28
Dec 14

Glyderau

After our beautiful, and relaxing Christmas break down in London, we headed to Wales from the 27th of December – to get in some hiking, and, as Wales had recently got it’s fresh dump of super powder snow on the mountains, we were in for a great time.

We woke up, first thing Sunday morning, and headed straight to Llanberis, as we needed some fresh hiking socks for Gina, as she had just bought herself a new pair of beautiful boots: Scarpa Ranger Lady – Gina was over the moon with them. After a swift purchase of her new socks, we jetted up Llanberis Pass, and parked the van in a wee lay-by just after Pen Y Gwryd (the expedition pub), booted up, and headed straight up the Southern flank of Glyder Fach. Once we hit the snow line, we knew we were in for a good day’s hike, as the wasn’t a single cloud in the sky, the snow was super fresh-powder, and the views were stunning.

Gina, Snowdon Horseshoe & her new boots

Gina, Snowdon Horseshoe & her new boots

Snowdon Horseshoe

Snowdon Horseshoe

We powered up the hill, cutting through the epic balls-deep snow before reaching a nice wee plateau to which we stopped and had ourselves a lovely spot of lunch. As we bought up with us from London the beautiful Czech cookies that Gina baked for us, we thought that these would be a wonderful addition to our hiking snacks, and boy we were right: cheese ‘n pickle sandwiches, Czech xmas cookies and wonderful mint tea – perfect hiking foods.

Gina hiking in the snow

Gina hiking in the snow

Snowdon Horseshoe

Snowdon Horseshoe

After a nice lunch, we headed right up towards the summit of Glyder Fach. We hadn’t seen a single soul all morning, and it wasn’t until we reached the top plateau that we found the other hikers traversing from Glyder Fach towards Glyder Fawr. We stopped over at Castell y Gwynt, where the views down the valley, and over towards Y Carneddau were majestical and Wintery. I took a few snaps of the ice covered rock formation over on Castell Y Gwynt, and looking across towards Glyder Fawr.

Gina hiking up Glyder Fach

Gina hiking up Glyder Fach

Amazing views over towards Snowdon

Amazing views over towards Snowdon

Gina on Castell y Gwynt, with Pen yr Ole Wen behind.

Gina on Castell y Gwynt, with Pen yr Ole Wen behind.

Icy Castell y Gwynt & Glyder Fawr

Icy Castell y Gwynt & Glyder Fawr

From here, we traversed across to Bwlch y Ddwy Glyder, and stopped just shy of the summit of Glyder Fawr, as the sun was setting fast. We decided to head down a different route – from y Bwlch, straight down Bwlch Dwyglydion, and over to Llyn Cwmffynon. The sun was setting rather nicely, where we stopped for a breif moment to get some nice pictures.

Gina on Bwlch y Ddwy Glyder

Gina on Bwlch y Ddwy Glyder

Bwlch Dwyglydion - looking down towards Llyn Cwmffynon

Bwlch Dwyglydion – looking down towards Llyn Cwmffynon

Rather fantastic round trip, in glorious weather. Really nice to see Wales on top form!


06
Apr 14

Sunny weekend in Schwarzwald

Iestyn was in Freiburg for the weekend but as usual didn’t write anything about it for SoBN, so I made a beautiful little video succinctly summarising the weekend in two minutes only. Epic. Iestyn loved the video so much that it made him go back to the video he started making about Schwarzwald about a year ago but never finished.

The sun is gonna shine from nostalgina on Vimeo.


05
Jan 14

Xmas ’13

This xmas we considered going for a trip to some of European cool cities, but then we decided not to, and stayed in the ‘burg. The idea was originally to have fun in the snow, with snowshoes and cross-country skis and all that but then the weather was actually really bad – it was very warm so there was no snow even on the hills, and it was often very rainy. This is btw the second year in a row with shitty xmas ambiance in the ‘burg, so I still didn’t get the skis I wanted to buy last year already. To be fair though, in the UK they had massive storms and flash floods, so that might have been even worse.

Anyway, we decided to be couch potatoes instead, and for that purpose got ourselves nice big 42” tv – the first time i’ve had a tv since like ten years or so. Of course we don’t actually get the stupid german broadcast, but got the tv specifically just to watch movies. And movies we watched – to name just a few, I loved The Great Gatsby, Behind the Candelabra, Another Earth (all newly gotten for b-day/xmas), and re-watched many of my fav classics – The Royal Tenenbaums, Shame, We’re the Millers, The Thick of It, Inbetweeners, Sherlock, Gone Baby Gone… And I still have Anna Karenina to watch when Iestyn’s gone (not really his type of movie).

