Wales in a Nutshell

I'll Try to Keep This Brief

Because: 1) You are probably exhausted from reading about this trip and; 2) We set off tomorrow on ANOTHER trip with no chance I will remember anything about Wales by the end of the next jaunt.  So, here goes.  Welsh is a language more complicated than Gaelic or Irish.  It consists essentially of endless strings of consonants rendering pronunciation impossible. Here is an example:  Pethau I'w Gwneud.  That means Things to Do.  And that example had LOTS more vowels then the average. All the road signs put the Welsh first with English a poor second on the bottom of signs.  Taught since birth to read top to bottom, the result was by the time my eyes moved past the Welsh and on to the English we were past the sign with no idea of what we'd just passed or were about to pass.  Thank God for GPS  -- Did I actually SAY that?

So, So Lost

Our Air BNBs were remote.  And I mean REMOTE.  So, in attempting to find our last Welsh place we found ourselves covering terrain with dirt tracks so narrow that limbs of trees were lashing our car doors.  After obediently following the GPS directions which told us we had arrived we found ourselves looking into a rutted path that could not POSSIBLY be the right place.  We retraced our steps to a crossroad that was at least paved.  We couldn't call our hosts because there was no cell reception (see remote).  There was a payphone at the intersection however.  Michael dispatched me with coins to seek contact.  It was a coin payphone that wouldn't accept coins.  Maybe debit or credit cards if you could figure out how to process them.  I was depressed.  Out of the corner of my eye I spotted a man emptying grass clippings. I scooted from the booth and yelled "Oh, we are SO lost and our phone doesn't work and our GPS is crappy and your phone booth doesn't take coins.  Can you help us?" He chuckled and invited me in.  Having explained our situation his wife asked who the hosts were.  I said "Sue something".  She said, "Oh Sue! Sure".  Why don't you just let them follow you to Peter and Sue's."  They called and alerted our hosts.  We followed our new friend.  We met Peter half way to the house.  The GPS had been RIGHT -- it was on that God forsaken little path.  The Welsh are very kind people. The place was really cute.  Sue and Peter were really great and we were very chastened and apologized to the GPS.

Marvy Parks

Wales has many parks but Brecon Beacons and Snowdonia are truly exquisite.  Because the parks were established after villages were established (by hundreds of years) the parks contain charming little towns sprinkled throughout.   In Brecon Beacons (as in Snowdonia) we rode a train to the summits of their tallest mountains which, by American or Himalayan standards, are hills.  But very scenic.  There are people who race to the top of Snowdonia (including the guy whose Air BNB we stayed in) which does not, to me, look like any fun at all.

We definitely did it all this trip --- planes, cars, boats & trains. 

This steam engine was manufactured in Philadelphia, PA.

This reservoir was particularly photogenic...

as was this lake.

Our cog railway engine to take us to the top of Mount Snowdonia.

The view on the way up and at the top gave us quite a vista of the Welsh countryside.

Another Guy With Too Much Money and Time on His Hands

But the results were interesting.  An architect named Clough Williams-Ellis decided to construct an entire town on the coast of Wales.  But here is the interesting part.  He constructed an ITALIAN village  So there, in the middle of the Welsh forest resides a Mediterranean town that could be Portofino rather than Portmeirion. He owned it for years and invited all his friends to hang there with him as he continued his expansion.  Michael and I had to see this so we wandered over from Snowdonia to take a peek.  Prior to the trip we'd done our homework.  We'd watched an episode of the Cult hit TV show The Prisoner that aired in the 60s.  It was filmed in Portmeirion and it was fun to walk around saying, "Yeah, this was where he...."  If you get a chance take a look at The Prisoner. Good fun.  If you're really intrigued you can rent a villa or hotel room there.

The pictures tell it all.

I am not sure how the Buddha ended up in a faux Italian village.

Atlas Obscura Let's Us Down

We usually discover some of our best/quirkiest sites (i.e. Froggy Museum) from Atlas Obscura.  In perusing the Wales section I was surprised to learn that the Northwest area of Wales has the second most UFO sightings in the world.  In fact, they had a UFO exhibit at The Great Orme Summit Center.  So, we were off.  It was not a complete waste.  The views were marvelous and the day clear and beautiful. However, the UFO exhibit was just unspeakably lame.   So lame we must provide pictures. Clean up your act Atlas Obsura.

Sculptures from Alien & other assorted sci-fi movies...

along with a scale model of the Millenium Falcon from Star Wars...

and advice on "How to Wait For Aliens" constituted the entirety of the museum.

The views from the top made the trip worthwhile.

Is It A Canal?  Is it an Aqueduct?  Is it Both?

Michael was intrigued by the Pontcysylite Aqueduct because it is really a canal.  The name, however, means "bridge that connects".  So call it whatever you want but it is mightily cool. It is 126 feet high with 18 piers and 19 arches. We ambled about the very sweet town next to the Aqueduct until it was time to board our barge.  Yes, Deirdre was once again conquering Phobia #1 (heights) by riding in a barge across this really high thing which only had a railing on one side.  The barge would hit the side without the rail and sort of tremble.  Exciting. Returning home I discovered that to make the structure as light as possible (water is heavy) the piers were partially hollow and tapered inward at the top. This thing is OLD.  That is worrisome.  Also the mortar was made of Ox blood, lime and water. Yuck.

As in England it is possible to rent a boat and cruise the canals.

The canal aqueduct is barely wide enough for one boat...

and there is no guardrail on one side with a significant drop...

but these brave souls chose to go to the bow of the boat to admire the view.

Back to England, Back to Ireland

We flew out of Liverpool to Dublin.  Two days before, we learned that Sir Paul and James Cordon had done an amazing Carpool Karaoke in Liverpool.  If you have not seen this you should immediately go to You Tube and watch it.  It will make you smile all day and there isn't much capable of that these days.  Having had a crush on Sir Paul for 53 years it was imperative that we followed in their footsteps and recreated some of their stops.  Paul had written his name on a Penny Lane sign and Michael and I diligently drove the street trying to figure out which one was autographed. We saw two teenage girls (he still has his charms) who were taking selfies (of course) in front of a sign.  We joined them and sure enough there was his name.  I feel like a sixteen year old recounting this.

Deirdre pointing out Sir Paul's autograph on the Penny Lane sign.

Paul's autograph was not the first writing to appear on the Penny Lane sign.

The End of the Jaunt

Not much more to say.  We spent our last night in Swords near the Dublin airport.  They don't have air conditioning in Ireland for all the obvious reasons.  The weather was so unusually hot that Michael and I had to wrap wet towels around our heads to get to sleep.  Really.  That's it.  Done. Fini. Next report will be from the Rockies.