just about to head off. I saw a very nice little restaurant. Very modern. The owner was very nice. She invited me to a whole breakfast and a coffee and even Zuri got a big sausage breakfast there! As we continued cycling a cyclist from the area asked us if he could cycle with us and he showed us some really nice places and small roads to cycle on. Anglesey is very hilly, so not for everyone. But cyclists love it there because of the quiet roads. In the evening I wanted to charge again in a pub but it was closed, so I asked the local Spar if I could charge there, which was no problem at all. The owner also recommended me a really nice church in the sea to look at and a good sleeping place in the forest. His friend gave me 6 kg of dog food for Zuri too 😅 she won't be hungry for a while..🐕 We ended up in Newborough Beach, which is next to this beautiful forest and we saw an amazing sunset with Snowdonia in the background. WOW! I feel very blessed! The Welsh are all very very kind and helpful so far! 🐕😍🚲 ...

Some pictures from our day cycling through Snowdonia. Just as we reached the mountains the sun came out and we had some gorgeous scenery all around! But due to the busy roads I wasn't able to stop often, so the best shots are on video, which you will see on YouTube later (type in Iris Joschko to find us).
As I told you my phone screen broke and the second hand phone I bought has troubles charging, which is a real bugger. I regognize how dependant I am to the phone (navigations, contacts, drone shots, music, social media, some camera shots etc). So I sadly do need to buy a proper new phone now because the replacement screen for the other phone is 280 pound 😔) ...

I reached Snowdonia, THE mountain range of Wales after a beautiful but very hilly ride yesterday.🚲🐕 😊⛰️ Unfortunately the weather shifted and it is raining today. Yesterday was brilliant but I could only start quite late. The display of my phone broke in the pub where I met Norman, but it was still usable. I guess I was quite lucky that it just stopped working when I was at Norman friends place with Joanna and Desmond. So they organized another used phone for me just to get me trough the journey. They both are really lovely people and they live in an amazing place in Wales with a view to the mountains! I got really spoiled there by them and their neighbor Pat with cider, vegan dinner, breakfast and lunch and even Zuri got a very tasty meal!😍🐕🍲 Now we're heading to Anglesey. There we're checking out the village with the longest name in Wales... Prepare yourself! 😁 ...

I'm impressed by the kindness of the English already! 😍
As you know I was sitting in the pub the evening before yesterday and just as I was about to leave Norman invited me to his farm to stay for the night. We had a great outside fire and some cider. He usually needs to get up at around 4/5 in the morning but he decided to spend the morning with us to show us around and we even got a vegan breakfast! ❤️ He organised the next night for me to stay at his friend's place in Wales too! It's a gorgeous place in the hills! I went to Chester before entering Wales. It's a beautiful city with a lot of Roman heritage. Just before, when I was waiting on a junction to cross Tony and Many invited me over to their place for lunch. 😍 Zuri had a good day too! She got beef for breakfast, chicken for lunch and streak for dinner 😅🐕 right at the end of our cycling day I met another half Chinese /half Welsh man with his son and they invited me to stay with them too. I'm really impressed by the hospitality over here! I'm not sure the Germans would be so generous 😬 ...

Selfies of the day 😁🐕🚴🏼‍♀️😃❤️
The first night we could stay with Clare, an old school friend of Emma (my English friend). She was lovely! Completly exhausted from the first day (yes I always train on the journey) I got cooked a nice dinner and even vegan ice cream was waiting for me 😍 yesterday my stand almost fell of a couple of times. They where quite some issues with it and I was just about to phone a bike shop to see if I can get a new one there as Clare's neighbour Cameron was so kind and offered to fix it. It took him around 1.5 hours and quite some skills but it seems to be all good now! 😍 So I we had a quite late start in the day and just cycled 50 km so far. Right now we're sitting in a lovely pub close to #Chester recharging the bike battery before we're looking for a place to sleep in the fields 😊🚴🏼‍♀️🐕 tomorrow we'll finally reach Wales 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁷󠁬󠁳󠁿 💕 ...

