20130601 Saturday Porthmadog Mostly cloudy, low 60's
Owen-Photos Dolores-Photos
We broke our fast lightly with fruit, juice, toast & coffee. Then we plunged into the left-footed traffic in our A1.
We headed northeast toward Llanberis. The first road was a nice A-class road but it suffers the same problem all roads in Wales do – when there's very little parking, people put their cars up onto the curb.
But some of it sticks out. So you must edge over into the oncoming lane and hope the person there will give up that part of it. If there's a lot sticking out, either you or your opponent must stop and let the other go past before proceeding.
In most parts the route to Llanberis was two lanes with the above problems. In narrower places, they take away the center line, signifying that it's everyone for themselves. The people around here are accustomed to this, and co-operate. After one of these meetings, it's customary to wave to the other driver to acknowledge his co-operation. We did a few of these prior to reaching Llanberis, especially the part going up the side of a mountain called Llanberis Pass.
At Llanberis, we found the headquarters of the Snowden Mountain Railway. The parking lot nailed us for £6. We walked across the street and into the ticket office to claim our tickets, paid for in advance on-line. Then we strolled around the complex – buffet, souvenir shop, platforms, toilets, and more.
I got into the small observation room looking directly up the track and took some photos from there (see pictures). It's quite a rail complex – everything one needs is there. They brag about not having a fatality on the line since the 1880's.
We had reserved seats in the upward end of the (only) car and were shown to them. Shortly afterward, we departed propelled by the little steam engine. It was noisy due to the cogs on the engine mating with the cogs between the tracks. This construction allows the engine to climb steep gradients, but only at slow speed.
On the SMR, the maximum gradient is 1 foot in 8.5 feet, or nearly 12%. When on that gradient, you could hear the engine working hard. The rest of the time, it chuffed along quietly compared with the cogs.
The railroad itself goes over bridges, round corners and into turnouts (passing sidings) which allow down-bound and up-bound trains to pass each other. There were hundreds of people hiking the trail to the top, including kids and dogs. The summit is at 1,085 meters, not too high but high enough on a clear day to see the Irish Sea and miles in every direction.
We gathered altitude quickly and were soon taking pictures of spectacular scenery, and a whole bunch of sheep who could care less if we were there. But as we neared the summit we ran into clouds and by the time we reached the shelter almost at the top we could barely see it; maybe 50 yards visibility.
We went into the shelter building and bought hot chocolate and drank that. We purchased a couple of postcards and sent them. We looked at the clouds. I tried to go outside and walk up the rock and stone path to the top, but one knee was acting up and I could see my breath, and it was cold, so I turned back. Wimp is me.
The return trip was announced and we hopped into the car. The downward trip was held back by the engine rather than pushed upward. So it took about as long. Once clear of the clouds we saw more of the scenery we'd seen going up.
The train came to the end with some slamming and banging that we were told was normal, and we all disembarked. D & I went to the car and started it to get the GPS (28 months out of date, thanks Hertz) going.
I had seen a meditational type setting around a ninth century church called St Melangell's in a place called Cwr Pennant. We put that into the GPS and found it not far from Porthmadog. Off we went, past Porthmadog to a left turn into one of the small roads or lanes.
The road first lost its centerline and then reduced to one lane with irregularly spaced turnouts. The first few cars I met were able to move to one side against the stone walls and I could pass. Then I met a huge SUV; I'd just passed a turnout so I backed up to it and into it so he could go on. He waved in appreciation, I waved back, and on we went. Several places were worthy of D's camera so we stopped at them.
We reached Cwm Pennant but couldn't find anything like what we were looking for. So we one-laned our way back out and headed uphill for Blaenau Ffestiniog – the town we did by railroad yesterday. We found out later we should have been seeking Pennant Melangell.
The road up to Blaenau Ffestiniog was good enough and we did find the station, but there didn't seem to be much else there, so we continued back to our hotel. There, we decided we'd hike the town. D needed some stuff at the drugstore and we bought books in one (of the three) bookstore. We strolled through the town's two sort-of-department stores. We scouted the church for tomorrow morning. We took more pictures. Then back to the room.
We went down to the bar at 1740 and took the corner table. Others coming in later had to eat in the lounge around the corner. I had the fish-n-chips, D had the lamb shoulder and we drank ale & shiraz.
After dinner we returned to the room to rest and do computer stuff.
20130602 Sunday Porthmadog to Brecon. Partly to mostly cloudy, mid-60’s. Owen-Photos Dolores-Photos
We did our last nice breakfast in Porthmadog and packed our stuff into the car. We left the car in the hotel parking lot and walked to the church.
About 50 people were in attendance. The singing of the three hymns was a capella but quite good. It's said the Welsh are good singers.
We returned to the hotel and took off in the car. We selected A496 down the coast through Harlech and onward to the junction with A470. A470 is the major road north-south through Wales.
Neither one of these roads would be tolerated in the US. Several spots are one-lane, and many of the little villages have people parking on the curb with parts of the cars in the travel lanes.
It required a lot of my attention to stay in the proper place in my lane as well and to be aware of upcoming hazards. So far, so good.
The speed limit in Wales is 60 mph (yup, mph not km/hr), but there are darn few places you can get up to that. I mostly did 40-50 in the countryside and 25-30 in town. So, if you're going to go 60 miles, you might guess that it would take a little under two hours. I don't want to do a whole lot more of this.
We reached Brecon and finally found the hotel up Postern Lane, which I had to put one wheel on the curb to climb. We parked and came in, even though it was too early for check-in. The receptionist was expecting us and showed us around. We took up space in the bar to slake our thirsts.
After that, we strolled the grounds while D shot several pictures per minute of the part of the Castle still left, and of the flowers, and the valley scenery. It's very nice here and probably worth coming back to, if we are in the neighborhood.
BBC TV has a special on Queen Elizabeth and horses on; D is watching that while I do this. Then we'll go down to dinner at 1800, starting in the lounge.
More later. Later:
We went down to dinner and took a cocktail first. Our table was at a window where D could see the town and I could see the hills. D had tiger prawns (big) and a huge pork cutlet with mushroom gravy and all sorts of vegetables. I had a small antipasti and a chicken breast wrapped in bacon around some sort of filling, with sweet potato and tomato-basil sauce.
The food was good and the service was well done. They, of course, detected we are americans so conversation was started with “where are you from”.
This is an elderly place, having originally been parts of the old castle's buildings ruins, with repair work being carried out beginning in 1809. It has settled in places, mainly in our room, which slopes in four different directions and creaks in the center.
The room, though, is quite comfortable and the bathroom is large. We'll do well here for the night and be off to Cardiff tomorrow.