Our xmas

Our xmas

Speaking of Sherlock, we could not wait for the new season (not really a “season” they only got like three episodes, and that’s after like two years! I wonder what they’ve been doing.) Unfortunately we could not watch it on the new big tv because we’re outside of the UK and we didn’t manage to work out FilmOn on it (not so “smart” now, is it?), but we still loved the first episode so far, and I cannot wait until the season is on a dvd.

Towards the end of our little holidays we found the full first season of Boardwalk Empire on dvds for only like 10eur in a shop in the ‘burg, so we got it to try it out, and we got completely hooked – watched the whole season in just a couple of days. Now I cannot wait for the shops to open to get the second season as well (I hope they have it!).

We had plenty of xmas cookies to eat with all that trashy entertainment, plus some delicious Leonidas pralines. I got an amazing kettle from Iestyn for my b-day, the kind that measures and shows the temperature of the water, and can be set to heat the water to any temperature – that’s important to make the perfect green tea and other tea kinds, which I like to make. So our holidays were also accompanied by excellent teas, from Kusmi in Paris and from the Palais des Thes.

Out tree was small as always but lovely, and there were so many presents underneath this year! We bought our supplies for xmas lunch on the Munster market as usual, that’s our fav thing to do, and Iestyn selected a lovely mushroom and chestnut pie for this year’s menu, accompanied as usual with roasted vegetables with Porto wine sauce, and mashed sweet potatoes with baked garlic. It was super-delicious, and i think we should make the mushroom pie our festive time staple.

Dinner in the making

Dinner in the making

Dinner almost ready

Dinner almost ready

Delicious

Delicious

I got awesome pressies, honorable mention goes to a proper ginger beard! I also got many books and a t-shirt and lush bath bombs and dvds and a beautifully designed lunchbox, so that I can prepare my lunch for work more often, which I should really do.
We also managed to give each other the same present – a lovely graphic novel called The Gigantic Beard That Was Evil. One of them will have to go back to the store; so Iestyn will be keeping his, while I can pick another present to exchange for. I selected a great book about Wes Anderson’s films, but it’s currently all sold out, so we need to wait for the re-print (April may be?).

Gigantic Beard x2

Gigantic Beard x2

Pressies!

Pressies!

Gigantic Beard x2 (note my Ho Ho Ho shirt!)

Gigantic Beard x2
(note my Ho Ho Ho shirt!)

So all in all it was an epic break; we didn’t do much, but had a great time and re-charged our energy for the nex year!

2014!

2014!


06
Apr 13

Wales Easter

After a long absence from this blog (note the gap on the right between April 12 and February 13 – loads of stuffs happened in that time btw; but if stuff happens and nobody blogs about it, has it really happened? I might still be able to reconstruct some of it and backdate it), I think it’s time to clean up the spiderwebs here and update the journals a bit.
Easter came late this year, and even then the winter was still having a tight grip all over Europe. Freiburg had been insanely grey, depressing, cold and gloomy for four months straight, and the sun hadn’t been showing any signs of reappearance. It was tiring and made me grumpy almost non-stop. I was looking forward to having a week off over the Easter of course, but wasn’t having high hopes for seeing the sun along that time, as the UK was reporting loads of late snow, killing the sheep in Wales and Scotland. And on top of that it turned out that I would have to fly to Helsinki for some work meetings straight from the vaycay. But anyway, vaycay is vaycay, I grabbed my new book, and packed a suitcase (which had to have work clothes in it, so was very jam packed, and was getting progressively heavier along the trip somehow – objectively verified by all the airport check-ins).

Wednesday 27th March
Train to Frankfurt, flight to Dublin, no special events. In Dublin Iestyn picked me up from the airport and the day got better. Amazingly, there was sun in Dublin! I don’t think I saw Dublin otherwise yet. (It was still very cold though.) At Iestyn’s place, there were loads of pressies waiting for Gina, just because she likes getting pressies – now that’s my kind of man! We went for a lovely dinner in this noodle/sushi place, can’t remember its name. (Yamamori Noodles). Real cheese cake served for dessert! (I have to say this, because here in Germany they have a “cheese cake” that’s not actually a cheesecake, more like quark cake. It’s not bad, especially now that I know what to expect and not get my hopes up, but I still wish they called it something else.)