We're on our way to Wales! 🥳😃🐕🚴🏼‍♀️❤️ We cycled 75 km today and I feel quite exhausted. Which is quite normal for me (because I always train on the way 😅)
The first day had quite some cycle path barriers in it but that was to be expected!🙈 Fortunately the Brits are very kind and helpful and 4 people helped me to the many cycle path barriers today. I also had to detach the trailer 3x..I hope that Wales gets better 🙈 ...

We reached Leicester and I am preparing myself for our next cycling adventure to Ireland in 2 weeks.😁💕🚴🏼‍♀️🚴🏼‍♀️🐕 Meanwhile Zuri is making new English friends with Cupid the Kitten and George the dog 😍 ...

A little update from our side.. Zuri and I have arrived in England the night before yesterday. After quarantining of 2 weeks we will start our next cycling adventure to Wales and Ireland at the beginning of June. Hopefully the sun decides to join us 😁🌞 but we do have an exciting companion this time for sure.. @hannaplant who we stayed with in Edinburgh on our Scotland trip 2020 will join us for 2 weeks on her bike. I'm excited and curious and I am sure an amazing trip is waiting for us 😁🚴🏼‍♀️🐕💕🌞❗ ...

Thank you everybody for the many birthday wishes! It made me really happy and smile 🎂😘💐❤️
I also got another sweet little birthday surprise 😁 Another article from our Eastern European Cycle Adventure got published in the biggest dog magazine of Germany 😍 ...

Exiting news and spoiler alert! Our adventures of last year in Scotland got published in the German dog Magazine @wuffmagazin 🐕🚴🏼‍♀️😍 for anyone who can't wait for the youtube videos 😅. But I will start publishing the corresponding YouTube videos of the whole journey in the upcoming weeks! 💕 ...

I think this deserves a single post.😁 Gerallt suggested to visit Portmeirion, which is just outside of Portmadog. Unfortunately no bikes and dogs allowed but I still had a quick visit. It is a fascinating but quite odd little Italian village embedded in Welsh mountain surroundings.

Portmeirion Village, built in perfect Italianate style, is the product of the vivid imagination of architect, builder and bird of paradise Sir Bertram Clough Williams-Ellis (1883-1979). The village is picturesquely situated on a small peninsula, on the sandy estuary of the River Dwyryd to Tremadog Bay.

Already as a young man, Clough Williams-Ellis had the fixed idea of creating an Italianate village with colorful facades, classical colonnades, fountains and statues directly on the sea. He searched for a long time for a suitable location anywhere in the world and finally took the most obvious option - he bought Plas Brondanw, a villa with an overgrown park on a peninsula not far from his family residence, for £ 5,000. Of the promontory on the coast of Snowdonia National Park, he wrote at the time, "A neglected wilderness long abandoned by romantics who had realized the unique charm and possibilities of the area, but who had allowed themselves to be carried away by the grandiose scenery... to a sad bankruptcy."

Here, between 1925 and 1976, he realized his vision: by building the village, he wanted to show that a scenic area can be built on without being destroyed. The backdrop for his village came from everywhere. The architect literally collected houses, different building materials such as stones, archways, columns, windows, wrought iron gates and in this way saved many buildings from decay.

Many famous artists and actors were fascinated by Portmeirion, including H.G. Wells, George Bernard Shaw, Noël Coward, the architect Frank Lloyd Wright but also Gregory Peck, Ingrid Bergmann and Paul McCartney. In the 1960s, Brian Epstein, manager of the Beatles, frequently rented rooms in the Gate House during the summer months, and George Harrison celebrated his 50th birthday here. In 1966/67, the place became the setting for the cult TV series The Prisoner (German title: Number 6). ...

I had some electricity yesterday, so I checked out some of the insta 360 x2 videos.
It's amazing, what you can do with it. For proper editing I need to do it on my computer. but I think it is so cool, that you can decide which view you want to have while editing because it films everything around you. I'm quite excited about it😍
@insta360 ...

