We didn't have time for much more than settling in to the hotel and eating dinner, but we kind of needed the time to just chill. The next day was Sunday so we looked up the nearest branch and grabbed a taxi over to Colwyn Bay. Lori really wanted to attend all three hours of church, so we did. Afterward, the branch was having a bit of lunch and my theory on that was "free lunch" so we stayed for that as well. While mingling I happened to mention that one of the things I'd loved about the journey up from the South was the distinctive shift in architectural style to the architect in the room. That spawned a fantastic conversation about the various influencers of British architecture and languages and led to and invitation to join one of the families for a private evening tour.
But first! Another of the members (seriously, this branch was awesome) dropped us off in Llandudno (pronounced klan-did-no) where we took a tram up to the Great Orme. Which was breathtakingly beautiful.
The Great Orme is home to a Bronze Age copper mine whose 1980s discovery changed what archeologists knew about ancient British history, so obviously we had to go explore that.
Lori was cool until we got to the plaque that talked about how some of the shafts were so small that they could have only been used by small children and then she started getting the heebie jeebies and was startled on multiple occasions. Luckily that was toward the end of the path and we all made it out safely.
After that we just sort of wandered around enjoying the sea view and the green hills and the fresh air.
And then we took the cable cars back down to civilization.
Have I mentioned that the landscape was stunning? Seriously.
After dinner at a local pub, we headed back to Conwy and attempted to do laundry. Except that Conwy is teeny weeny and it was Sunday so the nearest laundromat was closed. Luckily, in the meantime our new friends from the Colwyn Bay branch had called and invited us over and said we could use the washing machine at their house. So they picked us up and drove us around to see the Isle of Anglesy which is where the Duke and Duchess of York hang out and also the site of the unfinished Beaumaris castles, and also has a lovely beach promenade, and also where I took zero pictures because I was too engaged in chatting with our new friends. Then we went back to their lovely home and enjoyed each others company while starting laundry. (This is the beginning of the Great Laundry Debacle. Turns out the family did not have a dryer, which I guess is common. They offered to let us leave the clothes at their house while they dried overnight and then we were to phone them when we'd gotten back from the next day's adventures so they could drop them off. In the meantime, at some point during the next day's adventures we'd lost their phone number. Which meant we couldn't call. Luckily, we'd exchanged email addresses independently of phone numbers, so I sent a email, but that meant a couple of very stressful hours of waiting and praying while feeling bad that we were imposing on this generous family and also stressing out because we were leaving the next day and sort of needed our clothes back. Finally, as I was lying fully clothed in bed with the covers over my head resolved that if we hadn't heard back from them that I would by the $15 for a skeevy Internet "get someone's contact information" site, there was a knock on the door letting us know that "a man with a case" was here to see us. I'm pretty sure that I actually shouted "hooray!" and flew down the stairs with great relief. It was a laundry miracle! About an hour later the email letting us know that he was coming came through.)
The original plan for the next day was to hike up Mount Snowdon, but Lori had been complaining about walking so I let her know that there was a train that we could take up if she wanted, and she opted for train. Which meant that we had to fill a few extra hours that morning. We opted to spend some time in Betws-y-Coed, described as the gateway to Snowdonia National Park. It was adorable, but there was not much to actually do/see so we found ourselves in a model train museum. Lori loved it.
Some of the models were quite realistic looking, and one of the plaques said especially to notice the detail on the toilets in this one. You can't see in this photo, but the toilet were remarkably detailed.
The museum also sported what I think was a 1/8 size train which we decided to spend the pound to ride.
Finally it was time to catch our real train up Mount Snowdon. It took us about an hour to get to the summit and there was probably interesting narration going on, but it was really hard to hear. But it didn't matter since, oh yeah, Wales is gorgeous.
One thing we hadn't really counted on was the fact that the summit was going to be FREEZING!!! Seriously. A walking skirt was totally inappropriate attire, and so although at first I was a little sad we'd only have a half hour on the summit, that's actually about all we could handle.
The views, though? Totally worth it. Although, you almost don't feel like you've earned them when you take the train up instead of doing the hike. If there's ever a next time, I will totally be hiking.
Our last morning in Conwy we finally went over to explore Conwy Castle. This was one of the two most gorgeous days weather-wise that we had while in the UK. I even actually took off my jacket for a good part of the day.
Conwy Castle was our favorite of the ones we saw -- I think mostly because the walls are still mostly intact, but since it's not been restored, it's pretty relaxed and you can do a lot of exploring. There are also some... odd art pieces scattered throughout.
After visiting the castle we took a walk along the castle walls, toured a Tudor-era house, and popped in at the smallest house in Great Britain.
And then it was time to leave Wales behind and continue on our way.
Um...will you take me to Europe? Pretty please?
ReplyDelete