Thursday 28th March
We got up early, caught a taxi down to the ferry docks, and yes, it was snowing. The sea was calm though and whilst on the way between Dublin and Holyhead we actually started seeing blue skies and sun from our premium window-based seats! Because the wifi was slow, I started playing with my new compact camera, which I brought for the trip, to get familiar with the settings and such. I also made a trip up on the boat deck, which was in the sun, but extremely windy, and there were no white recliners or parasols or anything like that you would expect. It was cold too.
In Holyhead we caught the train to Bangor, and in Bangor the bus to Caernarfon, and in Caernarfon the bus to Groeslon… it was all very very tiring. But at the end we made it and got a bit of rest. Iestyn decided though that he needs a new pair of shoes (he’s a little princess like that), so we headed to Betws-y-Cwwd (or whatevs) for him to get hiking boots in the outdoor store (as his heavy ones are still in the ‘burg, and he wanted a lighter pair anyway). He also got there a new hat, just like my riot red, except his is bittersweet brown. He flirted with the sales guy a little and got a 10% off the shoes – I could learn something here!
As it was Thursday, pub quiz was on, which I was looking forward to, although it was in a whole different place than usual (and by usual I mean when I was last in Wales a couple years back). Neil and Michaela and her friend joined us, and it was fun, except for the picture round which was crap and was not actually a picture round. Unfortunately, they took ages between the quiz and the results, so we gave up and left, and don’t know how we did.
We watched something from bed, I cannot recall exactly what it was, but I totes watched the whole thing until the end.

Caernarfon

Caernarfon

Pub Quiz at the 'Ship and Castle'

Pub Quiz at the ‘Ship and Castle’

Friday 29th March
I woke up, despite Iestyn sneakily having pulled down the blinds on the window the night before when I was not looking (I had just closed the curtains), so that no daylight would come in in the morning. It was SUNNY! And I mean proper sunny, with no cwmwl yn yr awyr, complete delight! I jumped up and down on the bed until Iestyn acknowledged the day started, and crawled out of bed to toast us bagels for breakfast. After a hearty breakfast we made tea into our respective thermoses, and set out on a nice hike.

Might Cnicht

Mighty Cnicht

Retro Iestyn

Retro Iestyn

Gina heading up Cnicht

Gina heading up Cnicht

We selected Cnicht, even though it’s a bit overdone (I mean we had been up there several times, we even camped up on the top one New Years a couple years back), but we decided to take the long way down, going up Moelwyn Mawr on the other side of the valley as well, making it a nice full-day walk. About last third up the way on Cnicht we hit the snow, but there was not much wind and the sun kept blasting, so it was a nice stroll. Once we were up on the ridge, the wind actually picked up, and it became unmistakably colder. There was plenty of snow up there, and it had a solid crust of ice over the surface, so once we begun climbing Moelwyn Mawr on the other side, crampons might not have been completely out of place. We didn’t have them, so we just sucked it up, and Iest did the work of blasting trough the ice with every step, so it was quite easy for me to just follow in his path. Eventually we made it on top of Moelwyn Mawr, where the wind was especially strong, freezing and biting mightily, so we didn’t linger for long, and started descending on the other side.

Iestyn ontop of Cnicht

Iestyn ontop of Cnicht

Gina looking over towards Moelwyn Mawr

Gina looking over towards Moelwyn Mawr

Moelwyn Mawr

Moelwyn Mawr

Coming down Cnicht toward Llyn yr Adar

Coming down Cnicht toward Llyn yr Adar

Gina, Llyn yr Adar and Snowdon

Gina, Llyn yr Adar and Snowdon

Gina Moelwyn Mawr summit

Gina Moelwyn Mawr summit

The whole loop back to the car took us about six hours (no rush) but towards the end I was already quite tired, my feet were wet and I was starvatious. It was a good opportunity to go worship Pete in Llanberis, provided he’d be open for business, which we weren’t sure until we got there, but open he was! So we made it two huge hot chocolates with whipped cream for starters and two veggie grills as per usual (not able to finish). At that point I was ready to just take a shower and drop dead in bed, but I mightily managed to watch whatever movie it was that we watched in bed, and didn’t fall asleep prematurely. Uncle buckle (utterly abysmal)!

Saturday 30th March
Sunny again! Could not believe it. Iest was still a bit overwhelmed by the walk of yesterday, so we decided to go to the beach. I wanted to go surfing, so we looked up the webcam surf, which Iest thought was not good enough. I think he would not know a good surf if it bit him in the tushy (mmm, tushy). Anyhoo, we went to Anglesey, because I like Anglesey a lot, it has first class beaches and epic view of the snowy hills.

