Blogs from Betws-y-Coed, Conwy, Wales, United Kingdom, Europe

Snowdonia is an ancient land of Nordic Rally Drivers.In fact, Snowdonia is more spectacular than our company’s new photocopier. Therefore it is with no surprises that I think back with excitement about her folded up by plate tectonics and smashed in by the ice age glaciers scenery. Yet there is a splattering of bitter to flavour my sweet Snowdonian memories. Why couldn’t I have owned a Bugatti Royale or a BMW 507 Roadster or an E Class Jaguar and toured it in style? Rather than walked it in a pair of chunky boots with Vibram soles. Snowdonia is car advert land. Long U shaped valleys with imposing cliff walls flanking the Nant Ffrancon scream out for a pant wetting 90 mile an hour Porsche 911 Tiptronic rally experience, preferably with a trailing helicopter capturing on digital ... read more

The following day was mainly a driving day. We headed into Wales and this meant we would get a break from heritage sites – our card was only for England and we were too tight to pay to see anything else. Not too tight, though, to try and avoid the toll bridge from Cornwall to Wales – we're talking an extra 4 hours on the trip. We were in Wales. Not a lot different to England, this southern part – pretty country, lots of pubs called the Red Lion - save that the BBC Cymru station was in Welsh – truly a wacky language. Somebody needs to donate these people some vowels. We made our way to the coast and found ourselves in the tiny town of Newgale. The name was appropriate – the wind was ... read more

I'm not in Betws-y-coed, but close by - the Tyn-y-coed in Capel Curig. Have just added a map to this entry. Wish there was a way to highlight the bits that are driving as opposed to the bits that are hiking. Guess I'll have to leave that to your powers of deduction, if there's no road, it's probably hiking ;-) So, the day dawned with patchy sunshine and cloud dangling on the hills at about 1800ft. Every summit on today's trek is above 2000ft so there's likely to be some navigation in cloud. But I set off with confidence high that the forecast will be right and the clouds will either lift or burn off by midday. 9am start from Bethania and I'm following the trail known as the Watkin path - a "round the back" ... read more

To get to Capel Curig, it took a full days travel on the train and a short bus ride from Betws-y-Coed. The weather wasn't the best so we decided to go on one of the shorter local walks that took about 3 hours. This went in a big circle around our hostel and we knew that there were exits along the way so we could bail if the weather turned really bad. It started to drizzel about half way round but we completed the walk as we knew that the hostel had a drying room, we didn't really get that wet. We enquired what else there was to do and there was the Snowdon railway that takes you up Mt Snowdon, but because of the weather, we were told the on thing you saw was fog ... read more

All plans execute as planed. Right? 2009, Oct 19th and 20th Well, I had planned to pick up the Dee Way in Chester and follow it to Bala. Oddly enough though I can’t seem to find anyone who knows anything about the Dee Way path. Nothing in the various tourists information centers nor could I find any markers on the Dee river or Canals. I guess this is the difference between a national trail and a more regional one that is fairly new. With no real way to identify how to proceed and having no fixed plans I decided to travel to the Snowdonia region of Northern Wales. Betws-y-Coed to be specific. Betws-y-Coed is a beautiful outdoorsman and walkers delight. Dozens of walks all of which are near the town itself most of which are easy ... read more