North Wales Adventure! (#9)

 When we started planning this trip, we looked at the map and saw how close Wales is to Liverpool, and it seemed a shame not to plan a way to see a bit of this small country.  Initially we thought about renting a car here and driving on our own, but ultimately decided on a minibus tour that would take us to the highlights of North Wales without the hassle of driving.  This proved to be a good decision!

As we were waiting for our little tour bus to arrive at the pickup spot, we started chatting with another couple from Florida also waiting for the tour.  They turned out to be Trumpers, so we then spent the rest of the day trying to avoid them!  We scored the front row seats behind the driver.  Ann our driver  was a character; relatively new to this job leading minibus tours, she was a life long proud Scouser (that's the slang name for Liverpool residents!) and was actually a big double decker bus driver, and was sassy and mouthy (in a good way).  The Trumper was one of those guys who thinks he is way funnier than he actually is ("Hey, we are in Wales.....how come I don't see any whales?"). He had lots of comments like this, and the drive shut him down each time with her sass and quick wit. She made some comment about not liking US politics, and our fellow tourist shouted out "well, some of us like Trump".  She shot back with something like "well I don't...my petrol use to be  £1.20, and now it has jumped to £2.30 per liter...he's affecting my livelihood!"  Suddenly the man went quite (for a while!)

The population of the country of Wales is 3.1 million people, however there are 9 million sheep in Wales!! And just like the Yorkshire Dales, it is lambing season so the little babies were frolicking here too!  Every time we passed a pasture, the driver exclaimed "ahh the wee babies!"

Our first stop was the Victorian seaside resort town of Llandudno.  Lovely old hotels line the bay, and there is a very long pier which we walked all the way to the end of (because of course that is where the public restrooms were located!). Cold and windy...but quite pretty.  This is also the town where C.S. Lewis was born so there are lots of statues of Alice in Wonderland characters spread through the town.

Back in the van we headed on to the town of Conwy.  This little fishing town is home to the "best" castle in Wales (not sure what qualifies it a that, but that's what we were told!), built in 1283 by Edward 1st.  There is a road-side attraction right on the bay here the is the "smallest house in Great Britain".  We didn't pay to go in, but we did talk to the Welsh gal out front selling tickets.  The Welch language is so unusual...way too many consonants in their words!  All signage in Wales is written first in Welch, then in English.  I asked the ticket seller if kids learn Welsh in school and she said only some do...there are English speaking schools, and Welsh speaking schools, so parents choose. Welsh is slowly dying out as young people don't have such an interest in continuing it.  People born within the city walls in Conwy are called Jackdos.  Fewer and fewer people are being born in the city walls so there are just a few Jackdos left.  An example of a crazy Welsh word, here is the name of a trainstation in Wales: Llanfairpwllgwyllgogerychwyrndrobwlllantysiliogogogoch.  (Yikes!!).  Don't ask me to pronounce it!

Just a funny note about this jacket.  Gary tends to run "cold" so at the very last minute before we left,  I ordered this puffer coat on Amazon...warm and easy to pack, right?  Well, he hates it...it is very "slippery"; whenever he takes it off and sets its down, it slips onto the floor and he says "Damn this slippery jacket...it's a piece of $*%$!!!!  But he keeps wearing it! 😂. I'm pretty sure he will abandon it in London before we head home...but it HAS kept him warm!!  Also, I learned a Welsh word..."nesh". It describes someone who is always cold...Gary is quite nesh in England!!

The smallest house in Britain (the little red one) - one room up/one room down/bathroom out back!  At one time, a family of 10 lived there!!

Conwy Castle - we walked a bit on the ramparts

just an example of the dual-language signage

Back in the van we headed to Snowdonia National Park.  They have filmed House of Dragons (The Game of Thrones spinoff) here. Mt Snowdon looms above, lots of valleys and rocky outcroppings and waterfalls make up the huge national park.  This is a big hiking and rock climbing area.  I kept thinking Jayson and Iren would like hiking here!  As we were driving to the park, Ann the driver/guide had music playing on the radio, right as she turned radio off there was an announcement about a road closure.  The radio went off, a few seconds Ann shouted out "Oh my God, did anyone see that sign back there?  It says the road is closed". She sounded a bit panicked and took a quick right hand turn onto a little one lane road.  She was concerned as we suddenly came to a very narrow old stone bridge.  We couldn't back up, but it looked too narrow to squeeze through.  She said "I think I can fit here..." and we crossed with about 6" to spare on each side!  She said she would look for a place to turn around on this little road.  Saying: "I'll just put some music on to focus me"...and suddenly the Star Wars music blasted and she hit the excelerator - we were suddenly going "warp speed" on this little road.  Instantly Gary and I realized it was all and act, but I took delight in the fact that the Trumpers sitting behind us were panicking...saying "She could turn around there...or there...I don't understand why she doesn't turn around...oh no!"  It was a a minute or two before Ann started laughing and asked how many of us fell for it!   It was a VERY good prank; Ann sounded believably panicked, the road looked almost impassable, and the bus felt a bit out of control!  We made it to the top of the road (not the top of the mountain!). There were some lovely vista points and a visitor center with a snack shack.  We got tea and some sweets.  Again, we are totally amazed about the gluten free awareness in Britain!  There were 6 or 7 different baked goods offered, 3 of which were marked GF.  Gary had something like Millionaire Shortbread and I had an almond/raspberry that tasted exactly something my mother in law made called "maids of honor" which I adored...I was in heaven!  Lou and Pao...I really think England is the place for you to visit - GF everywhere!

Mmmmmmm....

Sort of a Hansel & Gretle vibe cabin in the woods!

A beautiful example of a rock wall (now that I am a rock wall expert!)

Doesn't this remind you of Yosemite?!

This is the valley where they filmed House of Dragons.  While we were standing looking down at the Valley,  3 fighter jets came swooping overhead and disappeared into the distance before I could get my camera out!  It was pretty dramatic and felt like a scene from Star Wars!  (The guide said they routinely do training flights here in this valley with the "V" at the end).

Wales is really SO green!

Next up was a town called Betws-Y-Coed which had lots of little shops and B&Bs...very cute (kind of a Carmel vibe).  Ann said she would pick us up in front of "the Rhino's Rump"...I thought this was the name of a pub, until I saw this!

One more stop before returning to Liverpool...the Pontcycyllte Aqueduct in Llangollen.  This is a World Heritage site, built in the 18th century.  It is only 12 feet wide and is the longest aqueduct in Great Britain, and the highest canal aqueduct in the world.  It was built to get goods down to the Mersey river for shipping agricultural goods.  Now it is just used for recreational long boat/barges and walking acrosss.  It is really weird to walk on that narrow path, with the canal on one side (no railing), and the steep drop off on the other side.  There was NO way Gary was going to walk across it...and even I had vertigo and did not let go of the railing on the one side.  It was a bit hair when you had to pass people walking the other direction.  It really is an engineering miracle of the times!  We haven't watched the Peak Blinders movie yet, but apparently there is a scene toward the end where Tommy Shelby is in a barge on this aqueduct - you can bet I'll watch that when I get home!  Oh, by the way, this aqueduct cost. $49,000 to build.

That's a train Viaduct off in the distance.

It's a LONG way down there...somehow all perspective gets lost in a photo!

On the way back to Liverpool, Ann put on Beatles music and we pretty much sang our way home!  It was a great day out!!  Wales is beautiful and is worth a visit.  Maybe "next time" we hit South Wales?!