Caernarfon

Easter Wales

Thursday, April 2

We hadn’t been to Wales since new year’s, so we were all excited about going for Easter long weekend, even though the weather forecast was nothing special. Booked the tickets online as usual, and on Thursday after work we met up at Euston. Euston was jam-packed as obviously everyone was going away for the weekend but we didn’t worry as we had reservations and it was a direct train. But the train was so full with even the aisles crowded that there was no air and we were also sitting backwards, so overall the trip was quite harrowing. Sometimes I do miss Germany, and these times often coincide with any UK train trips. Nevertheless, we finally got to Bangor, about half hour later than scheduled (yes, half an hour delay on a three-hour direct train), got picked up by Iestyn’s dad, and crashed in bed soon after.

Friday, April 3

We woke up to a morning of incessant rain, but we didn’t mind and decided to go explore a new (for me) Welsh tower Dolwyddelan (or what Iest calls ‘Welsh castle’ but it’s one of those castles that are only like a tower, not like the one in Caernarfon, so it really is just a tower. OK, you might argue that wiki calls it a castle too, but then it shows a picture of a tower, so your call really. It’s a tower. Well built though, proper.). Wiki also adds that “It is thought to have been built in the early 13th century by Llywelyn the Great, Prince of Gwynedd and North Wales. Though the castle was then only one tower with two floors, a second tower was built in the late 13th century and a third floor was added to the first during the late 15th century repairs.” (*tower*, see?)

Tower Dolwyddelan

Up on the tower

Anyway, the place was really nice, and thanks to bad weather we were there alone. We decided to do some sketching inside, which went great, and we had an awesome soundtrack of the rain and howling wind – very Welsh! It was also by a farm, which had a batch of beautiful new oen bachs, which is the great thing about Easter in Wales too.

Oen bach

Afterwards the weather actually started improving, and we had some great time exploring pretty Welsh places, including the little bit they cut out of the national park, which I wanted to see and it’s actually not as bad as it sounds. We had late lunch in a super old cottage cafe in Aberdaron, and even went to the beach for a bit. By then the sun was already almost blasting. Iest did’t tell me it was on the peninsula though.

Saturday, April 4

On Saturday morning the weather was already great, so we decided to get back on track with our hiking. We decided to do the Moel Hebog ridge, not from Beddgelert but from Cwm Pennant. It was a good choice because Cwm Pennant is very pretty and we also got to pet a cute little day-old one bach, courtesy of a local farm boy. Afterwards we were all ready and ran up via an old quarry to the first peak of the ridge, Moel Lefn (638m). By then the sun was blasting on full force and we had awesome views toward our fav Yr Aran and Snowdon.

Cwm Pennant

Up Moel Lefn

Views from Moel Lefn

From Moel Lefn we followed the ridge over to Moel yr Ogof (655m) and Moel Hebog (782m). Later on Iest remembered that he should have some sunscreen on, so he slapped a bit of my usual sparkly one but too late anyway, and he acquired his first burn of the season. Up on Moel Hebog peak it was a bit windy, so we sat just under the top with our delicious lunch enjoying the views towards Porthmadog and the sea. Since we had plenty time we also did a bit of sketching from that spot before heading back to Cwm Pennant through path down below the ridge. Altogether a beautiful day.

Moel Ogof

Moel Ogof ridge

Moel Hebog peak

Moel Hebog sketching

Sunday, April 5
Another great day, Iest is burned but that did not stop us from selecting the Nantlle ridge for our day hike as we had not been on that one for years, literally, and it’s a pity because it’s one of the best. Early in the morning (early for us anyway), Iestyn’s dad gave us a lift to Nebo from which we started our trip. The clouds were laying low, sort of lazily snaking and rolling through the valley but we knew the sun was awaiting us just a little hike up the hill. We started our ascent from the lake Llyn Cwm Dulyn and by the time we made it up Mynydd Graig Goch (610m) we were down to the t-shirts. Happily merrily above the clouds we hopped over (yeah there was this almost vertical bit which we thoroughly enjoyed in the blasting sun) to Craig Cwm Silyn (734m).

Llyn Cwm Dulyn

Mynydd Graig Goch – Iest bottom left

Craig Cwm Silyn

From there it was already the usual deal – Mynydd Tal-y-Mignedd (653m) with the obelisk on top, and Trum y Ddysgl (709m), Mynydd Drws-y-Coed (695m) and Y Garn (633m). Then just down to Rhyd Ddu, where we were being picked up again, to make it to the Easter dinner. We were really quite tired from the day, may be not so much from the hike but more so from the day of sun, to which we are not used after the long and dark winter. It was all really nice though.

Looking toward the obelisk

Finishing up

Monday, April 6
On Monday we still had a good half day for some family visits and a short stop at Dinas Dinlle, before heading down to the train station. For this trip we did not have any reservations (we had open tickets), we expected the trains to be packed again, and we also knew that due to Euston being under construction, we had to take the long connection via Birmingham. The trip was truly awful, from B’ham onwards we were lucky to be sitting on a half-cheek in the corridor with no oxygen again. Many people in the later stations just plainly did not get on the train. It is really quite strange how the British people insist on the rail services being private in the face of absolutely massive market failures every single time one needs to make a train journey. It is quite obvious that even an incompetent, corrupted, lazy and drunk bureaucrat would central-plan the whole system better than it is run now. Nevertheless, we managed to get safely to Marleybone and then home, super tired but really happy with our Easter weekend.

