Wales

September 18-21, 1998

Wales is technically part of England, although the inhabitants fought against this long and hard. The Welsh still don't consider themselves part of England, and a recent national pride movement has begun.

Wales seems much wilder and rugged than England itself. I had the best weather of the trip in Wales - it actually got quite hot at times.

To get to Wales, I took the train from London. I left from Euston Station and changed trains in Crewe. As the train began to get further into Wales, I started to wonder just what the hell I'd gotten myself into. The train stations got smaller and smaller, until some of them were just platforms next to the street with no services.

I had to change trains again in Llandudno Junction, and go south to Betws-Y-Coed (that's Betsy Coed to you and me). Betws-Y-Coed is fairly well built up - the train station was a bit more than just a platform (there were restaurants and shops and even a parking lot, which many of the other stations I'd seen lacked) - and I believe this is because it's main business is tourism. It is centrally located near the main cities of northern Wales and very close to Snowdonia National Park.

The Ferns Bed & Breakfast, Betws-y-Coed, Wales

I actually used Betws-Y-Coed for more of a resting and rejuvenation place. There really isn't all that much to see in the town itself. A lot of sheep, two churches, two rivers, and two bridges. It was actually pretty muddy and, since I only had the one pair of shoes with me, I didn't really investigate too much.

I arrived on Friday, September 18, at about 3 p.m. After getting turned around a bit, I finally located my Bed & Breakfast, the Ferns. I just picked it out of the blue from one of the numerous travel books that the Wales Tourist Board sends out (they are very generous with their materials and have some very nice websites with a lot of information).

I stayed there for three nights. I had a third story room with two double beds in it and my own ensuite bathroom. And my own television. I remember the last night I was there, I watched a Welsh soap opera of some type - the show just kept going and going. The actors spoke Welsh, but there were English subtitles.

On Saturday, September 19, I visited Conwy and Caernarfon, to see the castles. Conwy is adjacent to Llandudno Junction, so I just caught the train up there and walked over (about half a mile). Conwy also has a stone city wall surrounding the town. Looks very medieval. I only stayed a couple of hours (it really doesn't take all that long to look at a castle, maybe two hours) and then caught the train over to Bangor.

At Bangor, I decided to catch the bus over to Caernarfon. I actually wanted to go to Beaumarais to see that castle (it looks much more interesting in the pictures than Caernarfon but to get there would have required more work). The bus was an adventure in itself. Luckily, a very nice and friendly teenage boy helped me out (told me what bus, where to catch it - I figured out where to get off the bus all by myself).

Caernarfon is a bit larger than Conwy as towns go. There was some sort of market there on Saturday (I didn't go but passed right by it on my way to the castle). Caernarfon had the nicest tourist information personnel I met while in Wales. Nicest office, too.

While I was in Caernarfon, I also went to see the Roman for ruins. Yes, the Romans reached even England (remember Hadrian's Wall over in north England which, by the way, I did not get to see). The Romans built a fort way out here in Western Wales, called it Segontium. It must of looked pretty nice in its day but now it's ruins. The walls are about a foot high, but you can see the individual rooms. There was also a museum attached to the ruins, which had some stuff that had been excavated.

Segontium, Roman Ruins, Caernarfon, Wales

After I returned to Betws-Y-Coed, I had the best meal I had on my entire trip to Wales and England. I went to the most expensive hotel in the town and ordered the special, which was grilled haddock with a cheese sauce. Simply delicious. I also received french fries (chips), a large plate of vegies (four different types of which I nibbled on the carrots only - do not like brussel sprouts or cabbage), and desert (some sort of tart with a very heavy cream sauce).

Sunday, the 20th, was my last full day in Northern Wales. I decided to catch the bus over to Llanberis and ride the Snowdon Mountain Railway up to the top of Mount Snowdon. Mount Snowdon, for those of you who haven't figured it out yet, is in Snowdonia National Park. This bus trip wasn't quite the adventure of the previous day, mainly because I knew (thanks to the tourist information center) where to catch the bus. Wasn't all that hard to figure out when to get off it, either.

The Snowdon Mountain Railway is a very popular attraction. Everyone told me to get there early because they sell the tickets out quickly. The tickets was fairly expensive, as attractions go. It is a single gauge steam train which takes about 45 minutes (one-way) to get to the top of Mount Snowdon. At that point, you have about one-half hour to see what you want before the train returns. For the really adventurous, there is a paved path that parallels the train. If my feet had not hurt so much, I might have tried that.

I did take a lot of pictures while I was up there. But they are not here (I bet you noticed that). I decided not to show them because views from hilltops start to look a like after a while (and there was a lot of haze that day so they didn't come out as good as I would have liked).

After Mount Snowdon, I went over to Dolbadarn castle. It's quite close to the train, although I had to walk into town to the tourist information center to find that out. However, you must go through the woods, which I never would have known had I not gone to the tourist information center, so it all worked out. Dolbadarn is a very small Welsh castle, now in ruins as all castles in Wales seemed to be. But from it's no longer grand castle walls, you get a very good view of the coal mines across the lake. (Wales has a lot of mines.)

I could have done some more in Llanberis but I was kind of touristed out so I went back to Betws-Y-Coed and just wandered around there for the rest of the day. Saw St. Michaels Church (build in the 1400's, I believe) and the Waterloo Bridge (build in 1812, when Napolean met his Waterloo, hence the name). And ate the worst meal I had my entire time in Wales or England. The fish wasn't that bad, but the potatoes and milk weren't good. Just a word of warning - if you order fish and chips, you may also get served peas (I have no idea why). Don't like peas, so didn't eat them.

Went to bed early (most places close up early on Sundays in England) because I needed to leave the next day for York.

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