Crepe times!

Crepe times!

First we hit Rhosneigr, a nice (if a bit run-down) little surfing town, where we had coffee and crepes (Iest has the “Clown” variety with M&Ms and ice-cream, sometimes I really wonder…), I bought the Guardian, which of course I began reading in the car and got carsick, always happens. But we arrived in Llanddwyn, my fave beach of them all, even if there were quite a few people due to the beautiful weather. It was so epic, we walked around to the lighthouse, around the dunes and the horses, in the sun sun sun… One distressing event cast shadow over the day though, which was the painful discovery that there was no film in my lomokino!

Minature Sea Shell!

Minature Sea Shell!

Yes, it happens even to the best of us… Iestyn of course took the opportunity to rub it in my face for the rest of the day (and week), just to make me feel bad and have some laughs at my expense. Not cwl! I miniaturised him in return. But even so, the day at the beach was lovely and fun.
Lovely Indian for dinner.

Miniaturized Iestyn at Llanddwyn

Miniaturized Iestyn at Llanddwyn

Sunday 31st March
Sunny again, unbelievable! Decided for Mr. Ellis loop, as we had to be back at some reasonable time for Easter lunch/dinner. The sun in the snow truly was blinding, and given the fact that it was a Sunday, Mr. Ellis was a bit of a tourist highway. But never mind  lovely little walk anyway. The stone hideout on the top had a beautiful thick layer of ice on it, and it was cold and windy up there. Beautiful views towards the Snowdon ridge and all around. Went the second valley down from there, and finally saw a cute little oen bach close up enough, all fluffy and confused.

Heading up Moel Eilio

Heading up Moel Eilio

Ice on Moel Eilio

Ice on Moel Eilio

Snowdon from Moel Eilio

Snowdon from Moel Eilio

Oen Bach

Oen Bach

Easter lunch/dinner was yum, and included mushy peas (I took Iestyn’s too), and once again on this vaycay, we overate and topped it up with ice cream.

Monday 1st April
Cloudy but still sunny patches. We decided to go to Chester, which btw is already in England (didn’t know this!). Chester was nice, even if a bit crowded, as it was a holiday and everyone went shopping. I bought a nice top myself and also a couple of dvds (turns out that hmv didn’t actually close all its stores!). Also, I bought Bon Jon Jovi’s greatest hits for the car! Ahh, memories.

Tuesday 2nd April
Already time to go. We found a schedule on the internet of bus and train to get us to the ferry on time, but then we were done packing an hour before time and just went to the bus stop blindly, to see if we can catch an earlier one. Amazingly, one was going in about three minutes to take us to Bangor. In Bangor, the train to Holyhead arrived about five minutes after we bought the tickets, again totally unplanned. With all this, we ended up in Holyhead a long time before our ferry was supposed to leave. It turned out that we could just about catch the earlier one! We just had to pay a bit extra, and run a bit to actually catch it. Given that it was the faster boat (our original tickets were for the slower kind), we were in Dublin hours before originally planned. We spent the rest of the day leisurely in Dublin. Also, I brought awful cough from Wales, which was then haunting me in Helsinki and for more than a week still in Freiburg.

This is the final video from our Easter trip, including sea, mountains and the ferry:

Wednesday 3rd April
Sad, sad day of Gina leaving. Helsinki was pretty as ever (sunny until Saturday when I left!) but I was coughing and lonely.

Helsinki

Helsinki


04
Mar 12

Parov Stelar – live!

Finally the day of Parov Stelar band arriving to our provincial town came! Parov Stelar Princess Tour 2012!

We were of course very excited about this, especially me, because Parov had been my favorite artist for over two years, and yet their concert had never been in a reasonable proximity to me. Until now. I got the tickets as soon as we found out Freiburg is on the lucky tour, beginning of December. This gave me whole three months of excitement, while still making a cool christmas present for Iestyn. Talk about efficient.

On the day we left nothing to chance – we arrived at seven and patiently waited for E-Werk to open and let us in. This meant we got in early enough to see Parov’s tools close up, including the logo of the tour – yes, Parov is of course a cat lover. We had a couple of drinks to get us in the mood (not that that was really needed). The place started filling up quickly, and soon we were standing in the middle of dense crowd in some very humid heat. Never mind, not long after the show began, and it was just as good as we imagined it would be!

Parov’s playground

Sooon!

