Bat Boy Caught Lurking in Yorkshire

We went to see the most bizarre show today in Leeds: Bat Boy: The Musical -- inspired by a story that appeared in a U.S. tabloid newspaper some years back. You may remember it (I do) -- a half-boy half-bat creature was found in a cave in West Virginia. The show develops the off-beat premise with some great musical numbers, campy and comical dialogue, racy plot twists, near nudity, lots of fake blood and an outlandish plot twist befitting its tabloid origins. It was a hoot!!! Deven May, bat boy from the original off-broadway production, appeared in this regional production complete with razor sharp teeth and pointy ears. His performance was phenomenal, as were those of the rest of the ensemble cast. The show began its run in the U.S., had its UK-premier in Leeds at the West Yorkshire Playhouse and will next be seen in London's West End. I predict it will become a runaway cult hit.

Rainy Days

Today is St. Swithin's Day and, according to British lore, if it rains today it will rain for the next forty days. You guessed it -- it rained today. I'm not surprised at the bleak forecast.

I went hiking with the hiking group today near the village of Hebden, just outside of Grassington. I know those names don't mean much to alot of folks -- they are villages high in the North Yorkshire moors. Our ears were popping as we made our way to our destination and we ran into some dense hill fog along the way. Even so, it was surprisingly warm atop the moors and everyone began stripping off layers of clothing before we were halfway through the hike. We hiked through some stunningly beautiful country: soft rolling hills carved out into plots of land with dry stone walls. We encountered a few sheep here and there and unfortunately a couple of them were lame. How sad it was to see the poor animals stumbling and limping along. The terrain was rather rough, so I guess even the sheep have trouble with it. Lunch was at the Clarendon Free House in Hebden. The menu was quite ambitious and the chef was definitely up to the challenge. The rain began just as we left the pub and headed back home, Next week we may hike the mosaic trail again. I'm bummed cuz my digital camera is on the fritz, so I won't be able to finish my photo essay of the trail. :-(

Of Castles and Cakes

Time to head back to Harrogate. We thought we'd take in a few more sites before taking the road back home. We drove over the Britannia Bridge to the Isle of Anglesey, just off the northwest corner of Wales and only about 15 minutes from Llanberis. We made a brief, almost obligatory tourist stop, at Llanfairpwllgwyngyllgogerychwyrndrobwllllantysiliogogogoch, the village with the longest place name in Britain. (Click here to hear the pronunciation. The town name means "The church of St. Mary in a hollow of white hazel near a rapid whirlpool and near St. Tysilio's church by the red cave" and was a gimmick hatched in the 19th century to attract tourists to the island. ) Brad stopped at the train station. We hopped out of the car. I snapped a few photos of the place name. We hopped back into the car and drove on to Beaumaris Castle. This castle was built by Edward I, also responsible for Caernarfon and Conwy castles. King Edward built this ring of castles in Wales to establish English supremacy over the Welsh. Beaumaris was the castle that broke the bank, however, and was never completed. It stands now as a ruin, just like Caernarfon and Conwy, yet Beaumaris shows promise of being a bit more elegant and sophisticated than the stalwart castles we had previously toured.

We had tea and cakes in a cute little cafe in the town of Beaumaris, a pastel-colored seaside resort. By far, the best meals we had in Wales were tea and cakes. I was fond of Welsh cakes, a kind of flattened scone with fruit and Brad and I both adored the Victoria sponge cakes we had in Wales. The best savory dish we had was, predictably, Welsh rarebit. I had some decent seafood at Y Caban in Llanberis, but we were generally underwhelmed by Welsh cuisine.

From Beaumaris we made what we thought would be a brief stop to see Aber Falls. We pulled off the motorway at Abergwyngregyn and drove a short distance to a car park. There we followed a trail to the falls. It was a lonnnng trail. Uphill most of the way. But the payoff was good: the falls, though not spectacular or grandiose were scenic.

Then back in the car for the drive home. We truly enjoyed our jaunt in Wales and hope to return someday. We've got a better idea where we'd like to stay (not Llanberis) and a list of other sites we'd like to see. I particularly enjoyed the Welsh language. Just about all signs and menus, etc. were bilingual, Welsh and English. The pronunciation of Welsh doesn't seem so intimidating once you learn the rules. As for the grammar, though, I haven't a clue and imagine it is a bit daunting.

