Abertstwythn- Part One

The last 4 days we have not been able to access internet for very long so here goes... (in two Parts)

We drove from The Lake District yesterday choosing to take the M6 to the M56. I’m not sure where we crossed the English- Welsh border but things changed. The roads started to narrow, it began to rain and the houses changed their exteriors once again. as we headed alongside the northern coast we spotted the magnificent Conway Castle. We decided to keep driving as we were promised that Caernafon Castle would be more interesting to walk around.

 Caernafon town is a great wee town to walk around although a Sunday is a quiet day and there’s not a lot of business going on. The pubs all around town were advertising Sunday Roast. Sunday Roast is a big deal here, so we thought we’d better try one. The pub we chose had two restaurants which sounds big, but it wasn’t. The first restaurant was for people who wanted to eat from the daily menu; the restaurant we were led to was out the back in a room about the size of a classroom with a small bar and steaming pots of roast vegetables, stuffing, and sauces. This was the Carvery especially opened on Sundays, and at one end a man sharpened his carving knife and asked each person in line whether they preferred pork, beef, lamb, turkey or chicken. Quite a choice.

If you are not used to it, it might be surprising to find also that many people here converse in Welsh. Not English. All around town we witnessed teenagers, parents and their children, young couples and people at the bar using Welsh as their chosen tongue. Wales is bilingual and truly bicultural.

After lunch, our chosen route was the 4085 into Snowdonia. We had heard that the mountainous regions of Wales were beautiful but were were not prepared for the stunning scenery we saw. We were so mesmerised by everything- the lakes, the mountains, the valleys, the light, the trees, and even the roads themselves, that we must have missed a turnoff and ended  heading north again up the A78 and on to the A5. It was actually ok. We climbed a very high mountain and took some postcard pictures across Llyn Trawsfynydd and Llyn Celyn.

We reconnected with the A470 and left it again heading through Machynlieth, tuning off on the A4159 then right back on to the A44, before finally finding our residence on the outskirts of Abertstwythn for the next two nights. It had been a long day in the car and we were happy enough to just settle in front of the TV and watch the closing Olympic ceremony. The only trouble was, we couldn’t get the TV to work. Pat who minds the place was really not in any state to fix things. besides not feeling particularly well, she can’t move very fast and she is technologically challenged. On her suggestion, S went to see how the  television connections worked in a different room. They worked fine but not only that, the room had an ensuite. Pat was happy to move us and so were we.

After studying the tourist brochures, we decided that a drive to The Devil’s Bridge and having a few bush walks would be a really good idea. The Devil’s Bridge is actually three bridges stacked over one another; the first serving as a passage for monks who travelled in the middle ages. When horse drawn carriages were used, a second wider bridge was constructed about 1708. The third bridge was built at the start of the 20^th century and strengthened in the mid-70s. The river Mynach runs under this and has carved a deep gully creating an impressive waterfall which can be seen from a range of viewpoints. There are two walks on either side of the bridge. After negotiating a tollgate (with help from the woman who operated the pay booth across the road) we  scooted around the first walk stopping to hear the legend of the Devil and the old woman who tricked him into building the first bridge. This was achieved by a dynamo-controlled speaker which you wound until the story came out. The longer walk was really a set of very steep stairs down one side, and up the other but worthwhile all the same and ended further along the road so we could walk even further down and have a cup of tea. Also we had an opportunity to see the steam train which had arrived some minutes earlier.

We thought our second trip should be to see a medieval house and museum forty miles away. The directions were not that clear and the satnav took us once again down some rather dodgy roads to the middle of nowhere. We did, however, finally come across the small town of Patton, had a wee look around, then decided to head back towards Abertstwythn. On the way we stopped at a large wheel we’d spotted on our way in the day before. This turned out to be a water wheel which had operated during the mining era and worked two enormous bellows to heat the fire that melted the iron ore. Now this place was quiet, and the only noise was the trickling stream.

Abertstwythn turned out to be a surprise. It is another Victorian seaside town with a very wide promenade, an amusement pier, and rotunda. The grand old houses on the shore are one by one being painted in pastels, to perhaps brighten the mood…but there’s a tired feel about the town as well. A lot of shops have packed up business, and the boarded up windows look like they have been like that for some time. There’s an interesting ride up a creaky cable car at one end of the beach which we took. The views, as expected, were well worth the ride and we took numerous photos to prove it.

We’d chosen a small bistro at the end of the main street to have our evening meal and the prices were reasonable. We came back and settled for an early night as the next day we were travelling again.