Day 15 (Wednesday) Holyhead Wales

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If this is Wednesday, then it must be Holyhead, or vice versa.

First let us add a couple of items which were omitted from yesterday’s note. Our tour guide was named Cognac and the driver was Gilbert. They were both very good (Gilbert is also a guide when not being the driver) and probably were on equal footing with Paula from Rome (see last year’s blog). One of the things they pointed out early was all the housing units along the roadway. Until recently Scotland had more government funded housing than any other country in Europe. They refer to them as “public authorize housing for socially deprived people” – doesn’t that have a nicer ring to it than “tenement project”?

Our tour this morning had to meet in the Princess Theater at 7:00 so we got up very early (what happened to sleeping in on a vacation?). When we got into the theater they announced that the ship would be docking instead of using the Tenders (that will be tomorrow), however the winds were too strong for the dockworkers to be able to properly lash the ship to the pier – that sounded great. About an hour late then had docked and been cleared for disembarking, but warned that we should be prepared for a lot of “liquid sunshine” and to bring our foul weather gear – more good news. However it actually was a nice day as the winds had died down and there was no rain while we boarded the buses. But the weather was cloudy until about 1:00 and then cleared up with sunny afternoon skies. Temperatures got up to around 60 so we were pretty lucky in the weather department.

Since we were late starting, our bus had to go directly to the first stop - the Rheilffordd Ffestiniog Railway. Our guide was named Donna and our driver was Doey. We boarded a narrow-gage railway which uses a steam locomotive. They had to add 6 extra cars to accommodate all of our tour group in addition to the regular customers. Everyone got into a compartment (6 people each with 8 compartments per car) and then they locked the doors (no handles on the inside) so nobody jumped out during the train ride. However, one of our compartment buddies suddenly decided he could not take the ride and banged on the window until someone let him out - he wanted to return to the buses to ride to where they were going to meet the train again (his wife stayed with us). Getting started was a little difficult because there was a lot of extra weight from the additional cars. Also the tracks were wet and the wheels tended to slip on the first uphill grade. But once we cleared the first hill it was fine. There was a lot of really great scenery. We went for about an hour and then they stopped at a station to replenish the coal and water in the engine. We passed through wooded hillsides and up into the Snowdonia Mountains. There were a couple of stops at stations. All in all it was an interesting trip – not real comfortable because they gave us 3rd class cars, but it was fun anyway.

Wales was once the world’s largest provider of slate. Back in the days when school children all did their homework on sheets of slate, this is where much of it was produced. These days slate is not in much demand, but the locals still use that abundant resource to build walls and fences in their pastures. We repeatedly pasted miles and miles of pasture land divided into sections using slate fences. We also saw tremendous mounds of discarded slate which (for some reason) was not acceptable and now form small mountains of nearly solid slate rock. See the picture for an example of the fences.

The tour description said “Ffestiniog Railway is the oldest Welsh narrow gauge rail line, completed in 1836 to haul slate from the mines of Blaenau Ffestiniog to the port of Porthmadog. Board the train in Porthmadog for the approximately 90-minute ride into the mountains. At Dduallt, the train travels the spiral, where the railroad crosses over itself to gain height. The spiral and Moelwyn Tunnel are thought to be the largest civil engineering projects in Europe built by volunteer labor. Take in superb views of the mountains as the train steadily chugs its way to Blaenau Ffestiniog.” You can try to pronounce the Welsh words however you like – it’s bound to be wrong though.

After the train ride we briefly stopped at the ruins of an ancient castle (not very impressive) and then went to a Welsh hotel for a typical lunch. We had poached salmon as an appetizer, broiled lamb and vegetables, and dessert was fresh strawberries and cream. It was good. They gave us a choice of Pepsi, Diet Pepsi, Lemonade, or Lager. Janet had the lemonade and found it was actually something like a 7-Up, whereas David had the lager.

One of the many facts they shared with us is that Wales has a population of about 3 million, but they have a sheep population of about 9 million. Being part of the EU they are required to shear their sheep, but it costs about as much to cut off the wool as they receive for the wool, so they are raising the sheep as a food crop.

There was also a lot of info about Prince William and his new bride. We did not go visit them, but the guide talked about his duties as a helicopter rescue pilot and what kind of problem we might have to encounter in order to be rescued – no thanks! Apparently the locals treat them more or less like locals, or so she said.

After lunch we drove through the Snowdonia Mountains. They are the highest mountains in Great Britain south of the Scottish Highlands. They are roughly 3,000 feet in elevation and basically were carved by advancing glaciers about 18,000 years ago. Apparently there is a hiking club which tries to climb all 14 “mountain systems”, but the guide said that about 6 people a year get killed in the attempts because they are inexperienced and ill prepared. Looking at the mountains, they are not terribly steep but have very little vegetation rowing on them and apparently have a lot of crags and chasms. By contrast, most of the rest of Wales is very green with much fertile growth. The wooded areas have tall trees and the whole country (except these mountains) is more like rolling pastures or woodlands – very scenic.

We also drove through the town which has the longest name of anywhere in the world. It is some Welsh name which is about 50 letters long and seems to have only a small handful of vowels. Then it was back to the ship where a 14 year old girl was serenading all the returning passengers, with a selection of local songs. She has a tremendous voice and will surely be a future star performer someday (so we can say we’ve seen her already) – Lucy somebody (maybe Kelly).

Tonight was the final Formal Dinner. However only one other pair of our table mates showed up (don’t know wha happened to the other pair). Eventually they placed another couple at our table, but it was kind of strange. We had lamb for lunch so we each decided to have something else for dinner, although the lamb was the recommended dinner offering. Janet had Pork Loin and David had Orange Ruffey. After dinner we went to the main theater for a performance of a special show called “The British Invasion”. This is a special non-stop performance about many British groups from the 60s and later. This show travels between most of the large Princess ships and is a real special treat.

After the show it was back to the cabin so we could get some rest to make up for the very early start this morning. We found our luggage tags for the suitcases when we have to disembark from the ship, but that is not for a few more days so we will not let that discourage us from enjoying the rest of the days. If there are no questions, then good night for today.

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Photos

View of the Train
Ffestiniog Railway

Slate Fence
along the side of train track

Scenic View
across from hotel where we had lunch

Unique House
on island in the river

Dragon
The Symbol of Wales