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.

Driving

Our last day in Scotland passed by the golf courses of Turnberry and Troon, two more of the famous Scottish links courses. Links courses do not look like U.S. courses, no trees, hilly or lumpy greens, foxhole type bunkers and look like you're playing in a pasture. Out at Turnberry, sitting on the coast of the Irish sea, it was very windy, but, because it wasn't raining all the locals commented about what a nice day it was.  Golfing in 30 mph winds is very tough golf, I don't care how brightly the sun is shining! We walked out to a lighthouse, through the course, had some tea at the clubhouse and enjoyed the scenery.  It was a pretty special place to visit.  The clubhouse had lots of pictures commemorating the championship held there when Tom Watson edged out Jack Nicholas.

This is normal

Come Again and speed limit

So a little on driving over here on the left. First, there are lots of cars we've never seen and models we know. Most are small, pickups are rare and the biggest SUV probably being the Landrover. The roads are narrow in town and big cars just wouldn't fit. It's bad enough when lorries (British for trucks) go by or pass on curvy, narrow roads. The hardest thing to remember is when turning right, you drive around or across the oncoming lane, then remember to stay in the left lane. Our car is a manual and we now shift with our left hand,which feels strange at first. At least the shift pattern is the same and the pedals are too. Road signs are interesting and most are "international" symbols but some we can't figure out. There are just 3 speed limits, called National speed limit and designated by a white circular sign with a black diagonal stripe thru it. Speed for the Motorways (M roads) is 70, 60 for others and in town 30. Most of the country roads have a 60 limit and it's almost impossible to go that fast as they are twisty and narrow. But I'm convinced the locals try.  Occasionally, a town or village will post a slower speed. The streets in town are also for parking on, even though it is an active lane and not posted as no parking. So, you go around or wait till oncoming traffic passes then go in the other lane. And you can park any direction you want to. Crazy. In Scotland, some roads are single track, 1 lane, but at least there are passing places or turnouts and drivers are generally pretty cooperative. Most roads have parking turnouts, but we haven't seen one rest stop with a restroom. A lot of the country roads have hedges right to the edge, and there is a fence or rock wall inside the hedge! But the craziest thing we've come across was driving a stretch in England that each lane was about a car and a half wide, no line dividing it into two. And then the cars would pass you from behind, in your lane but not crossing into the oncoming lane. Not sure that was right.

Country road

It has definitely been an experience and for the most part the driving is enjoyable because the scenery is incredible.

Around Scotland on the left

Falkirk Wheel

Been out of eworld touch for a few days, not every place we've stayed has wifi access. So to catch up, we spent 3 days in Edinburgh and saw several different things. One of the coolest places we went to is the Falkirk Wheel. This is a modern canal and lock system put in about 10 years ago. It connects 11 locks, just like regular locks, only different. A boat goes into the "bucket" which is filled with water and the entire wheel is rotated, like a ferris wheel, and at the top the boat motors down a channel to the next canal. We took a ride on a boat and saw the entire process, very cool.

Drum castle

We've toured more castles, ranging from ruins to restored. We tend to like the ruins better and one of the more interesting castles was what we call the Monty Python castle. Several of the movies were filmed there and the audio tape tour had extra commentary. We also stopped at a ruins on Loch Ness. This sight competes with the Nessie center but we didn't stop at the center. Alas, we didn't see Nessie on the loch either.

Loch Ness

One of Bill's favorite spots was St. Andrews and the "Old Course".   As the book puts it "sacred ground for golfers" This is the place that makes and codifies golf rules and is the #1 course. The day wasn't the best for weather, but we walked around the old town, watched some golfers on the Old Course and got some souvenirs.

To this date, we travelled the east coast, all the way up to the top, the northern Highlands and are now down in the Loch area. The east coast is mostly rolling hills, farms and very green. A lot of barley is grown here for the several whisky distilleries. The northern highlands is pretty remote, stunning coast line and what looks like barren rock and brown vegetation. The hills are covered with heather and trees don't grow naturally. Over on the west coast it is still wet, small villages and sheep. We spent a day on The Isle ofSkye  and that was very different. The mountains and hills are covered with heathers, giving a brown, no vegetation look, lots of coastline with many lochs and has a stark, barren look. It's even bleaker with the rain and dark clouds.  The rains gave us a lot of waterfalls to see that probably wouldn't have been there otherwise.

Yumm?

Huh?

So a few more days in Scotland, then on to Wales. We'll try to keep adding to the blog . These last pix are just some humorous things we've come across.