We set off bright and early this morning heading northwest and it took us less than an hour to find ourselves once again entering Wales. There no mistaking that you’re in Wales because suddenly all the signs are in two languages, Welsh first and English underneath. Our first stop was near the town of Llangollen, the Pontcysylite Aqueduct on the Llangollen Canal.
Thomas Telford designed this stunning structure that carries the waters and canal boats on the Llangollen canal across the River Dee along a “stream in the sky”. Its building was begun in 1795 and it is still in operation today. It’s now a UNESCO World Heritage Site. We arrived early, before the visitor centre was open and set out to walk the narrow pathway along the top, with the narrow canal flowing along next to us. At its highest we were 38 metres above the river and I’ll be honest and say I was not feeling completely happy being up there! As we approached the other side a canal boat came along towards us. They travel very slowly and I had time to have a brief chat to the lady driver, she commented that it was a quiet morning, they often have to wait in a queue of boats to cross.
when we returned to the other side we walked down a path to a “canal viewpoint”, which turned out to be a little overgown, but we could look as cross to see another canal boat making the crossing. Back at the Canal dock we saw several other canal boats of various shapes and colors. Some waiting to cross and some just moored.
Back in the car we carried on further west but turning a little southwards to take us to Harlech Castle. One of four castles built for Edward 1st in North Wales, this one has the most striking location. It crowns a rocky peak high above the sandy shore below with stunning views across to Snowdonia National Park. The shape of the castle is well preserved and we could walk up the towers to the battlements to enjoy the view. We were lucky that today was a lovely bright day with no wind, I imagine it could be very bleak up there on a bad day!
We stopped at the cafe for lunch and were both happy to try Welsh Rarebit, three kinds of welsh cheese blended with local Welsh craft ale , spread over malted toast and grilled…it was a very tasty cheese toastie! Afterwards as we drive the road beneath the castle we had a good view up to see how daunting it must have seemed to invaders.
It only took us 20 minutes to reach our next location for the day, the extraordinary village of Portmeirion. It’s an Italianate fantasy village that was designed by Welsh Architect Clough Williams-Ellis . He acquired the site in 1925 and took over 50 years to complete his vision .i remember my parents talking about visiting it in the 80s and have been keen to see it. It’s the most whimsical place! Brightly coloured Mediterranean style buildings with fountains, gardens and pools that cluster in a hillside overlooking the estuary. There are two hotels and many of the little buildings are available as self contained accommodation (for an exhorbitant price! ) To me it has a Disneyland feel, a fantasy. I dont think Neil was very impressed though, he described it as weird.
After we left we started to climb up into the heights of Snowdonia National Park. We’d been able to see the peak of Mt Snowdon when we were at Harlech Castle, but the peak came in and out of cloud cover as we drove higher. We passed along a pretty stream and through the very popular touristy town of Beddgellert, which was being mobbed as we drove through. The road up and over Pen-Y-Pass was spectacular and we loved the drive down to Llanberis where we are spending the night.
we are staying at the Royal Victoria Hotel, a grand old hotel that has ties going back over 100 years to the Snowdon Mountain Railway. We enjoyed dinner in the bar and afterwards went for a little walk down to the railway station where we will catch our heritage steam train to the summit of Mt Snowdon tomorrow. From there we could look across the valley to the huge Dinorwic quarry, a disused slate mine that covers a huge area across the hillside. Mining stopped in 1969, but the scar on the hillside remains
