Last week we went on holiday to northern Wales. On our way, we stopped at Ironbridge Gorge. It was a perfect detour into the industrial age past. Ironically, the bridge was created the same time the American colonies were fighting for independence. We had dinner in Llangollen and drove past Mt. Snowdon on our journey to our hotel in Caernarfon.Our first day holidaying was spent around Caernarfon, checking out the castle and town. The castle was built along with a bunch of others by Edward I to control the area. This was a great introduction into Welsh history. Though English is spoken, much of the signage was in Welsh. The people were friendly and helpful.
On our second day, Gabriel and I hiked to the top of Mt. Snowdon. We took the miners path up the backside of the mountain. It passed two lakes. The weather was terrible. When we started out, there was a light drizzle. As we climbed higher, it turned to rain and got colder. We had waterproofs on and I had plenty of water, hot chocolate in a thermos, and snacks (not to mention emergency gear). After the second lake, we were two thirds of the way to the top. The path was not clearly marked and there were clouds/ fog obstructing our view. The last 500 feet was fully exposed and quite windy. We were supposed to meet Susie and Pearl at the top (they were taking the train up), but the train stopped two-thirds of the way and they didn’t have the right gear to hike the rest. In any case, there was no view for them to see.
With the weather getting progressively worse, we decided to cut our holiday short with checking out Porthmadog and Portmeirion. Portmeirion was definitely worth the visit. It was gorgeous and has a bizzare history to tell. We concluded our trip with a visit back to Llangollen. There was a hot air balloon festival going on. We had a great dinner and caught the balloons at sunset.
