We woke up this morning to rainy skies. A good day for a driving tour and for the most part it did stop raining when we wanted to walk around until the end of the day when it just poured down. It is now 9pm at night, the sun is still up but it has stopped raining, hooray.
First stop today was to Lanberis for the Snowdon Mountain Railway. Due to the weather it was only running 1/2 way up the mountain so we decided to wait until tomorrow to see if it is any better. The driver from Betws-y-coed through the Snowdonia National Park to Lanberis was spectacular. It reminded me a bit of Scotland and the South Island of New Zealand. The rainy weather has only added to the mysteriousness of the area.
After Llanberis we headed to Caernarfon to have a look at the castle on the water. Work begun on the castle in 1283 under the orders of Edward the 1st however there was a motte and bailey here before this built by the Normans and also a fort under Roman rule. It was inspired by buildings seen at Constantinople and the most striking aspect of the castle are the polygonal towers and colourful bands of stone running through the walls.
We then crossed Menai Bridge across to the Isle of Anglesey to visit the Beaumaris Castle. It was pouring down by the time we got here so no pictures to show as we didn’t even get out of the car.
Finally the next place on our list to see was Llandudno which is a seaside resort location. With its curved long expanse of beach, wonderful seaside mansion-like homes, expansive promenade and decorative pier with amusement attractions it seems to be the quintessential seaside holiday location for Brits and Welsh alike. Beautiful location if only the sun would shine for us! However, even in the rain we had fun.
By this time we were all a bit wet so we headed back to our accommodation for some chinese food for dinner and a quiet night it blogging. Tomorrow we head back home.