The First Of Our 4 Days In Wales,

Steve and Kai called round for us first thing in the morning,

we were soon well out of London, so a quick stop for a bite to eat,

North Wales here we come!

great motorways, and thankfully not much traffic, 

a couple of hundred miles later,

we had a second stop,

 cream topped coffees the order of the day for the girls!

this reminded me of a song, more of that later in another post,

by now we were on 'A' roads,

going through valleys very twisty and turny,

we passed through a number of towns,

and villages, 

and one of the four police forces in Wales,

it was not long, 

before we were in the car park of, 

 Betws-y-Coed, 

the gateway to Snowdonia and the neighbouring towns and villages,

quiet a popular stop,

there were a number of shops,

and attractions, like Kazie,

just outside of the station,

impressively built using of course Welsh slate,

under the arch,

to the platform,

in the distance a model shop and miniature railway,

the line is single tracked,

a quick look at one of the station art works,

just the single track as I mentioned,

on the  far side a few carriages,

a few people on the station waiting for the next train,

looking down, on the left standard gauge, narrow gauge in the middle and miniature track on the right,

some of the carriages on the siding now disused,

but the restaurant car open for business,

a surprisingly well stocked model shop, 

toot-toot!

the miniature railway,

passing through,

great fun,

I retraced my steps,

to the station,

over the bridge,

the miniature waiting for new passengers,

past some more station art work,

another ice cream,

for the girls, 

we made our way outside,

and into town,

to the Royal Oak Hotel,

a quick pose,

we were soon seated,

with chips, cheesy chips and for myself a tuna sandwich,

and a couple of beers,

'Cheers!',

we walked back to one of the stores,

then past the Royal Oak,

to the river,

and started following it up stream,

and there he was,

patiently waiting,

for an unwary fish,

we crossed the river on the road bridge,

Steve with his new fleece,

the owner of this house has a great view of the river,

we stopped for a quick photograph,

you have to be quick as the bridge is so narrow when a car passes there is little room to spare,

looking down he must have followed us, 

or, 

there are two of them!

looking,

up stream,

we decided to follow the river,

looking back,

we were now, 

at the Bryn Afon Guest House,

and another sports wear shop,

we made our way down hill,

to the river side,

for a few photographs,

I am guessing the river is not in full spate,

as it is still summer time,

but even so,

it has a fair flow,

it was our turn now,

the riverside hotel in the distance,

Kai,

strikes the pose,

we continued,

on to a walkway,

which followed the river,

and then into the forest,

where there were some huge pine trees,

eventually we ran out of forest,

as this section was fenced off,

back in town on the corner,

directions,

and the village post box,

in the wall of the Neuadd Goffa Memorial Hall,

a pose from the girls,

a look at the river,

and past the Pont Y Pair Inn,

and back down river,

could this be a third heron?

passing the Royal Oak,

we picked up the riverside road,

and another heron,

this one of the official entrances,

to Snowdonia,

we were soon back on our way again,

passing many parked cars as travellers admired the views,

there was not a breath of wind, this lake was just like a glass mirror,

lots of cloud in the distance,

which does not bode well for tomorrow,

as we are going up Snowdonia tomorrow,

although difficult to see,

the road was twisting like a twisty thing,

a major landslide, 

here at last, at the Padarn Hotel in Llanberis,

luckily we are only staying for three nights or Steve would have needed a bigger car!

we checked in and had a celebratedly drink,

before making a move from the hotel,

with its artwork wall,

to our restaurant for the evening, Bwyty'r Copa The Peak Restaurant, I should point out that everything here in our 4 day stay were fully booked, all the restaurants we are going had to be booked weeks in advance, and some like this one, we even had to order our meal three days before we arrived!

in we went,

a 'Cheers!', 

for Steve and myself smoked salmon,

for Diana,

a baked sea bass,

a pie for Steve,

and for Kai,

the same as Diana, sea bass,

lots of vegetables,

lamb for myself, I hate to say it but I have forgotten what the girls had,

meal over we made the brief walk next door to our hotel, where after a night cap we were off to bed, if you want to see our second day in Wales, please click on the Older Posts button on the bottom right of the page.