Dad loved Wales so much he requested to write this blog post. 

Snowdonia, seacoast, and … sunburn?

Departing England for Wales, I was getting comfortable with driving a left-handed stick shift and driving on the left side of the road while successfully negotiating roundabouts in the opposite, for me, direction. More difficult was managing the turn signals and windshield wipers. I practically rejoiced on the rare occasion that I correctly used the blinkers without turning on the wipers. 

As we drove across the countryside and into the valleys, I never picked up on any announcement or sign post that welcomed us to Wales. I could’ve been too busy turning off the wipers / blinkers. My first indicator was when I saw roadsigns posted in English and Welsh. We chose our timeframe to visit Wales in hopes of avoiding standard Welsh weather – gray, misty, sideways rain, penetrating wind shears. Based on previous experience, I expected to get whipped by the winds, windburned, sideways rain and overall general grey misery. I would be disappointed. We must’ve arrived in Wales during the best weather of the year. As it turned out, by pure luck, we enjoyed several sunny days back to back. 

We chose northern Wales in part based on my previous visit there – I wanted my family to experience the dramatic beauty of the Snowdonia mountain region, and I insisted that if we were to visit a castle that it would be my favorite, Caenarfon Castle in northern Wales. With that motivation, we found an Airbnb house in Barmouth.

We parked on the Main Street in Barmouth in front of our house, a narrow four-level row-house built in the 1860s which, inside, boasted extremely quirky decor – like several head-only wig mannequins that appeared lifelike. “Quit staring at me!” They quickly found their way to the bottom of closets. From the third and fourth floors, if you’re standing in the right spot looking westward across Main Street, you could peer across the way though the narrow gap between similar slate-shingled buildings to see the wide Barmouth beach and crashing waves of the grey sea. There was another narrow row of houses just behind ours, also facing westward. Our back exit and their front doors spilled onto a walkway separating the “properties.” One had to deliberately avoid looking into the living and dining rooms of those houses when walking in and out. Directly behind that row of houses was a tall wall of dark grey stone, taller than all the row-houses – must’ve been blasted out enough to wedge in these two rows of homes. Neither rows of homes received direct sunlight from the east until well into the day. 

People come to Barmouth to sample the seashore and the boardwalk area complete with games, taffy, and food stands. We stayed in town long enough to learn the shops, restaurants, and flow of the town (other than the pubs, everything shuts down early), but not there long enough to befriend our neighbors. Unfortunately this was one of the places where our host didn’t meet us.

We sampled a variety of goodies from the local bakery “Born and Bread,” like Welsh cakes with currants and Welsh ogies (a savory pastry pocket filled with meat and potatoes that miners carried with them down into the mines). We also visited a small stand that baked fresh doughnuts daily – hot and fresh right out of the fryer – so yummy!

We attempted to pick up some of the language by watching YouTube instruction videos and by watching Welsh-language TV. Not so easy. Can’t recall the source, but somehow we picked up that the Welsh language was dying out and that only 20% of Wales spoke Welsh. Well, we found them all during our visit to Northern Wales and my favorite castle, Caenarfon Castle. By luck we visited on the day of the Caernarfon food festival where a huge, Welsh-speaking crowd were treated to food stands, craft tents, and traditional music. The centerpiece was the amazing medieval castle, which sits at the intersection of waterways in order to identify and defend against invaders. In a royal ceremony there in 1969, Prince Charles was invested as Prince of Wales by Queen Elizabeth II.

We took a scenic route back south, stopping in Llanfairpwllgwyngyllgogerychwyrndrobwllllantysiliogogogoch to see the train station and buy souvenirs. Apparently it’s the city that boasts the longest name in the world. The proprietor at Born & Bread pronounced it for me once. It’s comical to hear someone say it. We peacefully reveled in the scenic drive through the Snowdonia Mountains. So beautiful and rugged. We stopped in Betws-y-coed for an ice cream and to let the kids have a run in the park. Outside of Barmouth, the dark green hills were decorated with a patchwork pattern from the stone sheep pen barriers of varying sized rectangles and squares. I can only imagine the work it took to haul all those stones up onto the hillsides.

Mother’s Day fell on a bright and sunny day. We celebrated with scones and caramel slices from Born &  Bread, enjoyed the sun while hiking across the estuary bridge, peering into the treacherous fast moving water below, browsed at the city market, and dined at a traditional pub restaurant – luckily we made reservations as it had been packed every time we passed. 

We enjoyed our visit to Wales very much. The weather was much better than the last time I had visited where I got soaked to the bone and my umbrella snapped from the strong winds. In fact, it was so clear and sunny this time that I ended up with a sunburn – not something I expected when visiting Wales. I’d definitely stay in Barmouth again and would love to visit these same sites again.

Next stop–Ireland!