Wales is the legendary home of King Arthur but, for me, the place names brought Middle Earth to mind.

Both Sides Now

What a bee-you-tiful day it was today! We were blessed with sunshine and warm -- even hot -- temperatures. After breakfast we caught a ride up to the summit of Mt. Snowdon (3,560 feet, the tallest point in England and Wales) on the Mountain Railway. On our way to the railway station we saw that there were clouds hovering over the mountaintops in the distance. When the train left the station at Llanberis visibility was said to be poor at the summit. Oh well, we sat back to enjoy the hour-long journey up to the top of Snowdon and enjoyed some fabulous views along the way. Sure enough, at the top of Snowdon we were walking though clouds, unable to view anything more than a few feet in front of us. You are only allowed to linger for 30 minutes at the summit and then must catch the same train down or else walk all the way back to Llanberis. After about 15 minutes at the summit, lo and behold, the clouds dissipated and we had spectacular views in all directions. On the ride back down we sat next to a Japanese couple on holiday from Tokyo and chatted for a bit with them.

Next we headed for the Welsh Slate Museum in Llanberis. The museum is housed in the Dinorwig Quarry headquarters in the shadow of Mt. Elidir, the mountain that looms over Llanberis. The Slate Museum gave us a fascinating look at the slate mining industry in north Wales: we saw reconstructed dwellings of slate miners representing different time periods, toured the entire Dinorwig complex, marveling at the self-sufficiency and innovativeness of the Victorian facility and viewed a demonstration of slate splitting. Slate mining had been a major industry in north Wales; the slate in Wales is of exceptional quality and provided about 80% of the roofing materials exported to Europe. But when demand for slate fell, so did the north Welsh economy. Sad testaments of this turn of fortunes are to be found in the small mining communities scattered throughout Snowdonia, not least of which is Mt. Elidir itself, scarred as it is by past mining efforts.

After the museum and lunch we took a hike in the Llanberis County Park. As with other hikes we've taken in the area we climbed steadily uphill for half the walk. We had some great views of the area before we headed back down to the Park.

We had dinner that night at Y Caban, about the only decent eatery in Llanberis. We had eaten there the night before and wanted to try a new restaurant this evening but all the other promising looking restaurants were closed! It seems Llanberis needs to rethink its approach to tourism, as all the bed and breakfast establishments were fully booked. It was so odd that the restaurateurs weren't eager to cater to this ready-made clientele.

From North Yorkshire to North Wales

We are spending the weekend in North Wales. I've never been to Wales and really wanted to take a look-see. We drove down on Saturday morning. It only took about three hours to get to Conwy near the border of England and Wales. We had barely stepped out of the car when we heard singing and music -- we'd arrived just in time for the annual bluegrass festival! Conwy is a charming town, still totally surrounding by a medieval wall and with a fabulous castle. We felt like kids again as we clambered up spiral stone stairways in dank towers emerging to peer over the castle ramparts. We also toured Plas Mawr, a fully restored Elizabethan house. I especially loved the plaster ceilings with relief sculptures of animals, human portraits and heraldic designs. After this brief stop in Conwy we headed a bit further on to Llanberis, the little town where we are staying. Llanberis is in a valley at the foot of Mount Snowdon, the tallest peak in England and Wales. I'm in Pete's Eats right now and am amazed that there is noone else here using this Internet Cafe. Pete's Eats is a cafe very popular with backpackers -- cheap hearty eats. Llanberis is definitely a snoozy town, but very pretty.

Today we went to Caernarfon to visit another spectacular castle. We had an incidental tribute to the American holiday when we viewed the exhibit on the Royal Welch Fusiliers -- formed in 1689, this regiment, still active today, served during the Revolutionary War. We also saw an exhibit about the investiture of Charles as the Prince of Wales. The ceremony took place in 1969 at Caernarfon when Charles was a young lad of 20. After touring Caernarfon we went driving all over Snowdonia, admiring the beautiful views of mountains, glens and waterfalls. This part of Wales is very pretty and the folks are quite nice. Tomorrow we hope to ascend Mt. Snowdon (by train) -- neither of us is fit enough to climb up, though many people come here just to do that. The weather has been beautiful so far. Hope it keeps up so the Mountain Railway is running tomorrow.