Wet and Wonderful Wales

Almut and Steve's House

When we had to say good bye to Helen and Aiden we headed north to Bangor Wales on the train. Here we stayed with another of the German cousins Almut and her English husband Steve. They live in a stone farm house on the edge of field where sheep graze. Again I got reacquainted with someone I hadn't seen in many years. While England was grey and wet, Wales was grayer and wetter. It is hard to believe we are in summer time here. We arrived in the wettest June in history. We planned this trip to follow the best weather and that really did not work out. The weather in Santa Cruz has been consistently better than anywhere we have been except maybe Bali and Greece.

They speak another language in Wales, Welsh. You probably knew that, and so did we, but hearing English for a week had lulled us into a false sense of being able to understand what was going on and read signs. Well most of the time we could understand. Some English speakers in England have accents that could compete with the New Zealand accent for difficulty of understanding. Luckily everything in Wales is in both English and Welsh. But Welsh felt like we should understand it and yet it was impossible to understand. And forget about reading it even though the letters are the same. It is taught in the schools and kids growing up here are bilingual. We did not even try. Maybe next time.

Steve and Almut

Even with the rain we enjoyed our time in Wales. Our first visit was to the Slate museum. Now who ever even thought about slate and where it came from enough to think of having a museum. But the production of slate products is what feed many people in this part of Wales and created a fortune for a few. The museum is in the former slate processing plant which has been preserved and turned into a very interactive museum. You can smell and hear the place's past to the point where you really feel what it must have been like back then. It closed for good in the late 1960's. Dave got to try to split slate for roof tiles, Anika got a slate heart and we all learned a lot. They even had the homes of the slate workers so you could see how they lived out side of the mines.

Entrance to Slate Museum

Dave learning to split slate

Part of the huge collection of wooden molds

We had a couple days of mostly rain where we enjoyed Steve's vast DVD collection and special film viewing room. This also gave us lots of time to talk and get to know each other. We took a great loop walk around there area in a break in the weather and got a glimpse of the beauty. I also spent a lot of time on the computer trying to arrange our last bit of lodging. We had intentionally left five nights open so we could be spontaneous. But this must not be the time of year to do that in England because I had a heck of a time finding a place for us to stay, in a place we wanted to be, that we could afford. We settled on Eastbourne, near Brighton, the sunniest place in England, where I found an apartment near the beach. But back to Wales.

The last day with the least rain we hot two of the many castles in the area. The first Penryn castle is walking distance form Almut and Steve's house. It is where the money from the slate mine went. IT was good to see the contrast between the lives of the slate workers and the owner of the mine. And a bit shocking however probably not that different form many situations today. We did an audio tour of the site. The castle had lots of detailed stone carving inside and many furnished rooms were open to see how they lived. Even the kitchen and servants areas were on display. After lunch in their Cafe we visited the stables where they have other exhibits. Currently one is about lace making, a dying art. sponsored by the Lace Makers Guild. The pieces were beautiful and the variety was great. Anika even got to try her hand at it.

One view of the outside of Penrhyn Castle

Close up of stone carving over the entry door

The formal dining room set for 20

Anika trying lace making

Our second castle of the day was Caernarfon. This was more of a defensive castle and much older. You could not get as much of a feeling for living there but its place in history was clear. And the slate was there too. Driving there and back we got to see a bit more of the green (of course) and pretty country side.

View of the tallest tower side of Caernarfon

View form the tallest tower

The inner courtyard. Notice the slate stage where Prince Charles was crowned prince of Wales

The sun came out!

That evening after dinner Almut and Steve took us up to a natural area close by. This was stunning, the sun starting to go down and wisps of clouds coming into the valley. In good weather this would be a great area for hiking. Hopefully we can come back and do just that. The following photos are all of the nearby Ogwen valley.

On to Eastbourne!