Wales - April & May 2017

North Wales, two weeks at the end of April – start of May, warm and sunny every day and no rain. Impossible, or so we thought, no its true, we have just experienced it. So lucky.
Wales is a country within a country. It has his own parliament, its own language and flag, everything is written in both Welsh and English. It also has it's own border: Offa's Dyke. It's a great frontier earthwork built by Offa, King of Mercia from 757 to 796 A.D. It gives its name to a long distance footpath, one of Britain's National Trails, which runs from Sedbury, near Chepstow, to Prestatyn through the varied and little-frequented landscapes of the Welsh Marches.

Our two weeks started with a few days on the Isle of Anglesey, an island off the north west coast of Wales. Anglesey is a bit different to the rest of north Wales, its much flatter and feels more remote. We spent a couple of days touring the island, exploring the best it had to offer, which included the town with the longest name in Britain (and probably the world) - Llanfairpwllgwyngyllgogerychwyrndrobwllllantysiliogogogoch.
https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/content_link/xwzJPIJrbm1gN9WETl9ssSNo6mDJabg2fz3ftHxKPojrGMbHMa5z9fKP8XS1AARk/file?dl=1

See the itinerary of this trip, and details about each destination.

Back on the mainland, we based ourselves in a loft apartment, on a farm and in the small town of Dyffryn Ardudwy. Dyffryn Ardudwy sits on the north west coast of Wales and on the edge of Snowdonia National Park.

Snowdonia_National_Park_UK_location_map

The English name for the area derives from Snowdon, which is the highest mountain in Wales at 3,560 ft (1,085 m). In Welsh, the area is named Eryri. A commonly held belief is that the name is derived from eryr ("eagle"), and thus means 'the abode/land of eagles but recent evidence is that it means quite simply Highlands, and is related to the Latin oriri (to rise).
From here we explored Snowdonia thoroughly, hiking in every part of the park, including a climb to the summit of Mount Snowdon via the Pyg trail to go up and down the Miners Trail for the ones who have done it before.

More photos of other hikes in Snowdonia National Park, including one which took us back through time and along an old slate mine.

We did also get involved with the history and culture. Visits to Castles, Archaeological sites and learning a few welsh words were all part of the Wales experience.

Wales 035

North Wales looked at its very best during our stay, spring flowers adding colour to the hills and mountains and the sunshine to show them off to the best effect, lambs and sheep adding white dots behind a background of green fields, birds coming back to spend the summer .

Personal Observation

We were surprised how many people speak Welsh in their daily conversations.