Before I was going to sleep behind the pub, Lois came to me while I was drinking my cider in the pub and invited me to shower at her place and for a coffee in the morning. I was waking to glorious sunshine with a view down the peninsula. Lois picked me up and took be to her house with a stunning view across the ocean! I learned alot about the Welsh and before letting me leave she gave me lots of food for me and Zuri to get us through the next days. I followed the route she suggested and the views where just magnificent. Glorious bays, mountains and the sun following us all day. We cycled around the whole Llyn peninsula until Porthmadog. Here Geralld took us in. We met each other in Scotland last year and he took an amazing shot of us cycling past him up a mountain. We had a great evening together with Gin tonic, pizza and some Cider. 😍 And I and Zuri could sleep in an old church, he recently bought.Through cycling you can see a country in a way more indept way. What I already learned about Wales, I would never be able to learn by just being a standard tourist.. I had such a great time and I feel so blessed to meet all these lovely people, who share their stories with me and help me along the way! Thank you so much everyone! 😍👍🐕🚲 ...

After a glorious sunset, I woke up and everything was cloudy. We cycled straight to Llanfairpwll­gwyngyllgogery­chwyrndrobwll­llantysilio­gogogoch, the village with the longest name in Wales (longest Railwaystation name in the world). Just as we reached it, it started raining (and didn't stop for 6 hours). We found a really nice local Cafe (this one allowed dogs inside compared to the fancy one for the tourists) , were we stayed for 3 hours (by then I stilled hoped the rain would pass at one point). The owner told us about this crazy house (which we saw when crossing the bridge back to mainland Wales) in the river, where people live inside. 4 times a year with high tide the water runs through the ground floor. They just leave both doors open and live upstairs. At one point they close both doors and catch a lot of fish to eat. Crazy way of living! We then continued to the Llŷn peninsula. Just as we reached it, the rain finally stopped. The views where stunning but we had quite a steep hill ahead of us with 17 %. After pushing it up we reached a small village. And Owen, who runs the local pub there came out right away and offered us a place to sleep on the pub backyard. 😍 It's a lovely pub there with a really nice atmosphere! I enjoyed spending the evening and night there a lot 😊🐕🚲 ...

I'm a bit behind now but these are some beautiful pictures from Anglesey. We cycled all around the island. The first night we slept in the north east. I went into a pub there and met 3 nice old men from the village and they told me a brilliant place for the night with a view to the cliffs. The next morning we were just about to head off. I saw a very nice little restaurant. Very modern. The owner was very nice. She invited me to a whole breakfast and a coffee and even Zuri got a big sausage breakfast there! As we continued cycling a cyclist from the area asked us if he could cycle with us and he showed us some really nice places and small roads to cycle on. Anglesey is very hilly, so not for everyone. But cyclists love it there because of the quiet roads. In the evening I wanted to charge again in a pub but it was closed, so I asked the local Spar if I could charge there, which was no problem at all. The owner also recommended me a really nice church in the sea to look at and a good sleeping place in the forest. His friend gave me 6 kg of dog food for Zuri too 😅 she won't be hungry for a while..🐕 We ended up in Newborough Beach, which is next to this beautiful forest and we saw an amazing sunset with Snowdonia in the background. WOW! I feel very blessed! The Welsh are all very very kind and helpful so far! 🐕😍🚲 ...

Some pictures from our day cycling through Snowdonia. Just as we reached the mountains the sun came out and we had some gorgeous scenery all around! But due to the busy roads I wasn't able to stop often, so the best shots are on video, which you will see on YouTube later (type in Iris Joschko to find us).
As I told you my phone screen broke and the second hand phone I bought has troubles charging, which is a real bugger. I regognize how dependant I am to the phone (navigations, contacts, drone shots, music, social media, some camera shots etc). So I sadly do need to buy a proper new phone now because the replacement screen for the other phone is 280 pound 😔) ...

