IF PARADISE IS HALF AS NICE.....

Sunday morning at 9:00 o'clock as the day begins, and sadly it's time to point our trusty steed Concord's nose towards home. The weather has turned very sour, but undaunted we head 25 minutes north and retrace our steps to the truly magnificent Caernarfon Castle (yep, WHS) and the walled town.

 

We have every intention of going in but there are restoration works going on and it's shut. Never mind, we brave the howling gale and sheets of rain to find a nice cafe and then walk past the rather inappropriately named Black Boy Inn circa 1522.

A clue to the origins of the name

It was a tad wet and WINDY!

Although visibility is zero, we decide to cut across the national park and past the foothills of Mt Snowdon. I've said it before, but the region is glorious. Out of nowhere we find ourselves in a snowstorm with battering winds and sheets of ice forming on the road. We are at the pass near the paths that lead up the mountain, although we are having difficulty seeing it. It's freezing and so we push on towards the A5, the yellow brick road to London.

Snowdon is up there somewhere!

Fate is about to deal us a good hand. As we near the border a road sign points to a village called TREVOR!

I'm detecting some anti-social behaviour in Trevor!

What else would you use a road for?

Well, clearly, we have to go and check it out. Lo and behold, we stumble across one of the region's jewels (and in retrospect, Don L clearly needs to lift his game when it comes to travel research), for Trevor is the location of another of Thomas 'The Colossus Of Roads' Telford's truly great achievements. Telford played a major part in the design of the canals that weave through this region, and in particular the Llangollen Canal. Where the canal crosses the River Dee, Telford constructed the  breathtaking Pontcysyllte Aqueduct in 1805. At 307 metres in length, 3.4 metres in width and 38 metres above the Dee, it is the longest and highest aqueduct in Britain, and still in use. The eighteen pillars were made of hollow masonry, unheard of prior to its construction and roundly condemned by other experts at the time - Telford was clearly an engineering genius, I wonder why he was never knighted (maybe he was a  secessionist Scot!). Unsurprisingly, UNESCO has bestowed World Heritage Site status upon the structure. Don L knows of someone in Australia who is coming to the UK in summer for a canal boat holiday - good luck crossing it Big Al!

Which one's yours Big Al?

You've gotta be insane to do this!

Not my foto, but how spectacular is it!

All that's left for the LegsyBoys to do is pop into a sleepy - make that comatose -  Shrewsbury for afternoon tea and then forge on through the driving rain for leafy Ealing. We've travelled 1,208 kilometres in 4 days in Concord and had a ball sharing some unforgettable moments and dazzling sights - 'outstanding natural beauty' simply doesn't do Snowdonia justice.

Our trusty steed Concord

Now to plan our assault on the south of Wales and the big ticket locations - Cardiff, Swansea, Abergavenny (I simply HAVE to take a trip there!), and, of course, Tonypandy - home of the original Tom Jones!

HEN WLAD FY NHADAU....

Well, not really, we're a mixture of English and Dutch heritage, but the Welsh anthem must be one of the most stirring on the planet and driving through the countryside it's not hard to feel the spirit of 'How Green Was My Valley'. It also serves to reiterate just how naff their spelling is! But I digress.....all the countries of the UK have their 'traditional' breakfast and Wales is no exception, so after a hearty Welsh Brekky (clearly designed with producing rugby front rowers in mind) we head off under cloudy skies. It's only 5 minutes to Criccieth - wouldn't you know it, just when they stick a few vowels in they don't pronounce them all - it's Cricceth! Another of Edward's WHS protected citadels stands imperiously overlooking the bay and the town....beautiful stuff.

We're heading into Snowdon National Park and even though there is a lot of low cloud around there is no detracting from the wonderful scenery. We pop in to Minffordd (no, I haven't accidentally hit a couple of keys twice!) to have a look at Portmeirion, aka Little Italy, a village purpose built  for the TV series The Prisoner (no, not the one with Bee and The Freak) that replicates a Tuscan village. However they want to charge us an arm and a leg to enter, so we adopt the short arms/long pockets position and leave.

