Wales, land of words with few vowels

Caernarfon, Conwy, Llangollen, Porthmadog, Betws-y-coed just a few towns in Wales we've been in or gone thru. Even though Wales is a part of Great Britain, it has a different look and feel. Most of what we've seen in England driving through has been from the freeways (motorways) and nothing to get excited about. Wales is pretty, green of course, quiet and quaint small towns. We spent 3 days in the town of Conwy and it was a surprise driving across the river and suddenly there is a very large castle in front of us.

Conwy

 Conwy is home to an impressive 13th century castle, in very good shape and a walled city. The town has homes and business inside the walls and you can feel how it would have been back in the medieval days. The town itself sits in a valley and is quite pretty.

Caernarfon

 Then there is the biggest castle out there, Caernarfon. It protects the northwestern end of Wales, excluding the Isle of Anglesey. Both Conwy and Caernarfon were built for Edward I, by the same builder. Both have the newest and most modern things in castle building. We took tours at each and learned of special defenses built into the castles, murder holes, arrow slits, indoor toilets (really just an opening to the outside), evidence of gate tracks, shutter hinges, they thought of everything. And they were plastered inside and painted white. It was pretty fascinating although Bill wasn't crazy about climbing some of the towers. There are a lot of steps and it's a steep, spiral stone staircase.  It's not the height or the fall, it's that sudden STOP at the end of the fall!!

 While out at Caernarfon, we had to go to Llanfairpwll, also known as the town with the longest name in Europe. See for yourself. And it translates, "The church of St. Mary's in the hollow of white hazel near a rapid whirlpool and the church of St. Tysilio near a red cave." Welsh has a lot of double consonants, or many together and very few vowels and is a living language today.

We drove up into Snowdonia National Park and the area is quite  different than the surrounding countryside. Slate is mined there and around, lots of trails, hills and sporting activities. The weather was great and we really enjoyed the whole coast and mountains.