Wales Vacation - Day 3

Most of this day was for driving. Unfortunately the only dual carriage ways that we saw today were the first 5-6 miles. We didn’t have to drive over the Black Mountains but some of the roads were very windy and climbed up and down hills.

It was this way that we noticed a few subtle and not-so-subtle changes. Sheep were now everywhere. We were wrong when we thought that there were a lot of sheep around Croughton. Once we got away from Swansea up the Cardigan Bay coastline of Wales the street signs, while still bi-lingual, now listed Welsh first followed by English. Additionally, a few signs had been sprayed painted over with “Welsh Not.”

Today, as with every day during the vacation, we did feel very welcome by the Welsh that we came across in stores and walking around. The drive up the coastline was great. We drove through the tourist town of Aberystwyth. We didn’t stop here but at one town the castle in the town was supposed to have rivaled the 4 castles that we still were to visit: Harleach, Caernarfon, Beaumaris, and Conwy.

The scariest part of the drive was through the town of Barmouth. The A496 went right through the heart of town. Today was a Bank Holiday so the roads were jammed with beach goers. I was able to breathe a sigh of relief once we made it through the town. During the drive up the coast we stopped at a little pull off to stretch our legs. At this point the road was not very far off the shoreline. Between the road and the shore were farmers harvesting hay. Also, cows were grazing pretty much right up to the water.

We got back in the car for the last left of the driving day and drove up to the town of Harlech. The castle in Harlech was one of the “big 4” that remain on the north west coastline of Wales. The castle was one of many built by King Edward I in the 1200s in Gwynedd (North Wales) so that he could control the people and the land. The castle and most of the town sat on a large cliff overlooking the beach and the flats. When the castle was built, the water came right up to the edge of the cliffs. Getting up to the castle was an adventure. We missed the turn to get to the upper part of the town and had to take a switch back road that winded up to the castle. At some points we were faced with a 25% incline. When we got there the car park for the castle was full. The only place to park was right on one of the roads in the town. We were a little worried about doing that but everyone was and it wasn’t a problem at all.

The views from Harlech were simply amazing. When you climbed up to the top of the castle you could look out over the to the mountains about 20 miles away up the coast and also out to sea. It was very windy up there and one could only imagine what the soldiers manning the castle must have gone through.

As with all of the castles words can’t explain it well enough: the winding spiral staircases up the towers, the thickness of the walls, the great rooms, etc.

The wind was unceasing. As we were driving to Harlech the wind was so strong and constant that the trees grew away from the wind.

We stayed in a local hotel in Harlech called St David’s. From the restaurant in the hotel one could look out over the ocean. Before dinner we walked down to the beach and the kids ran in the water for a while. The wind made it very cold but the kids loved it.