Rob here again with a photo / remembrance post about our time in Wales. Wales is pretty far from England and it really takes some time to get all the way out there and all the way back. The photo map below shows the places in northern Wales where we spent two days.  

An Engineering Wonder

We started our journey deep in the northern expanse of Wales with a stop at a historic aqueduct at Pontcysyllte. I really enjoyed seeing, walking across, and watching boats traverse a historic engineering marvel! I think this stop was mostly to satisfy my nerdy engineer side but I think the rest of the family enjoyed the stop as well. The structure was designed by civil engineers Thomas Telford and Williams Jessop, is a world heritage site, and the tallest canal aqueduct in the world (according to Wikipedia).

Here are a couple photos of us on and around the aqueduct. It was a little scary and also thrilling to be up so high on such an old structure. I’m a sucker for an engineering marvel and I loved our time here.

There was a rail on the walking side and nothing on the canal side of the aqueduct. Totally fine for walking but it would be pretty easy to fall off a longboat and over the edge. It definitely got my anxiety going a bit about a fall from heights. Zoinks!

We drove back up the road a little ways so I could get a couple photos of the aqueduct in the setting sun from down in the valley. I had to park on the side of a narrow road and hoof it down to a narrow bridge to catch this photo. It was completely stunning.

On that same walk I saw this little cottage. I thought it would render very well in black and white and so it did.

A Cozy Mountain Village

We had a delicious dinner and spent the evening walking around Betwes-y-Coed. My dinner was a bacon-wrapped, cheddar-stuffed, pulled pork sandwich with excellent chips – Heaven!!!!! After dinner we walked over to the Pont-y-Pair bridge area for some rock scrambling, scenic views, and rock skipping. Feast your eyes on this absolutely enchanting area.

After we finished in Betwes-y-Coed we drove up the road to our very rustic cabin deep in Snowdonia.

A Scenic Hike in Snowdonia

The next morning we started up the mountain for a leisurely walk through a fairy glen on our way to the lake. One my girls dubbed this area pooplandia but I’m not sure that is really fair. There certainly was poop but I say it was a reasonable amount considering all the sheep around.

A Jaunt Onto the Llŷn Peninsula

We spent the night way out on the Llyn Peninsula where I discovered golden syrup (it comes in a tin) and stopped for crabbing in Caernarfon and for the castle in Conwy. Crabbing was a hit for Nate and everyone but Cara loved the castle in Conwy (she hates old creepy things). We stayed in a nice Caravan that evening which was a lot of fun.

We checked out a few beachy / coastal areas on the peninsula as well. The sand was squeaky, the water was cold, and the sky was lovey.

The following night we settled down for bed back in England to sleep in a quaint little vestry.