Chateau used in the TV series "The Prisoner"

We wind our way up through spectacular countryside with just a dusting of snow lying around and reach our destination of Blaenau Ffestiniog in the heart of the mountains. It is known as "the town that roofed the world", for here are the world's largest slate quarries and mines. Llechwedd Slate Cavern is a massive chasm in the earth's surface that has a further 40 kilometres of tunnels beneath it.

It's also home to Zip World, the largest zip line in Europe, and unbeknownst to the kids Don L has rather foolishly booked us in. After 3 nervous visits to the rest room Don L is ready to board the ex-army truck that takes the LegsyBoys to the top of the run, and the view is stunning - what I could see of it through my tightly shut eyes!

Sartorial elegance

The kids and Dulcinea are buzzing with excitement, although it is the first time I've ever seen the little fella slightly circumspect. When the gates slide away and there is just one way down the 630 metre cable, it defies all logic and common sense to voluntarily push off, but there we all are flying down the 4 cables in unison at 120kph!

This is so not a good idea!

 

Don L thinks out loud - "a helmet won't help much!"

I can feel my heart pounding (good news Dr. Lau, the stents are working just fine!!) and the air being sucked out of my lungs, and apparently the view is spectacular but it's hard to appreciate it when gripped by terror!

After a 400 metre walk around the rim of the quarry we then do it all again on the 950 metre cable that takes us back to the caverns. I can tell the LegsyBoys have loved it 'cos their faces are frozen with ear to ear smiles (it's 1C after all). Should you do it if you ever in Snowdonia? Absolutely!

A helping hand for the lightweight at the end

We temporarily leave the mountains and head south to Harlech where another WHS castle stands atop an escarpment that spectacularly overlooks the coast.

The Two Kings statue - a lament over the folly and carnage of war

The village is lovely and we decide to have afternoon tea here, but everything is closed. (Travel Tip: If travelling in northern Wales in the off season then be prepared for cafes to be closed - most had signs saying they were re-opening in March). Luckily there was one proprietor smart enough to realise that travel is a year round thing, and so we entered the Llew Glas Cafe, and are we glad we did.

The coffee was passable, but the girls running the place were fabulous, outgoing, friendly and eager to please. Don L was faced with a quandary, what to choose after my serve of scones (the best we've had on our journey I should add). Do I try the delicious looking Victoria Sponge or go 'local' and try some Bara Brith - traditional Welsh fruitcake? Well, the proprietress resolved that for me - "you buy a slice of Victoria and I'll give you a slice of bara brith". Now THAT, senoras y senors, is 5-star service. (Travel Tip: If you ever visit Harlech Castle, make sure you walk up the high street to Llew Glas Cafe).

Our next destination is back up north - Caernarfon. (Travel Note: the distance between most of the coastal and mountain villages is very small). We travel via Snowdonia again, passing the foot of Mt Snowdon which is, unfortunately, partially covered in cloud (little do we realise that this is as good a view as we're going to get!), through the hamlet of Waunfawr (where we see something tempting) and then into our destination.

Mt Snowdon is up there!

Caernarfon Castle is massive, the jewel in the crown of the Edwardian citadels, and we make a call to go in, but as it's approaching twilight we decide to come back on our drive home tomorrow. And so we head back to Waunfawr for dinner, as the Snowdonia Parc Free House pub proudly advertised winning the 2012, 2013 and 2014 Pub Of The Year award. There was a great feeling to the place, lots of friendly locals talking jibberish - sorry, Welsh - a few dogs, and fabulous food at very reasonable prices (Travel Note: northern Wales is quite affordable, with prices nothing like London - but then again, nowhere is priced like London!).

Chicken and leek pies - what else!!!

The weather had turned distinctly bad as we left and headed for our B&B. We sat up and watched The Voice with expert judge TOM JONES - somehow it seemed entirely appropriate.

YEAH!!!!