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.
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.
posted by lenora at 3:06 PM
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