NORTH WALES – 24th NOV. - 1st DEC.

Spending three nights in Loch Lomond was awesome; to spend a week in North Wales pales Scotland into insignificance. Julie has been blown away by the scenery here. Me? I cannot believe that I spent more than 9 years living in this area.

Spending three nights in Loch Lomond was awesome; to spend a week in North Wales pales Scotland into insignificance. Julie has been blown away by the scenery here. Me? I cannot believe that I spent more than 9 years living in this area.

The cottage we are staying in is fantastic to say the least although we did have a few doubts as we drove up to our rental cottage called Ty Isaf.

The first issue was the narrow road leading to gates guarded by a small herd of cows. Not that they objected to our presence but more of a ‘watchful eye’ on our passage through the gates.

I’m still not sure if they were ensuring we closed the gate behind us or wishing we would leave it open!

Driving around here is a bit precarious to say the least. It certainly is NOT recommended to drink and drive;

there’s a real risk of spilling it if you do.

Our days are spent touring the area and showing Julie the area of my playground from years gone by. An advantage of the rain is that the rivers are full and the waterfalls are in full flow – spectacular doesn’t come even close to describing the sights.

Swallow Falls in Betws-Y-Coed are probably the most photographed falls in the country. OK, Victoria Falls or Niagara Falls probably have the edge but these are by far the finest I have ever encountered.

In Julies words; “You say when you are ready to go; I could stay here all day”. So, we tore ourselves away to pay a visit to Bangor. We find that we take any turning, possibly aiming to visit a town or village but just driving around and viewing the mountains and valleys on the way.

We spent a day in Conwy, ‘Wet Conwy’ as I have listed the photos. It rained most of the day but somehow the beauty of the place rose above the weather and we simply ‘didn’t care’!

Just following the side roads took us to Caernarfon and its imposing castle. Of note the entry cost here was half that of Stirling Castle in Scotland and easily far more value. It is extremely well preserved and a testament to the work of the National Trust.

The rain has stopped and the raw cold has entered the scene with a heavy frost this morning. Something of a shock for poor Julie, being a third generation Aussie but she survived. The drive into town was somewhat precarious with icy roads but we survived the trip without incident. During the day the temperature never rose above 2 degrees.

Spent a day in Betws-Y-Coed today; in my mind one of the most beautiful places on earth. OK, I admit I’m biased, having lived near here for almost 10 years. I have delightful memories of drives with the girls in a former life (20 years ago) but the village still grabs me. Little has changed since our time here, the shops and stores are still the same. It’s almost as if time has come to a standstill.

At the moment I’m feeling very nostalgic and dread leaving the place. The only consolation is that we are moving on to greener pastures at the weekend and, yes we are looking forward to Ireland.

It was great just walking around and visiting all the stores and specialist shops in the village. It doesn’t take long but then the days are short and we have a lovely cosy retreat to return to. Tomorrow is our last day in Wales and we move on to Ireland for 4 days. There are few plans set for tomorrow; we’ll just wander and see where the road takes us!

Our last day in North Wales! We made the most of it by taking a trip to Anglesey and timing our trip to Holyhead for tomorrows ferry to Dublin.

Once again the journey was more important than the destination; the mountains of Snowdonia are all snow-capped now and incredible to view. We stayed for a brief period in Holyhead itself but found the town to be dull and unimpressive so we moved on to –

 LLANFAIRPWLLGWYNGILLGOGERYCHWYRNDROBWLLLLANTYSILIOGOGOGOCH

Yep! Its’ one word folks. I’m not even going to try to pronounce it; I’ll leave that to my daughter, Lyndsey who mastered it years ago whilst living in Wales.

To save you all the hassle of counting, its’ 58 letters in length and reportedly the longest place-name in the country (the world?).

Translated it means;-

THE CHURCH OF MARY IN THE HOLLOW OF THE WHITE HAZEL NEAR THE FIERCE WHIRLPOOL AND THE CHURCH OF TYSILIO BY THE RED CAVE.

Go figure!

Our main camera battery decided to fail on me and we then spent an hour in Bangor trying to find a replacement. No luck there so it was then onto Llandudno where we struck success! Yeah! Another 40 Quid to splash out.

We’ll be packing up tonight ready for an early start to Dublin, Ireland.