2006 UK TDI Road Trip Part I: Wales Part 2

PlaneCrazy

Top Post Dawg
Joined
Jan 3, 2000
Location
Province of Quebec, Canada
TDI
Gone...
(continued from Part 1, en route to Llanberis)...We motored on to dinner at Pete's Eats in Llanberis, then to our farm B&B just outside of town. Next day we were hoping to head up Snowdon on the rack railway (the only one in the British Isles). The day was cool and gray. I headed to the station to buy tickets and found out that all trains were booked until 16h30. So I bought us 4 tickets, hoping the weather would improve. In the meantime, there was plenty to see and do in Llanberis.

Our main point of interest, was the slate museum. Llanberis was the site of the Dinorwic quarries which closed in '69. The quarry made quite a scar in the mountanside:



In fact slate mining was so important that we were able to visit a very interesting (and free) slate mining museum where you could examine period equipment



view retired craftsmen at work:



and see how slate miners lived at various periods in history.

Eventually, 16h30 came round and thankfully, the weather cleared for a splendid ride up Snowdon on the rack railway. The photo is of a steam-powered train coming down (we were going up in a train propelled by a Ruston 0-4-0 diesel loco):



Eventually we made it to the summit, where Mr and Mrs Crazy enjoy the view:



Sadly it was soon time to come down, but not without more splendid views out of the carriage's open windows:



We were famished, and headed for a pint of ale and a good bite at a local pub. Next morning, it was again time to hit the road. This time our destination was St. Donat's castle, which is AKA Atlantic College, where my wife had her reunion. St. Donat's is in a wonderful location. Three nights of college dorm living left me a bit cold, but the scenery and relaxing time more than made up for it and we caught up with some of our friends (and my wife's former classmates). It was a drive of about 180 miles to get there. We left in the morning at around 9 am and stopped in Betws-y-coed for brief shopping spree. I got to enjoy some of the local scenery. Listen carefully and you can hear the drool dripping on the ground and some heavy breathing:



At about 17h00 we finally arrived at the castle after another bout of 10/10ths driving, and where my son and I made our only navigation error (which we fixed by taking the M4 part of the way instead of the A473 through Llantrisant).

Here's a shot of the castle, our destination:



It is undergoing some restoration work and is a horrendously expensive school to maintain (hence the speech asking for funds at the formal dinner on Saturday night).

It IS however, in a lovely spot on the South Wales coast:



Across the Bristol Channel, you can barely see Minehead in the West Country, my favourite part of England, the next country on our itinerary (but sadly not the West Country...we'll save that for another vacation):



And that, dear friends, completes the Welsh portion of our trip. After the reunion, on Monday the 7th we hit the M4 and headed back to England. In Part II of this travelogue, I'll show pics from the English portion of the trip: Cirencester, Cotswald villages, Oxford, Stonehenge, the Great Western Steam museum in Swindon, and a very special day for just Zack and I at the Imperial War museum in Duxford were we saw a Spitfire doing aerobatics, another Spit do a low pass, the first Spit take off in formation with a Mustang, an Apache attack chopper doing a low pass, and a Hercules doing a stop-and-go.

PC
 
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Huweth

Well-known member
Joined
Aug 8, 2006
Location
Devon, UK
TDI
2001 Passat TDI PD Sport
Nice trip.
I'm from South Wales. Consider yourself very lucky to have a view from Snowdon, they are Extremely rare. I know someone who's been to the summit 16 times and never been able to see more than a few feet due to cloud.
Nice car too, though I once owned a Seat and have to admit they are lacking that 'special something' that VW's have. Not to worry, 4 more days until I collect my Passat B5.5 TDI Estate complete with 6 Speed box and only 49,000 miles and... and.... and........ I need to stop drooling.
 

PlaneCrazy

Top Post Dawg
Joined
Jan 3, 2000
Location
Province of Quebec, Canada
TDI
Gone...
I guess I AM lucky. I've been to Snowdonia three times. The first time we also had excellent visibility (it was cloudy but high cloud and the air under the clouds was crisp), the second time it was so rainy and foggy we didn't even bother to go up, and the pictures from the third time, above, speak for themselves. So I guess 2 out of 3 isn't such a bad average!
 

Radman

Top Post Dawg
Joined
May 13, 2001
Location
Montreal
TDI
2014 Audi A6 TDI, 2014 Touareg TDI
Nice pictures Mike, sounds like a great trip. I especially like that Audi Allroad 2.5 TDI. If only we had cars like that here!
 

superfastsilver

Veteran Member
Joined
Jan 5, 2005
Location
Varennes, Québec
TDI
Jetta Wagon, 2005, Indigo
WOW.. and Re-WOW!!

Nice Audi, btw! I wish we could have those here too.

The last time I was in UK, I was a kid and could not enjoy all the beauty.. It makes me want to save up and try it out again. :)
 
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