WALES

10 June 2023, Oxford, England

As we bid Ireland farewell, we took an early ferry from Dublin to Holyhead on Angelsey Island in North Wales…67 miles across the St. Charles Channel between the Celtic and Irish Seas. It took about 2.5 hours (on a power catamaran called the Dublin Swift) and was a very easy crossing, with very smooth waters. We then picked up a rental car (much nicer than the first one) and made our way to the small town of Caernarfon (Kuh-NARvon), home of Caernarfon Castle, a fortress palace on the banks of the River Seiont—“one of the greatest buildings of the Middle Ages.” The investiture of Charles, Prince of Wales (now King Charles III) took place here in 1969.

For the first time on this whole trip, the hotel we were booked to stay in for 4 nights was totally unacceptable. After some inquiries, we got the last room available nearby for the first night and, for the following three, at the very nice Celtic Royal Hotel a few blocks away. The town is very old; some parts of it charming; some a bit run down. AND, it was very walkable and a very convenient place to stay for various side trips we took.

The first day we drove up north through more luscious green hills and dales to the town of Conwy and then on to a huge seawall at Colwyn Bay where the waters of the Irish Sea and Liverpool Bay were a deep, dark blue. Had we continued east, we would have ended up in Liverpool! There was an unusual sculpture of a cormorant that I  photographed because I liked the design…and then Gary suggested I go back and look at it more carefully. Its belly was filled with plastic bottles. Quite a poignant message!!!

Both of us were still bothered a bit by our “pet frogs,” so we chose to spend the rest of the day taking it easy (and starting to finally get some of our blogs put together to post). We’d signed up for a boat tour the next day to see the puffins on Puffin Island (atop the northeast corner of Anglesey), but alas the winds were too high and that tour was canceled. So we walked around town a bit and along the walls of the Castle and finally found a café that did NOT serve Irish/English breakfasts. What a delight it was to order and eat Eggs Benedict!!!

Our last day in the area was a real treat. Many weeks ago we bought tickets for the Snowden Railway 1896 Steam Train up Mt. Snowden in Snowdonia National Park–(the highest mountain in Wales & England at 1085 meters—3559 feet) and ”one of the most beautiful train rides in the world.” We weren’t able to go all the way to the summit (repairs being done to the tracks), but went three-quarters of the way up, to Clogwyn station at 2556 feet. The views were vast and stunning (and very hard to capture in photographs).

As you can see, there were no trees anywhere on the higher mountains, but they were quite green and on the lower half there were hundreds of sheep (and many lambs) grazing over the hillsides. (A baby walked onto the tracks in front of us and her mama quickly nudged her to safety!)

We could also see the huge slate quarry at Dinorwic—“one of the greatest quarries in the world” (lower right, above), so afterwards we took time to visit the nearby National Slate Museum, which was far more interesting than we thought it would be. We learned the history of slate quarrying in Wales, which in its prime employed more than 30,000 people—when factories and houses were built during the Industrial Revolution, all needing slate roofs. We watched a live demonstration of shale being split, from very thick to extremely thin. The craftsman was a 6^th generation quarry worker who’d been at it for 39 years! The restored quarry compound also housed “the biggest water wheel in all of the UK”—a 50’ in diameter suspension waterwheel built in 1870 that provided power for all of the quarry operations until 1925. It was huge and also hard to capture, but Gary did a great job. Watch his video below!

Four days in one location really helped clear up our persistent “frogs,” and gave us just the energy we needed to drive through Mid Wales and discover some very special places. First we stopped in the town of Portmierion, in the Welsh County of Penrhyndeudraeth. (I just had to share that name with you ‘cause every time Gary & I would see one of its signs we would giggle trying to pronounce it…and we never did figure it out!). This charming seaside resort was built by Welsh architect Sir Clough Williams-Ellis (1883-1978) “to show how a beautiful site could be developed without spoiling it.” His motto was: “Cherish the past, adorn the present, construct for the future.” Some of the balconies were shaped by the contour of the rocks they were built on. It was quite enchanting!

Stopping in the small town of Llanbrynmair for bottles of cold water, “Pauline,” the charming host of a small hotel, suggested we take the “scenic mountain shortcut” to our next destination. The “lovely little lake” she mentioned was one of the most beautiful we’ve ever seen, Llyn Clywedon, pictured below. AND, whilst there, we chatted with a sweet little man from Dublin. When we told him how much we loved the people in Ireland, he said with that familiar twinkle in his eye, “Ah, yes, we’ve been through quite a lot over the years, and now we really are quite happy with ourselves!”

We stayed two nights at a lovely Mid Wales B&B in Llandrindod Wells (Greylands Guest House) so that we could visit the nearby Elan Valley. I had discovered it doing our trip research and “gifted” Gary with an entire day to go wherever he wanted, at his pace (and me tagging along) to explore, photograph and simply enjoy the beauty of this amazing feat of engineering: 70 square miles of dams, reservoirs and rugged Welsh landscapes with an abundance of picturesque scenery. And what made it even more interesting is that most of it was built in the Victorian Age. We also discovered the little “Nantgwyllt Chapel of Ease,” (isn’t that a great name?!?) built close to the uppermost dam, to replace the original that was drowned out to make way for this major water project. We also saw lots more sheep, many of them on the road, so that kept me happy! I even gathered a few tufts of wool from a nearby fence! 

As we made our way out of Mid Wales and headed toward England, we continued to take in the beauty of the rugged, rolling hills and valleys, the green, green fields and the amazing variety of trees that cover the Welsh landscape. We also loved how many houses are adorned with gorgeous pots of bright flowers. To us, Wales also seemed like a very happy place with very friendly, welcoming people. We heard Welsh spoken quite often and never did figure out how to pronounce most words, but it was fun to listen to it. All the street and directional signs were in both Welsh & English. Over almost every doorway was the sign “Croeso—Welcome.” We learned one Welsh word we could really relate to, on a sign in a gift shop that said, “Keep Calm and CWTCH.” CWTCH means cuddle…one of our most favorite things to do!  🙂 🙂

   

We hope you’ll join us in England! Cheerio!