The Black Boy Inn
Caernarfon, Wales

[Friday - 10/28/94] Leaving Chester, we ventured West and crossed over in to Northern Wales. Our destination for tonight was our new digs in Caernarfon, the Black Boy Inn. This was an Elizabethan inn built in 1552 withinthe original walls to Caernarfon Castle, less than a hundred meters to Edward I's keep! It is the oldest surviving hotel in Wales.

We chose the Black Boy for its historical significance. Venturing through the massive walls curtaining the inner town, we pulled up to a charming Elizabethan building rich with promise. It had a great, period feel with dark inglenook beams and a downstairs restaurant converted from the original building's stables.

How could have have suspected the terror that would lie within our rooms? The danger to staying in so many historical buildings is that, from time to time, they undergo renovation. Apparently, the Black Boy had its last makeover in the mid to late sixties with everything that entails. Brightly striped orange walls enclosed tiny rooms with virtually unfathomable copper shower contraptions. It was such a shocking difference to some of our previous lodgings that all we could do was laugh!

We abandoned the Brady Bunch rooms for the more alluring charms of the public rooms and the town of Caernarfon itself. Even at night, Caernarfon Castle was a beauty and we walked down to the shore and wandered throughout the town. Both town and hotel would serve us well throughout our stay in Wales.