UK Tourist & Leisure Attractions - Snowdonia

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!

What a messy eater!  It was a lovely warm day at Criccieth on the Lleyn Peninsula; on the way up to visit Criccieth Castle we couldn't resist an ice cream shop we passed.  Now is that a second cooling ice he's got lined up there?

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 aiming to climb the next day.

There were lots of little creatures in the Criccieth beach rock pools, left behind by the receding tide.  Still, at least it was more interesting on the beach (and cheaper) than the gift shops!

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 the notice said it was open for walking.  So off we set, taking the 'easy' Llanberis Path from Llanberis...

...and before long the weather turned pretty nasty.  We got to thinking that maybe climbing Snowdon was not such a good idea after all, compounded by Mike loosing his Pedometer on the track along the way.  Hmmm - never mind, the only way is up, baby!

We can tell you the last bit to the top of Snowdon was a real struggle, with horizontal rain, biting gale and literally soaked to the skin despite our waterproofs.  At least there was a cafe (and gift shop!) on top to refresh in.  See our short video clip of our efforts!

Well, we wimped out and took the easy option down on the narrow gauge Snowdon Mountain Railway, which took about an hour.  And the lower we got the better the weather became.  Belinda had sufficiently recovered by the bottom to visit, yes, the gift shop!

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!

Next day we visited Llandudno on the North Wales coast, walked out along the pier (above) then savoured lunch in a lovely pizza restaurant.  We toured the shops and saw the traditional donkey rides on the beach before enjoying...

...a grand view over Llandudno from the Great Orme.  Unfortunately the Skyway cable car was closed, as was the putting green next door - hey, wake up Llandudno, it's midsummer you know, just coming up to peak tourist season!  Talking of which, Llandudno seemed mainly geared towards the older tourist.

On the last day of our holiday in North Wales we decided to do another Snowdonia walk, choosing the Miners' Track from Pen-y-Pass which took us past some spectacular mountain scenery and lakes.  The Miners' Track was originally built to serve the Britannia Copper Mine and is now one of the six main...

...routes to climb Snowdon (although we weren't going that far).  We passed some interesting old mine buildings alongside Llyn Llydaw, at which point Mike decided to test the strength of the lake wall here along the Miners' Trail in Snowdonia - and came off worse!

In the lounge of the Snowdonia cottage watching TV in the evening.  We never did get the fire going despite it seeming chilly in the Snowdonia midsummer!  Guess we're used to our warmer southern climes rather than the cooler climate of North Wales.

On the holiday cottage doorstep on the day of departure.  We were woken at 5am when the TV downstairs loudly switched itself on 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 wonderful week in scenic Snowdonia.

So here's the final outside view of the cosy Snowdonia holiday cottage we rented.  Mike had his scrambled eggs for breakfast which enabled him to carry both cases to the car at once, who said blokes can't multi-task!  We've featured relevant Snowdonia websites on our UK tourist resources page.