We hopped in the car and fired up the TomTom again. Following David’s instructions to the tunnel, the TomTom guided us safely into and through Wales. It was interesting to see that where England stopped and Wales started, the architecture changed dramatically. The landscape became hillier and looked very much like New Zealand in places.
The road signs suddenly became dual language, initially with English on the top, but as we drove deeper into Wales, Welsh appeared was on the top. While listening to sixties music on the iPod, we came into range of a radio station that started to interfere with the iTrip FM transmitter. We turned off the iPod and were bombarded with the bizarre sound of Welsh talkback radio.
After about an hour, we crossed the Old Menai Suspension Bridge and entered the Isle of Angelsey. Angelsey itself is absolutely beautiful, and I got a strange feeling of Déjà vu as we drove down the narrow, rock wall lined roads with views over the water.
It looked like it was going to be a nice day, so when we arrived at George and Anne’s house on the other side of Beaumaris, we quickly jumped back in the car and headed over towards Portmeirion (Port-Mary-Un). One the way, we drove past a castle-like house that was for sale for a mere £2.8M, we stopped briefly at Caernarfon (Carnarvon) to look at the castle, and finally Portmadog (Port-Madick) to check to see if there was any Royal Worcester to buy. All of the shops we visited either don’t stock it at all, or they stocked a small amount but not the Worcester Herbs range. It was at this time that the clouds came and the rain started to pour. Not daunted by the rain, we carried on to Portmeirion.
George and Anne approached the ticket booth, and because they are locals, we managed to get in for half the price (plus Mum got in as an OAP)! The Village itself is as brilliant in real life as it is on The Prisoner; vivid colours, Italian-style, bizarre layout and larger than I thought it would be. We spent several hours walking around all of the buildings and footpaths followed by a spot of shopping. The Doctor Who story 'The Masque of Mandragora' was also filmed here, and had been recently released on DVD. There was a 'Then and Now' locations documentary that I had watched just before coming over which made a lot of what I was seeing so familiar. I will have to re-watch The Prisoner DVDs when I get home.
Near the end of the day, the rain started to get a bit heavy, so we took refuge in a coffee shop until it passed. After leaving Portmeirion, exiting past Castle Deudraeth (Dye-Drath), George decided to take us for a drive through Snowdonia. As we were driving through Penrhyndeudraeth (Penrin-Dye-Drath), we were lucky to see a narrow gauge train on the Ffestiniog (Fest-Inny-Og) Railway close the road and pass beside us.
Unfortunately the rain didn't let up, despite George’s apologies for the weather. We did catch glimpses of the views through the mist, and what we saw looked amazing. We stopped at Beddgelert (another beautiful little town seemingly carved out of the rock) where the famous Welsh dog Gelert was laid to rest. Whether it is a true story or not remains to be seen, but his legend lives on in Wales. No-one was keen to step foot out of the car, so I went by myself running down the path that should take six minutes to walk while struggling to keep the rain out of my eyes. After pausing briefly to take some photos, I ran back to the car - and promptly steamed it up!
We carried on driving up the A498 towards the top of the hill where we found a look out looking down the valley to Llyn Gwynant (a lake on the River Glaslyn). The wind was blowing hard by this stage which was driving the rain in heavily, so I couldn't get a good photo of the view (the photo below is what it would have looked like had it been a nicer day). We reached the top of the hill at Pen-y-Pass and began our descent into Llanberis Pass. At once I could see where all of the rocks must have come from that were uesd to build the many thousands of rock walls in Wales.
I phoned Lou and the boys and had a nice chat with all of them which made me feel sad. I missed them terribly, but was happy to learn that William had started to swim unaided for the first time, and that Timmy had some new words – "Don’t, Brother!". We had a lovely Welsh stew that Anne had prepared for us, and George supplied us with plenty of beer to keep us warm while we ate and then watched the football.
