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Published: October 29th 2007
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Mountains
The beginning of the mountains On Friday night after I was done with class, Bob the coach driver once again joined us as we began our trip to Conwy in Northern Wales. We stopped on the way at a service station which are kind of like our rest areas but with stores and restaurants. It was not what I was expecting for a service station. When we arrived in Conwy, we found the hostel, grabbed some dinner from a cheap fish and chip shop and then went back up to the hostel and to bed. One thing that we noticed right away was that the signs were in both English and Welsh - which was cool.
On Saturday we were up bright and early for a breakfast full of carbohydrates. At 9, Llewelyn Groom came to speak to us about the history of Conwy and Conwy Castle. Northern Wales was the last part of Wales to come under English rule. After Henry III failed, Edward I finally succeeded in taking Wales after defeating Llewelyn of Gwynedd and his brother. Conwy Castle and the town walls were built by the order of Edward I. We went up the Northwest Tower of the town walls which is the
Conwy Castle
Built by Edward I highest tower and higher by 10 feet than any point of the castle for signaling purposes. The view was wonderful and we could see the "forehead" or beginning of the Snowdonian Mountains as well as the castle and surrounding area. Llewelyn, our guide, also told us that most of the time he spoke Welsh as did many people in that area. He also said that for education you could go to an English or Welsh speaking school or do a bilingual option. I thought that that was really cool! We then walked along the walls and down to the castle. The castle was only in danger 3 times in its whole history. In 1400, Owen Glendower took the castle while everyone was at church on Good Friday and held it for 8 or 9 weeks. This is that same Glendower who rebelled against Henry IV with the Percy's and is in Shakespeare's Henry IV. During the Civil War, the Royalists held Conwy Castle and were then starved out by the Parliamentary forces. The view from the top of the higher towers was beautiful, even if the spiral stairs on the way up and down were narrow and made me a
Conwy Castle
View of the castle from the Northwest Tower of the city walls. Higher than any point at the castle by 10 ft. bit nervous.
On Saturday afternoon we drove to the Llechwedd Slate Caverns. When we left Conwy it was a beautiful day. But, the farther up into the mountains we got, the darker it got. Suddenly we were surrounded by fog or clouds that cut visibility down to about 10 feet. It was like a Druid's Mist from stories, cutting us effectively off from everything around us. By the time we got to the mine, it was raining. Luckily for us, the tour was underground where it was only cold and dripping. We piled 6 of us into a small car all of us wearing blue helmets and descended into the mine. This started Alex quoting from Lord of the Rings when they go into the Mines of Moria. We were lead on our tour by the voice of a former miner and some electric lights. Kind of creepy. It was hard to see anything at all which added to the Lord of the Rings atmosphere. It didn't help that our "guide" kind of sounded like Gimli the Dwarf. It was interesting but definitely strange too. The passageways were really low and we had to walk stooped through most of them.
Conwy Castle
Toilets on outside of walls in case of siege. The miners usually spent their whole lives working in one cavern. One cavern! Can you imagine spending your whole life working in a cavern you had only seen by candlelight? Granted they didn't stay in the mine all the time, but even so. When we got back to the surface, Storm and Bob told us more about how the slabs of slate were made into pieces that could be used. Then we headed back to Conwy.
This weekend was the Conwy Food Festival which took place below the castle down by the river. Kia and I wandered through the food tents and sampled some really good cheeses - sun-dried tomato and white wine, one with leeks (really good!), and one with apricots - and hot fruit punch. We each bought a traditional Welsh cake - they have some little bits of fruit in - and a small tub of ice cream with honeycomb pieces in it. Then we wandered through the rest of the festival and found dinner at the Malaysian tent. As it was getting cold, we got coffee and hot chocolate and headed back up to the hostel.
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