Bangor & North Wales
Categories: holidays
Date: 19 December 2007 02:59:49
Photos here: and probbaly my largest photo set.
A big thank you to Tired & Emotional who suggested I should spend half my time up north and half down south -- and base myself in Bangor; it was truly great to see a small part of North Wales. Not only a very beautiful, and in places rugged, country, but with such deep and continuing history. And the people are truly wonderful: nothing is a rush, nothing is a problem...plenty of time to sit and talk. Very, very relaxing.
I based myself in the university city of Bangor and for two days travelled around. Bangor has a wonderful Cathedral, tracing its roots back to 530AD when Deiniol settled his hermitage there. As well as the beautiful stained glass, detailed wood carvings and intricate tiles are throughout, particularly in the choir and altar area. An interesting touch added by the craftsmen is a series of carved mice throughout. I also wandered around the High Street [love that term: it's not one we use here in Oz] and around the university, perched atop a hill, and down to the pier. A lovely city, and some great pub food: I even went to a very pleasant, and reasonable priced [even with the exchange rate!] Japanese restaurant.
My first day travelling took me to the island of Anglesey, going over the Menai Bridge. I, as a tourist, had to visit the town with the longest name: and left promptly as it was simply brimming with (loud) tourists.
Beaumaris Castle is truly one of the must-see castles; still surrounded by a moat and with a majestic entrance walking around and through it is a great experience. It was also the first time I got that 'Ahhhhh' feeling looking at the Welsh countryside: sheep and green hills -- Wales indeed. I then set off for what I thought was the road to Holyhead and North Head. It wasn't. However, God's Hand was in there somewhere -- I ended up at the beautiful Penmon Priory [with two fine stone crosses from the 11th century] and the St Seiriol's Well [St Seiriol lived in the 6th century AD]. A dovecoat was also nearby. After some time there, I managed to get on the right road [and the roads through Wales are beautiful: driving by the sea or through the trees with a stone wall on either or both sides. Narrow, slow, yes: but beautiful. And no-one appeared to be in a rush anyway: I certainly wasn't.
From there I went back to the mainland and down to Portmeirion, an Italian-style village "built by Welsh architect Clough Williams-Ellis from 1925 to 1973 to demonstrate that development of a naturally beautiful site need not result in its defilement." [from the Portmeirion Village website]. A beautiful village, but I would say the weather was not exactly Mediterranean. I then had a quick look at the town of Porthmadog and then around Caernarfon. Caernarfon Castle looks amazing, and extremely imposing -- unfortunately I arrived late in the day so it was view-from-outside only.
The next day it was an enjoyable hike to the beautiful Aber Falls (right). It was a bit of a misty morning, with occasional light rain [rain in the UK is a different beast to the hard and heavy rain in Oz]: good weather for walking though. It was then off to Conwy for, guess what?, another Castle of course! I had seen this castle from the train on my way from Manchester to Bangor: it's fairly hard to miss considering the train line goes right beside it and through one of its walls! I walked around the town, walked along the city walls and visited the Church of St Mary and all Saints.
From there I set off to the northern parts of Snowdonia. The beautiful roads continued: and the scenery was simply amazing. My camera is but a small cheap one, and cannot do justice to it. It is truly a beautiful land, as the few photos below show.
I stopped at the towns of Betws-y-Coed(*) [where I saw the lovely Swallow Falls [right] and Llanberis, where I visited the informative and interesting National Slate Museum. I also stopped at a few places: one of the most interesting was a place where hikers set out from: and this is what they were headed into.
Wales is truly a wondrous place, and I am eagerly looking forward to a return visit: perhaps in the warmer months so I can ride some of the narrow-gauge railways spread throughout and visit a few places closed for the winter season. As I said above, this was truly one of the best holidays I have had.
(*) thank you Rhys for the spelling correction.