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| Panorama of Conwy from the top of the castle - you can see some of the wall around the city. |
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| Exterior of Conwy Castle |
We ventured into northern Wales spending time in Conwy – the
walled city which was Edward1’s solution to the pesky Welsh. He couldn’t
conquer the land so he figured he would build a series of forts and castles
around the border of Wales and keep them all in. Conwy was one of the few
castles that he actually managed to get finished as his own version of the GFC
beset him. The shell of the castle including all the towers is intact and it
was great to wander around it. CADW (Welsh Heritage) have restored one of the
towers – the Chapel tower by reinstalling the floors. King Edward apparently
spent a Christmas at Conwy besieged by the Welsh but he had all the creature
comforts installed – he even had it arranged that he didn’t have to mix with
everyone else for Chapel services by having his own special viewing room with
adjoining Garderobe (toilet with a long drop outside the castle). Some great
views from the tops of the towers and we took the time to walk around the walls
of Conwy – it was interesting that some of the guard towers are now peoples’
back fences so have been turned into BBQ areas, tool sheds and the like.
We also took the time to look at Plas Mawr the Elizabethan
house of Robert Wynn which has remained almost the same as it was in the 16th
century. It was quite astounding with lots of plaster work and obviously he was
one of the well to do around town. Again CADW have done a great job presenting
it and providing the information. We headed out of Conwy to a delightful
caravan park on a farm and then did some ‘rambling’ around Rowen in the Welsh
countryside as the weather was actually fine.
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| Some sheep about to go over the edge on Mt Snowdon |
The next day we had an appointment with the Snowdon Mountain
Railway to go to the top of Mt Snowdon. The morning started clear and bright
and when we arrived for the train we were told we may only go part way up
because of the danger of high winds. Fortunately things stayed relatively fine
on the way up and we were able to go all the way to the visitor centre at the
top. The weather had by now closed in with sleet and horrendous winds. The
temperature according to the train driver as we came back down was 3 degrees
and -4 with wind chill (no wonder we were freezing). Elizabeth climbed the last
few steps to the top (wet and slippery although all you could only see about 5
metres in front of you). Edmund Hillary and team apparently trained on Mt
Snowdon before the successful attempt climbing Mt Everest – not nearly as high
but certainly has adverse weather conditions and this was the first day of
summer!
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| Stephen near the summit of Mt Snowdon - yes it was as cold as it looks! |
The weather did not improve as we headed back down the
mountain – indeed they closed up the centre and sent everyone down the
mountain. The train had to rescue some walkers on the way back down who were
wet and bedraggled. There were plenty of others walking down so assume they
just had to sort themselves out.
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| View from summit of Mt Snowdon - the edge is there somewhere. |
As we drove towards the Lakes District the weather continued
to deteriorate and we were not assisted by the fact that we managed to travel 4
miles in 1 and a half hours on the Motorway because of an accident where three
lanes had to converge into 1. We arrived at the caravan park near Ullswater
Lake which had whitecaps on it due to the winds. The night was a bit wild and
woolly in the camper as it rocked back and forth in the strong winds. (According to the news the following morning - gusts in northern Wales of 75mph - we weren't that far away)
Depending
on the weather tomorrow we will head to Keswick and then some of Hadrian’s
wall.
Love to all
S&E
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