Catgroove

Max the sax


15
Jan 11

Capel Curig

Snowdon, from Capel Curig

Capel Curig, beautifully situated on the Shrewsbury and Holyhead road, is one of the oldest tourist resorts in the Principality. The village is about 600 feet above sea-level and has a bracing air. It is a capital resort for anglers, for, besides the lakes at close hand, there are other good fishing waters not far away, and it is much frequented by climbers and walkers, since it is one of the handiest centers for Tryfan, the Glyders and Snowdon. The church is dedicated to St. Curig, a British recluse; hence the name of the village.

There are first class hotels, and accommodation can also usually be found, except in the height of the season, in one or other of the cottages. The village is strung along the Holyhead road for nearly two miles at the point where the Beddgelert and Llanberis road strikes off Westward. Buses pass through it on their way to or from Betws-Y-Coed or Bangor.

From Capel Curig the Holyhead road rises steadily until it reaches an altitude of 1,000 feet as it passes between the mighty Tryfan (3,100 feet) and Llyn Ogwen, the latter famed for trout and eels. At the Western end, at Benglog, is Ogwen Cottage, a haunt of climbers and anglers, and then the road begins the long gradual descent of Nant Ffrancon, “the Vale of Beavers”. But to be properly appreciated the pass should be ascended.

Capel Curig is indeed a nice wee place. It’s funny how these books always mentions the fishing potential of places. Nowadays, you don’t see much people fishing in the Llynnau Mymbyr, or any other lake for that matter. I don’t think much has changed in the Village since the days of the Red Book, as it’s still roughly the same size as they describe, but today it’s a hub for Mountaineers, as Plas-Y-Brenin is located on the road Westward towards Llanberis.

Picture wise – We have indeed managed to locate the correct spot, but there’s now an immense amount of trees growing on the South Bank, which is called – Coed Bryn Engan.


12
Jan 11

Llanfairfechan

Llanfairfechan

Population – 3,638

Post Office. – In village; branch office towards eastern end of Penmaenmawr ROad.

Tennis at Victoria Gardens, towards eastern end of the Promenade, and at the Receration Ground, near Moel Yacht Pond. Tennis tournaments are arranged weekly during the season.

In it’s brief but merry course to the sea the little Afon Llanfairfechan dashes first through rocky, fern-clad gorges; then through the gradually widening valley in which the orignial village of Llanfairfechan stands and finally, passing under the coast road, it rattles past the modern resort called into visitors who appreciated this airy, healthy site on the verge of the sea yet within a stone’s-throw of the mountains. This charming contiguity of intrests is well illustrated by the stream which bubbles beside the main street of the village, for although its source is some 2,000 feet above the spot where it runs into the sea, yet it’s length is scarcely three miles. The eastern side of its valley terminates abruptly in the pominent headland know as Penmaenmawr Mountain; it’s western side falls away gradually in green, wooded hills above which giants of Snowdonia raise their heads to the sky.

The hills sufficiently far inland for thei majestic proportions to be seen and admired without the observer being oppressed with their too immediate proximity. Yet they are near enough for the ascent to begin at the door of the village post-office, and from any of them views of great beauty and variety may be had.

As the site has a gentle slope towards the sea, no great amount of moisture can remain upon the surface. Consequently the air is dry and bracing, and through the shelter afforded by neighbouring hills the climate is genial, as is demonstrated by fuchsias, myrtles, and other tender plants and shrubs – including the pale butterwort, a plant very sensitive to cold-flourishing all the year in open air.

The Sea Front at Llanfairfechan is unpretentious, but the bathing is safe and good, and the wide expanse of firm sand revealed by low tide forms a wonderland for children. There is a Green on which various games may be played and at either end of the Parade are public Tennis Courts and Bowling Green. A feature of even greater interest to the juvenile navigators – and their male relatives – is the Model Yacht Pond. It is regularly used by members of Liverpool and Wirral Model Yacht Clubs, and regattas are orginized during the season.

A feature distinguishing Llanfairfechan sea-front from many another is the View:-not the customary wide expanse of sea, but a charming panorama extending from the Great Orme’s Head across to Puffin Island, with it’s striped lighthouse, and then along the variegated coast of Anglesey to the tall roofs of Bangor, Penrhyn Castle rearing its battlement tower above the trees to the south-west, and then the eye travels round by the hills above Aber to remote Foel Fras and so round to the familiar scree-strewn face of “our mountain”.

