North Wales Holiday in Snowdonia June 2001 - page 2
Continuing our North Wales holiday in beautiful
Snowdonia we explored Criccieth Castle and beach on the Lleyn
Peninsula, climbed to the top of Mount Snowdon (in the rain) at
Llanberis, visited Llandudno and walked the Miners Track from
Pen-y-pass in the foothills of Snowdon.
This is page two of two.
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Poor Belinda almost got clouted by a golf ball due to Mike's poor
aim! Criccieth Castle is in the background on the other side of
the beach which we headed to after a lovely pub lunch and a look round
the Criccieth gift shops of course!
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What a messy eater! It was a lovely warm day at Criccieth on the
Lleyn Peninsula; on the way up to Criccieth Castle we found an ice
cream shop so couldn't resist. Now is that a second ice he's got
there or is it Belinda's?
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Another picture in the bag. Here's the view from Criccieth
Castle, we could see all of Criccieth beach and town, and way in the
distance we could spot Snowdon which we were off to climb the next day.
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There were lots of little creatures in the Criccieth beach rock pools,
left behind by the receding tide. Still, at least it's more
interesting on the beach (and cheaper) than the gift shops!
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The main reason for visiting Snowdonia again was to climb up Snowdon;
the worry was the foot and mouth situation at the time, but fortunately
all the notices said it was open for walking. So off we set
taking the 'easy' path from Llanberis.
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Now Mike's thinking that maybe climbing Snowdon was not such a good
idea after all! He lost his Pedometer on the track soon after
starting and then the weather turned pretty nasty. Hmmm - never
mind, the only way is up, baby!
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The last bit to the top of Snowdon was a real struggle, with the
horizontal rain, biting gale and soaked to the skin despite our
waterproofs. At least there was a cafe (and gift shop!) on top to
refresh in. See our video
clip of our efforts!
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We wimped out and come back down on the Snowdon Mountain Railway. The
journey took about an hour, the lower we got the better the weather
became. Belinda had sufficiently recovered by the bottom to visit, yes,
the gift shop!
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The local pub near our Snowdonia holiday cottage turned out not to do
food, despite their website indicating otherwise, so we knocked up some
sausage, beans and chips - and another opportunity to try our hand at
cleaning the saucepan!
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The next day we visited Llandudno on the North Wales coast and walked
out along the pier after enjoying lunch in a lovely pizza
restaurant. We also toured the shops and saw the donkey rides on
the beach, amongst other things.
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Here's Mike looking out over Llandudno from the Great Orme.
Unfortunatly the Skyway cable car was closed for repair as was the
putting green next door, however we had a good walk to the Supermarket
on the other side of town to get some food for the evening's meal.
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On the last day of our holiday we decided to do another walk around
Snowdonia, choosing the Miners Track from Pen-y-pass which took us past
some spectacular scenery and lakes. With no Pedometer, Mike was
unable to report how far they'd walked every 10 steps!
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On every holiday Mike finds a dry stone wall to try to kick down, in
action here on the Miners Trail walk in Snowdonia. Maybe it's the
vandal in him or something in his beer, but he never succeeds of
course. Perhaps he needs to stay in more.
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In the lounge of the Snowdonia cottage watching TV in the
evening. We never did get the fire going despite it seeming
chilly and despite it being mid-summer! Guess we're used to our
warmer southern climes rather than the cooler Snowdonia climate.
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On the holiday cottage doorstep on the day of departure.
We were woken early when the TV downstairs switched itself on at 5am
and ignored it for a while thinking it was coming from next door!
Anyway, after packing our stuff it was time to head home after a lovely
week in Snowdonia.
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Belinda's got
Mike well trained for these holidays, it was lucky he had his scrambled
eggs for breakfast or he wouldn't have the energy to lift the cases to
the car. See our UK tourist links
page for relevant links to Snowdonia websites and the video clips page for some videos!
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