Llandudno to Ceredigion
Tuesday 2nd July
Woke up to some blue sky and a little bit of sunshine so walked to the bay, only about 300 metres away to see how it was looking with some sun.
some fancy houses behind the pier and some lovely little flower displays whilst walking back to the hotel
First stop was the place with the longest name, did the touristy thing of taking photos of the name, one on the train platform tells you how th pronounce it and one on a gift shop tells you what it means.
Not much there but the place name it seems, Then we stopped to take a photo of the Menzies Strait suspension bridge by Thomas Telford, there is also a house on a wee island in the middle of the strait apparently it never floods - current looked pretty nasty
Caernarfon Castle another of Edward I’s intimidation and subjugation of the Welsh projects, Also a UNESCO World heritage site, there are four of these castles in Wales, Conwy and one we passed earlier in the day Beaumaris and Harlech. At least the Welsh are getting some value out of the tourism aspect 700 years later. Caernarfon is where Edward I invested his son Edward II as the first non native Prince of Wales and in 1968 Where the now King Charles III was invested, William was made Prince of Wales quietly as there had been some call for the title to be abandoned, petitions etc.Its a mighty big castle similar to Conway but polygonal towers instead of round.
The walls of the towers are 15 feet thick but contain a central main room and a corridor going around that container smaller rooms.
There are some really nice sculptures in the grounds, to do with the construction mostly by unskilled workers under the master masons. The tools that were used, it was made by hand.
Of course I climbed up the Eagle tower and a one of the turrets, some amazing views up there of castle and surrounds.
See the little people and the little boats! I was trying to get up on the walls to walk around and ended up going through corridors within the walls a tour mate caught me hanging out an opening.
In one tower here was a brief film on the history of Wales, Roman’s and its own princes then Edward defeating them, building the castle. Finally found the tower to take me up to the walls, couldn’t walk all around but a different perspective.
Had a hot chocolate and a piece of fruit loaf that is called Bara Brith here a traditional recipe, sitting on a seat in the town square, waiting for the bus to come back, it’s quite a pretty little town.
Then our next stop was The National Slate Museum. The buildings were once the industrial and engineering workshops for the Dinorwig slate quarry.
There was a massive water wheel there, which I didn’t see as I was more interested in the cottages that had been reconstructed there and furnished in three different eras Late 1800’s early 1900’s and 1960’s.
They were pretty cool, second era reminded me a bit of Nana’s house in Temuka although these ones had stairs which we couldn’t go up. A couple had Welsh dressers, but for some reason I didn’t photograph them. The homes were pretty tiny, hard to imagine how many people lived in them.
Next was the Iron foundry where they made patterns, moods and castings of the machinery they required,
At his was all powered by the waterwheel and was interesting as I thought of Grandad working in the foundry
This was followed by a short film about the industry and a demonstration of slate splitting and dressing to size. another industry that has now been automated, although they believe that the hand splitter does a better job. Apparently there is 90% waste out of what is taken out of the hillside so it was really interesting to see what is done to the hillsides and the heaps of waste.
Most of the afternoon was about driving through Snowdonia, such beautiful scenery, narrow roads so not a place to stop and take photos so most of mine are out of the window, but should give the idea, a bit of a grey day, but you don’t get this green without the rain.
We called briefly into Aberystwyth, on the bay for a W.C Stop before continuing to our Hotel, which was like a Country manor. A lovely dinner, three course again and then a short walk down the drive before bed.
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