Wales ... rugged and invigorating

We thought the coast line of Northern Ireland was the most rugged.  Wrong!  Wales has it beat.  This is a stunning country that is a rough, mountainous, very windy, a wild, invigorating  place with lots of small lakes and undeveloped woodland areas.

Some of the Welsh coastline

 

John escorted a 7 ½ hour tour to Portmeirion and Snowdonia.  Our first stop, however, was Caernarfon Castle.  This 800 year old castle is the place where the Prince of Wales is installed, the last being Prince Charles in 1969.  We then travelled to Portmeirion, a unique town that was developed over a 50 year period by Clough William-Ellis in a variety of architectural styles. Surrounding the village are 70 acres of sub-tropical woodland gardens. The village is made of a large variety of eclectic buildings that draw huge crowds.  It is famous for being the place where the television series The Prisoner (remember Patrick McGoohan and “I am not a number”) was filmed in the 1960’s.  It is also one of Sir Paul McCartney’s favourite places to visit for relaxation. Since the village is built into the side of a steep hill, strolling about the place is very challenging.

Caernarfon Castle

At the entrance to Portmeirion

"The Prisoner" store

Portmeirion from below

A view of the gardens

 

After lunch, the tour went through the Snowdonia area of Wales.  This is a very rugged, mountainous area with very narrow roads lined with rock fences on both sides of the road.  Being a long weekend, there were thousands of tourists in the area trying to share the road with our huge bus ... the bus won.  However, what should have been a relatively short trip through the mountains took a long time as the bus had to stop so cars could pass in the opposite direction.  In this mountainous area there are thousands of hikers who come on weekends to climb on well-marked trails. There are a lot of very fit people here. 

Mount Snowden

Mountainside with slate

 

Gail escorted a 4 hour tour to the South Stack Nature Reserve and Lighthouse.  This tour drove through some stunning countryside leading to the breathtaking cliffs of the nature reserve. Part of the tour involved climbing down the cliff (some 400 steps) and, of course, climbing back up the 400 steps at the end of the tour.  Unfortunately there were four elderly guests on the tour who were unable to negotiate the cliff face, so the guide took the group down the steps while Gail stayed behind at the Nature Centre with the seniors.  Since her knee was quite sore from the previous day’s tour, this was somewhat of a relief. Gail took her small group on a walking tour of the cliff-top. The views were quite amazing.

Notice the spelling

South Stack lighthouse

An example of some of the rugged countryside

 

Now, the ship departs back to Ireland for a visit to Waterford, home of the famous crystal and known for making Guinness.