Wales

[ewx]

I've been to Wales with beckyc.

Wednesday

We found our way to the campsite behind the Swallow Falls hotel. Our pitch was on the third level, which meant a fair amount of hauling things up. Facilities a bit on the basic side though to some extent possible to use the hotel bar's toilets. OMG THE MIDGES in the evening.

Pondering what to do with the rest of the afternoon we considered having a look at the Roman fort marked nearby on the map but instead decided to visit Beddgelert for a bit of shopping and a look at “Gelert's grave”. Our timing wasn't ideal since it was grass-cutting time and two tractors were noisily working the adjacent ground.

On the way we spotted the following, clearly intended to be visible from somewhere up Snowdon:

B in front of Gelert's Grave:

The red sky over the mountains was pretty spectacular on the return journey. We popped into the hotel bar for a G+T then retired to the tent for some wine and a some Bara Brith.

Thursday

Intense dreams of flooding and people tripping over guy ropes and demolishing the tent. In fact the tent was undamaged and the weather was fine (and remained so). We first headed to the brightly colored Portmeirion (famous especially from The Prisoner but remarkable in its own right) a potter around.

A petrol pump, I think.

There's a fake ship built into the shore.

Number 6's house is, not entirely surprisingly, now a shop full of Prisoner stuff:

Next to Harlech Castle, which consists of endless steps and excellent views.

Supposedly one can see Portmeiron from it on a good day, which it was, but we didn't manage despite help from a 300mm lens. Looking at a map later, I think it would actually be behind the hill on the left of this picture.

Like all the castle we visited there were endless birds:

We wondered if this was leftover trebuchet ammo:

My lens spent a lot of time with a circular polarizer attached to the front, making it much easier to take nicely exposed pictures including the impressive skies.

Then to the Centre For Alternative Technology, a sprawling grab-bag of unusual techniques and constructions. Wonderful to poke around; if you're a wind-turbine-hugging hippy then you should probably take a look. A friend of B's works there and we went for pizza with her afterwards.

Unsurprisingly they don't like cars...

...and do like solar panels.

They also have a giant mole.

This building has huge numbers of bottles embedded in it.

There was a slide, which had to be slid.

Even with a 1/400s or 1/800s exposure this dragonfly's wings were significantly blurred.

We liked the smiling dinosaur. You can't tell from this image but the background is actually a wind turbine blade with the timeline running its length.

OK, so I sniggered.

Friday

We set out for the northwest with more castles in mind but stopped along the way at Idwal Cottage for photos and a walk. Every 40m or so a jet would roar down the Nant Ffrancon, presumably RAF training.

Llyn Idwal:

Northwards down the Nant Ffrancon:

We headed on over to Anglesey and had a picnic lunch in the cark park at Beaumaris before visiting the castle, an unusually squat affair that was never completed to the original design, and full of gulls. Nice if somewhat cloudy views across the water to Snowdonia.

We headed back over to the mainland for a look around Caernafon castle, which reminded me slightly of Chinon owing to the relatively long and thin layout. Posters pointed out that the banding in the walls was a deliberate nod to the (much more ancient) Theodosian walls of Constantinople, perhaps part of Edward's propaganda regarding English control of Wales (claimed to be a continuation of the situation as of ancient Roman times). Good views again.

My theory is that the large round feature is a stopped sundial.

Welsh flags are unsurprisingly ubiqitous. I heard one lady teaching her son Welsh number as they walked up some steps, and a group of teenagers shouting to each other in what I think was Welsh while we ate later on. (And of course most public text is dual-language, but that doesn't give you any kind of feel for how many people actually use Welsh.)

Our first port of call for dinner was closed but the owner was still able to recommend a good chippy, and we ate in a little square watched by a rather optimistic gull. (Signs explicitly said not to feed them, presumably because the place would be mobbed by them otherwise.)

Saturday

Bodnant Gardens. Imagine the Cambridge botanic gardens but more densely planted and built on a steep slope. Pretty.

A giant redwood:

An unusual plant with two kinds of flower:

Conwy. Another Edward I castle, but unusually the town walls are also largely intact and possible to walk along. We were going into the castle when the lady at the desk recommended we visit Plas Mawr, a large, restored Elizabethan house in the town centre. Interesting to look around and that day featuring Theatre Merchants playing “Whoops Apothecary” which was fun. The castle after that.

The footbridge is due to Thomas Telford (who put up a lot of things round this part of the world), and the rail bridge to its right was built by Stephenson. Both reflected the castle in their designs.

The tunnel under the walls (to reach the main car park) had very colorful murals:

Nowhere we wanted to eat opened until six so we killed some time in a coffee shop and reached a likely-looking place at 1805, only to find it completely full. Eventually we picnicked at our tent and had some chips and onion rings in the hotel bar.

Sunday

A light drizzle but no proper rain while we took the tent down and packed up, then a quick look at Swallow Falls, just across the road from the campsite and clearly audible from it, before hitting the road.

On the way we had a walk across the Pontcysyllte Aqueduct and back.

On one side was a path and a railing; on the other side, enough of a barrier to keep the water in and no more. You wouldn't want to stand on one of the narrowboats crossing it.

The view was nice enough but the scenery nowhere near as rugged as in Snowdonia.

Comments

[rmc28]

Wow, thanks for these - I have an entire childhood-worth of nostalgia now, having visited approximately 80% of your destinations with either my aunt near Machynlleth or my granny near Colwyn Bay.

[crazyscot.livejournal.com]

Those were undoubtedly RAF fastjets; you were just round the corner from the two RAF bases on Anglesey, which handle a lot of fastjet training. Pretty much all of Snowdonia and the surrounding area are marked as an Area of Intense Aerial Activity because of this. However the bases generally only operate M-F, so if it's peace and tranquility you want, try the weekend...

[james-r.livejournal.com]

Wow, that's a lot of destinations in common with a trip from 2007 with V, and jpmg, and folks.. (that I still haven't put photos online from yet :/)

[james-r.livejournal.com]

You seem to be making the most of your 50D :) What lenses did you use btw?

[ewx.livejournal.com]

Almost all of the above are with the 17-85mm, with a few through the 70-300mm.

[dave holland (from livejournal.com)]

Thanks for the excellent photos. Another bunch of childhood memories awakened here - we regularly used to stay with family friends in Llandudno and explore the area.

(Gina and I honeymooned in Llandudno too.)

[new-brunette.livejournal.com]

Add me to the list of the nostalgic. My 3rd-year geography field trip on glaciation involved climbing Cwm Idwal. And the circular proto-sundial in Caernarfon Castle is the dais used for Prince Charles' investiture as Prince of Wales in 1969: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Investiture_of_the_Prince_of_Wales#Investiture_of_Prince_Charles

[lnr]

Of course my nostalgia for the area dates from around 1998, when I was camping in North Wales with, um, Becky :)

[ewx.livejournal.com]

l-)

[sphyg.livejournal.com]

Ditto nostalgia. The Beddgelert story used to give me nightmares as a kid.