Finally another castle and an attempt at another railway

You may have noticed the lack of castles yesterday (except for returning home to one every night). I had visions of two castles on Saturday bit Bruce of course wanted to go up Mt Snowdonia on the rack railway. So we drove to Llanberis and discovered that due to high winds they were only going part way up and not letting you out - a wee waste of £18 per adults we thought. So we wondered through the Welsh Slate museum..which was quite interesting. Oh the conditions that men lived and worked in and those that got wealthy were the English landowners. I don't understand why nationalism didn't happen in wales to the extent that it did in Ireland.





Then it was off to Caernafon which is a magnificent castle. This is a royal home as well as a defensive castle and is larger than Conwy. There was a very interesting exhibition on the history of how the castle has been preserved because some of the castles of the same era are truly is ruins. of course we have not always understood or valued the history of these pieces of historical treasure. in the 1800's it became to be regarded as important and there were various attempts at reservation and/or restoration. There were photos of the town streets and of buildings right up against or even built into the walls and over the years these have been removed or destroyed. The city walls in Conwy are much better preserved but like our wee cottage have structures right against them. I think some can be sympathetic because they reflect the centuries of use I.e the migration to fishermen cottages.

Dinner was very average again in a local pub. We didn't expect extensive wine lists but something more than cask wine would be nice!! The wine quality in all the pubs we have visited has varied from awful to sone nice if not extensive choices. I just wish I drank beer and then I would be happier but I have enjoyed local
Ciders and sometimes just drink gin and tonic to keep the piece. To not completely disparage the dining scene in Conwy - we had an excellent if pricey meal at The castle which is a hotel/restaurant/pub in the High Street.



The slate stone you can see in the foreground of this photo is where Prince Charles was inaugurated Prince of Wales.





View from one of the many towers. I got a bit 'towered out' but of course Michael wanted up them all...Bruce was complaining about sore legs the next day.