I reached Snowdonia, THE mountain range of Wales after a beautiful but very hilly ride yesterday.🚲🐕 😊⛰️ Unfortunately the weather shifted and it is raining today. Yesterday was brilliant but I could only start quite late. The display of my phone broke in the pub where I met Norman, but it was still usable. I guess I was quite lucky that it just stopped working when I was at Norman friends place with Joanna and Desmond. So they organized another used phone for me just to get me trough the journey. They both are really lovely people and they live in an amazing place in Wales with a view to the mountains! I got really spoiled there by them and their neighbor Pat with cider, vegan dinner, breakfast and lunch and even Zuri got a very tasty meal!😍🐕🍲 Now we're heading to Anglesey. There we're checking out the village with the longest name in Wales... Prepare yourself! 😁 ...

I'm impressed by the kindness of the English already! 😍
As you know I was sitting in the pub the evening before yesterday and just as I was about to leave Norman invited me to his farm to stay for the night. We had a great outside fire and some cider. He usually needs to get up at around 4/5 in the morning but he decided to spend the morning with us to show us around and we even got a vegan breakfast! ❤️ He organised the next night for me to stay at his friend's place in Wales too! It's a gorgeous place in the hills! I went to Chester before entering Wales. It's a beautiful city with a lot of Roman heritage. Just before, when I was waiting on a junction to cross Tony and Many invited me over to their place for lunch. 😍 Zuri had a good day too! She got beef for breakfast, chicken for lunch and streak for dinner 😅🐕 right at the end of our cycling day I met another half Chinese /half Welsh man with his son and they invited me to stay with them too. I'm really impressed by the hospitality over here! I'm not sure the Germans would be so generous 😬 ...

Selfies of the day 😁🐕🚴🏼‍♀️😃❤️
The first night we could stay with Clare, an old school friend of Emma (my English friend). She was lovely! Completly exhausted from the first day (yes I always train on the journey) I got cooked a nice dinner and even vegan ice cream was waiting for me 😍 yesterday my stand almost fell of a couple of times. They where quite some issues with it and I was just about to phone a bike shop to see if I can get a new one there as Clare's neighbour Cameron was so kind and offered to fix it. It took him around 1.5 hours and quite some skills but it seems to be all good now! 😍 So I we had a quite late start in the day and just cycled 50 km so far. Right now we're sitting in a lovely pub close to #Chester recharging the bike battery before we're looking for a place to sleep in the fields 😊🚴🏼‍♀️🐕 tomorrow we'll finally reach Wales 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁷󠁬󠁳󠁿 💕 ...

We're on our way to Wales! 🥳😃🐕🚴🏼‍♀️❤️ We cycled 75 km today and I feel quite exhausted. Which is quite normal for me (because I always train on the way 😅)
The first day had quite some cycle path barriers in it but that was to be expected!🙈 Fortunately the Brits are very kind and helpful and 4 people helped me to the many cycle path barriers today. I also had to detach the trailer 3x..I hope that Wales gets better 🙈 ...

We reached Leicester and I am preparing myself for our next cycling adventure to Ireland in 2 weeks.😁💕🚴🏼‍♀️🚴🏼‍♀️🐕 Meanwhile Zuri is making new English friends with Cupid the Kitten and George the dog 😍 ...

A little update from our side.. Zuri and I have arrived in England the night before yesterday. After quarantining of 2 weeks we will start our next cycling adventure to Wales and Ireland at the beginning of June. Hopefully the sun decides to join us 😁🌞 but we do have an exciting companion this time for sure.. @hannaplant who we stayed with in Edinburgh on our Scotland trip 2020 will join us for 2 weeks on her bike. I'm excited and curious and I am sure an amazing trip is waiting for us 😁🚴🏼‍♀️🐕💕🌞❗ ...

Thank you everybody for the many birthday wishes! It made me really happy and smile 🎂😘💐❤️
I also got another sweet little birthday surprise 😁 Another article from our Eastern European Cycle Adventure got published in the biggest dog magazine of Germany 😍 ...

Exiting news and spoiler alert! Our adventures of last year in Scotland got published in the German dog Magazine @wuffmagazin 🐕🚴🏼‍♀️😍 for anyone who can't wait for the youtube videos 😅. But I will start publishing the corresponding YouTube videos of the whole journey in the upcoming weeks! 💕 ...