Tuesday, 22 October 2019
After a great sleep in a nice large bed I thoroughly enjoyed the nice big shower that followed. I really did like being on the narrowboat, but after 2 weeks, bigger seems better. The hotel we stayed in included breakfast, so we went down around 9:15 AM and had a proper Welsh breakfast that resembled a proper Irish, Scottish, and English breakfast...eggs, meats, tomato, potato, mushrooms, and beans. We really like having a large breakfast, that way we can continue our sightseeing and skip lunch.
After breakfast we checked out of the hotel room. Tim spotted this cat in the parking lot and liked the fact that it was walking past the large cat statue.
After breakfast we checked out of the hotel room. Tim spotted this cat in the parking lot and liked the fact that it was walking past the large cat statue.
The first stop today is the National Slate Museum, so I put that into Google maps and we were off. About 1 hour later we arrived at a place that didn't seem like a museum, but there was mountains covered in slate, so maybe it is? This place is called "Llechwedd Slate Caverns." it wasn't a museum, but a slate mine experience. Since we were here, we figured we should do it, so we bought the package tour that included a tour down in the mine and a tour that took you on top of the quarry.
First was the underground tour where we donned helmets and descended for about 90 minutes on a rail car of a sort that took up down the main shaft of the mine.
First was the underground tour where we donned helmets and descended for about 90 minutes on a rail car of a sort that took up down the main shaft of the mine.
Once down there, we then got out and walked into various caverns carved out by the slate miners starting in 1846 and ending in the 1960's, although, some mining continue there to this day. It was obviously difficult to get photos in the low light, but Tim managed to get a few.
Here I am learning how to use the tools the miners used to drill into the slate.
Here I am learning how to use the tools the miners used to drill into the slate.
Here are a couple more photos inside the mine:
Old stairway used by the miners
At the end of the tour we were told that the rail car that is supposed to take us back up to the surface broke, so we have to walk out. It was kind of cool, since we got to go into some tunnels and caverns that the public doesn't normally see, but it was a pretty long walk up.
Up the emergency exit
When we finally emerged, we got a nice view of some ziplinners doing their thing right above us:
After the underground experience, we were ready for the quarry explorer tour. They loaded us up into a 4x4 military truck and up the steep quarry roads we went. We stopped an looked at the old buildings were the slate was processed into roof tiles and had some great views.
Our driver / guide
When we got back to the car it was already 3 PM not leaving us enough time to go the slate museum we intended to go to. We will save that for another day. Instead, we stopped in the town of Betws-y-Coed on the way to our overnight location of Conwy. We decided to have an early dinner, so stopped into a pizza place (Tim: Pizza; me: large Mediterranean salad) and then walked around town a bit. There wasn't really much since this town is really used as a jumping off point for hiking around the Snowdon National Park, but they did of course have a church.
Here is the Church of Saint Mary built in 1873.
Here is the Church of Saint Mary built in 1873.
We then drove the 30 minutes to our B&B for the next 2 nights in Conwy. We arrived around 6 PM and decided to stay in the room the rest of the night since I really have to come up with a Wales plan. After today's "wrong destination" experience, I figured I better spend some time figuring out where we want to go and what we want to see in Wales. So, for the past 3 hours that is what I was working on. It is now almost midnight, so I better finish up on this blog entry. Tomorrow we tour the city of Conwy which includes a castle and a city wall. It should be a nice day.
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