Snowdonia

Today is Friday

We had a late start today, Steven wanted to update the blog while we had internet coverage.
We had watched a DVD at home before we left called 'Great British Drives' there were a couple we are keen to do. One of them is through the Snowdonia National Park. So we set off towards the hills.
On the way we passed an old church, it was locked so we couldn't go in. but it was a nice old building. Church of St. Garmon at Betws Garmon.

















As we started into the National Park we came to a little town called Beddgelert and stopped to have a look. We haven't seen a thatched roof since we came into Wales, it's all slate roof and stone walls. The bridge in the town is very picturesque.

 












 



Then we got into some serious scenery. We had watched the movie but in real life it is awsome. We had picked a good day with the sun shining and not too much traffic around. The road winds up and down along the sides of the hills and mountains. It is buttressed up by huge stone walls. Unlike England the Welsh give you places to stop and admire the scenery. England not only doesn't, but also puts signs up saying 'don't stop' and just to make sure you can't see anything they keep the hedgerows neatly cut at 10 feet. Anyway. 

 









 

 
On the way down the otherside we came to an old ruin. 
It was Dolbladern Castle, it is one of the best preserved Welsh round towers. Built in the 1200's as defence against the English but fell to King Edward I. The greatest castle builder of them all, we visited two of his castles yesterday.


 


We then decided to visit the Isle of Anglesey and squeeze in a visit to another castle, this one Beaumaris castle, another of Edward I castles. On the way we crossed a great suspension bridge.





 

This castle has a moat. It also had toilets was a bit unusual for a castle. The toilets were just a shaft built into the walls that ended in the moat.

Like yesterdays castles this had long passageways in the walls for the archers.




































 

Then Steven heard about some standing stones at the very end of Anglesey. So we drove all the way to South Stack on Holy Island to look for them. They were erected about 2000 BC. Much driving back and forth on some very narrow roads.



We then decided to head back to England. On the way out of Anglesey we came to a place called Llanfairpwllgwyngwllgogeryschwyrndrobwllllantysiliogogogoch, Tammy tried to type it into the lovely lady but she got her knickers in a knot and stopped talking again. We went to the train station and took a picture of the name board. 

Tammy's research tells us that all Welsh place names are descriptive of the area. This one means 'Mary's Church by the white hazel pool, near the fierce whirlpool, with the Church of Twsilioby the Red Cave'. Simple really.

We drove through some lovely country and found a campsite just outside of Shrewsbury.