It seems like Llanfairfechan, back in the day was the place to be! There’s an epic entry for the village in the book, and this is just an extract. I never thought of Llanfiarfechan to be a good place to be when going hill-walking, but I suppose the book is right, as from Llan you’ve got the whole of the Carneddau coming into play, before en counting the Snowdon massif. Very interesting to read this on Llanfairfechan. (Our North Wales – Northern Section book by Ward Lock & Co’s is dated 1930-1931)


07
Jan 11

Abersoch

Abersoch

Golf – 9-hole course. Season tickets: gentlemen 21s; ladies 10s. 6d. Monthly: gentlemen 15s; ladies 10s. Fortnightly: gentlemen; 10s.; ladies 7s. 6d. Weekly: gentlemen 7s. 6d; ladies 6s. Day: gentlemen, 2s; ladies 1s. 6d.

Abersoch, a small watering-place 3 miles from the Nanhoron Valley, stands on the shore of a pretty little bay. The extensive sands afford good bathing, but the tides recedes to a great distance. From full to half-tide, swimmers will find deep water under Benar Hill. Visitors must beware of being surrounded by the tide at this point. Those who care to spend a day fishing for mackerel may make arrangements for accompanying one of the numerous roomy boats belonging to the little port; but, on account of the currents, it is not advisable, even for skilled yachtsmen, to venture alone beyond the bay.

In the stream from which the village takes its name there is good trout fishing, execpt in dry seasons. Less than a mile from the shore are St. Tudwal’s Island and Lighthouse. Boats to visit them can be obtained.

Abersoch can be reached from Pwllheli by taking the tramcar to Llanbedrog and walking 3 miles.

This, so far is the most changed picture we’ve come across. The only thing (apart from Mynydd Tir y Cwmwd – the headland in the background) we had to go by was the two chimneys coming up from the furthest house, centre of the image. Everything else is totally different, and going from the text – grown quite a lot too!

I love the fact, that the only way to reach Abersoch back then, was walking! In today’s World, no such thing exists, shame really.


06
Jan 11

Llanberis Pass

Llanberis Pass

From the ‘resting place’ we begin the descent of the -Llanberis Pass, the finest motor mountain-road in Wales. The precipitous and craggy sides of the noble mountains press closely on each other and shut in the narrow pass. Shattered masses of every form, which have fallen from the heights, lie in strange confusion, and amid them the  Seiont, rushing and roaring, hastens its descent to the head of Llyn Peris.

Some two miles farther we reach the picturesque village of Nant Peris, formerly knows as Old Llanberis, and soon afterwards are running by the side of Llyn Peris, on the opposite shore of which are the Dinorwic slate quarries. Then we get abreast of the remains of Dolbadarn Castle. The consist only of a round tower, which probably does not date back many centuries, but the site is said to have been held by the Prince of North Wales in the sixth cantury. Beyond the ruin we arrive at the Royal Victoria Hotel, in modern Llanberis. At the foot of the hotel grounds is the lower terminus of the Mountain Railway.

Skirting Llyn Padarn, en route for Caernarvon from Llanberis, the remarkable manner in which the slate quarrymen have terraced the mountain slopes opposite is well seen. Then on the left the Cefndu wireless station comes in view and shortly after Carnarvon is reached.”

I’d sure have to agree that this road is the finest ‘motor mountain-road in Wales’. It sure is awesome. It’s my second favourite mountain route in the UK, second only to the epic A82 running through Glen Coe in the Scottish Highlands.

The Pass itself hasn’t changed much since the good old days, only a few big rocks been moved, but apart from that, it’s in top shape!


20
Sep 10

Bangor


North Wales Heroes' Memorial Archway

Bangor, situated on the Southern coast of the Menai Strait, is one of the most ancient cities in Wales. It’s authentic history begins with the erection of a monastery about A.D. 525, by Deiniol, who became the first bishop of the diocese. The name is by some authorities derived from Ban Chor “the high or superior choir”, the early religious communities having been called circles or choirs, while those which exercised jurisdiction over the less important communities around them were distinguished as high or superior choirs.

In Deiniol Road stands the North Wales Heroes’ Memorial Archway, a Memorial to all the men from North Wales who fell in the Great War. The name of every man from North Wales who fell in the Great War (they numbered 8,500) is inscribed on oak panels in the room above the beautiful Tudor archway. It is one of the most impressive War Memorials and the panelled room, with it’s bronze doors, is particularly worth a visit.

Well, I never knew that this Archway was a memorial for the Great War. I used to drive pass this, even walk under it every week, and never once stopped to look at it, and see what it was all about. It sounds quite impressive inside, I wonder if it’s still open to the public?!