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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

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.

Mighty Cnicht

Retro Iestyn

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

Gina looking over towards Moelwyn Mawr

Moelwyn Mawr

Coming down Cnicht toward Llyn yr Adar

Gina, Llyn yr Adar and Snowdon

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!

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!

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

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

Ice on Moel Eilio

Snowdon from Moel Eilio

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

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11
Jun 11

Llanberis

The Upper Lake

Llyn Peris

With the aid of the beautiful road linking Pen-Y-Gwryd and Beddgelert, the two highways running south-eastward from Caernarfon encircle the mountain mass collectively know as Snowdon. The more easterly road from Caernarfon is accompanied by the railway as far as Llanberis.

By Llanberis is meant the modern village of that name. It contains the railway station and is a good two miles from the old village. It is a common centre of the motor routes from the Betws y Coed, Bangor, Caernarfon and Beddgelert, and the quarter chosen by the great majority of tourists who make the ascent of Snowdon, the Glyders, the Elidyrs, and Moel Eilio. The village is situated on the western side of Llyn Padarn, a lake two miles in length. The lake is connected with Llyn Peris by the river Seiont. Boating can be enjoyed on both lakes, and the lakes and rivers alike afford sport for the angler. At the northen end of Llyn padarn is a picturesque stone bridge leading to a Roman camp at Dinas Dinorwic, about a mile off.

A feature of Llanberis often overlooked is the Ceunant Mawr (the ‘big ravine’) with its waterfall, well worth a visit after heavy rain, though less effective in the dry weather. The fall is about 5 minutes’ walk south of the village, up the lane on the right just after crossing the stream as one walks from the station.

At Llanberis begins the ascent of the magnificent Pass of Llanberis.

Llanberis nowadays doesn’t have a train station, but it does indeed have the World best cafe – Pete’s Eat, and by itself is worth a visit! I love how we managed to pin point exactly the first shot here, it was an epic journey, with beautiful views, sunshine, and sunglasses.

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27
Aug 10

Caernarfon castle through ages

or Carnarvon, as per our awesome guide, had to be the first stop in our retro-project.

Caer-ar-fon “the fortress opposite Anglesey” stands just within the western entrance to the Menai Strait, at the mouth of the river Seiont. It is the ancient “metropolis of the hills” – the chief town in that mountainous stronghold known as Eryri, and the best view of the town (that from the path leading to the Baths) still shows the stout little fortress backed by the wild and rugged giants of Snowdonia. Carnarvon is the best modern representative of the British fortress Caer Seiont, and of the Roman military station, Segontium, and in position, beauty and historic associations there are few towns, if any, in Wales to compare with it.

Yes, yes, that’s quite right. In fact, there are few towns altogether, not only in Wales, that can compare to Caernarfon. Also, the seagulls. The guide doesn’t mention them, but we love them, and love to be woken up by their cries early in the morning. (Yes, we.) So what does the guide have to say about the castle?

Admission – sixpence; children 3d.; parties over 20, 3d each.
Open daily 10-8 or dusk, Sundays from 12 noon to 6 or dusk if earlier.
Entrance by King’s Gate, on north side.

With the exception of that in Alnwick, in Northumberland, Carnarvon Castle is “the finest in Great Britain”. Dr. Johnson, who visited in 1774, observed in his diary: “The Castle is an edifice of stupendous magnitude and strength. To survey this place would take much time – I did not think there had been such buildings; it surpassed my ideas.”

Seriously, a sixpence? The prices have gone horribly up, haven’t they? They made me pay like a fiver. Worth it though. Specially up the towers – everybody should do that. And who ever heard of Alnwick?

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19
Nov 09

Edinburgh

Today, we decided to be tourists. We went up to the fantastic Castle, where Regi was overwhelmed with excitement to see the Crown Jewels and the â€™thing with the thingâ€™. I like the Castle, itâ€™s really quite impressive, nearly as good as Caernarfon Castle.

Horse statue at the Castle

From here, Regi insisted that we went up Arthurâ€™s Seat: â€˜a remarkably wild piece of highland landscape in the centre of the city of Edinburgh, about a mile to the east of Edinburgh Castle. The hill rises above the city to a height of 251 m (820 ft), and provides excellent panoramic views of the city.â€™ It was crazy how the weather conditions changed, just by going up this little Hill â€“ and it was our first glimpse into what was in store for us, weather wise, walking up these Scottish hills. About 10m from the top â€“ the wind, rain and hail came. The wind was something else â€“ blasting those wee hail stones into our faces, it was bordering unpleasant.

The view from Arthur's Seat

Edinburgh from Arthur's Seat

It was a nice view though, well worth the wee trip up there. The way down was something of a mission for me though. I wear Vans skate shoes, and, well to be honest, I need a new pair. The floor was slipperier than Bon Joviâ€™s album title â€˜slippery when wetâ€™ â€“ and it sent me flying, smack on my back. This was Regiâ€™s first glimpse into how accident prone I am. Winded I was for a few minutes.

To dry out a little we headed over to the National Gallery, where I saw a really nice drawing of Caernarfon Castle by someone who was really busy back in the day â€“ Paul Sandby. I really enjoyed it.

A good first day.

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