Day 13 – Harlech Castle, Back to Oxford, On to Beachy Head

Our final day in Wales and our last Welsh castle...

Right behind the hotel we had been staying in was the Harlech Castle.  We packed up after breakfast and headed up the hill (again on super tiny, STEEP roads) to the main gate of the castle.  It too had been set with coastal access but the shoreline has receded in the last several centuries and is now about a half mile away.  Harlech Castle had one of the nicest displays, showing who had built, manned and ruled the place during its history.  As with all these castles only the stonework was left but it wasn't hard to see the layout of the wooden structures within the walls and how life had taken place there.

After a quick stop in some shops in Harlech, including a 15-minute traffic gridlock in the tiny village streets, we retreated down the hill on a VERY steep road that left us a little uncertain; the sign said “40% grade, UNSUITABLE for motors.”  We made it though, with Jackie's sure hands on the steering wheel.  Then it was time for the long drive back to Oxford, through back roads and major motorways, ever vigilant for the ubiquitous roundabouts that had us going left around and around...  We arrived back in Oxford around 5 pm or so and said our goodbyes.  Then Pat and I left for the southern tip of England and Beachy Head, site of the tallest chalk cliffs in England.  

The drive down was relatively easy, although it took us around London via some very busy roads.  It was rush hour, after all.  The GPS we had borrowed from Bob and Jackie really didn't like the route we had chosen; it kept telling us to get off the motorway (M-routes, equivalent to our interstates) and onto various A-routes (equivalent to our 4-lanes but with a roundabout every mile or so – uggghhh!)  We opted to ignore the GPS and stay on the M-routes and were glad we did.  They were wide open and zipping along at 70 MPH.  We arrived at the Tiger Inn in Beachy Head at about 7:30 pm, still in time for a pint and dinner.  This was a long day on British highways – from north Wales to the English Channel – but we saw a lot and survived the trip unscathed.

Day 12 – Criccieth Castle, Caernarfon Castle, Beaumaris Castle

Criccieth Castle stands on an impressive bluff overlooking the bay.  As with yesterday's castles, we were admitted with our 3-day pass that we had bought for all castles under the management of CDW, a sort of Wales historical/preservation society.  We broke even at admission to our third castle and would pull ahead from there on.  This castle, as with the others, was part of a series that Edward I had used to lock down control of Wales for the English. 

Some of these castles never saw any real battles; Jackie and I learned during our tour of Caernarfon Castle that the only real attack to this massive fortress (where current Prince Charles was coronated Prince of Wales) came when the main walls were still under construction.  The Welsh villagers were so upset over being over-taxed to death to pay for this castle that they simply walked in and took over the place.  That apparently was the only attack that ever took place there even though they later completed the walls and installed some ingenious, for the time, shooting galleries for the archers to fend off anyone outside the walls.  Bob and Pat didn’t want to take the tour of this castle so they just wandered about looking at things on their own.

Beaumaris Castle was our last site for the day and it was the only one we saw that was surrounded by a moat full of water.  Cited as a beautifully symmetrical castle it was small and its walls were pretty well preserved.  As castle number three for the day, however, we were running out of steam so we headed back to the village of Harlech, a quick dinner in a pub then back to the hotel.

Day 11 – Llechwedd Slate Mine, Conwy Castle, Rhuddlan Castle, Dolwyddelan Castle

The day started with a heavy downpour of rain.  Many other days have had showers, but today it was looking like this would settle in and stay for a while.  The plan had been to head to the castles first, but instead we decided to go underground.  This part of Wales is extensively underlain with deposits of shale from which so many British roofs are made, and the Llechwedd Slate Mine was nearby with a public tour.  We headed out of Harlech (through some very tiny, very steep roads) into the hills to  see the mine.

When we got there we had two choices – a shallow mine tour on a small mine train or a deep mine tour that would involve walking out several staircases.  They told us that parts of the deep mine tour might be flooded, so that made our decision easy.  We toured a little of the mine village (done up to simulate what life might have been like in the heyday of the mine, when hundreds of laborers were involved in the blasting, digging, splitting and stacking of the slate) then took our tour.  We climbed into little cars, wearing hardhats, and rolled into the mine.  I couldn't help but think of the Donkey Kong video game that Matt and Chili had played so much - “Mine Cart Carnage” - where the mine cart careened off the track.  Inside the mine they had mannequins dressed in period costume (turn of the 20^th century) and tried to show us what it was like to blast the slate off the ceiling, chip it up then load the mine carts.  Most of the miners didn't last too long – silicosis was their fate.

When we came out of the mine we headed to Conwy Castle, perhaps the best preserved of all Edward I's structures in Wales.  The city walls were largely intact and we hid from a passing shower next to them while we indulged in a fish and chips lunch.  Then we toured the castle overlooking the river.  The coastal castles were the norm because it was just too dangerous to supply them by land; all needed some kind of port so they could be stocked by ship.

The next castle we visited was Rhuddlan Castle, nearby but much smaller in size and more in ruins.  It had a curious moat and we were trying to figure out how they watered it.  Apparently not all moats held water, but the deep ditches offered the defenders inside the castle considerable strategic advantage over any outside attackers.  On the way back to our room, we tried to visit Dolwyddelan Castle but it was getting late and the ticket office had closed.  We looked at it on the hill above as the sun went down.  Finally we made it back to Harlech where we had an excellent meal at our hotel and, as was par for the course, a proper pint or two.

I've taken way too many photos of all the castles we saw and in the coming days I'll make sure and post them on my Flicker site.  I don't know if it comes through in these photos but we had so much fun with Bob and Jackie on this trip, they are great travel buddies.  Tomorrow: more castles, more rain, more funny photos...

Day 10 – Shrewsbury to Harlech via the Center for Alternative Technology, Meirion Woolery Mill, Castle y Bere

We got off to an early start and drove into Wales.  Suddenly everything changed – not in the way the countryside looked, but in the road signs!  Everything was written in both Welsh and English.  Or first stop was the Center for Alternative Technology, a former mine that was converted in the 1970’s into an environmental center.  It had a bit of a “commune” feel to it, with residents tending organic gardens, working the kitchen and running the water-powered inclined cable car.  The center featured alternative energy – sort of.  It displayed different types of insulation, green roofs, and solar panels but the wind energy diplay was bizarre; there were large pieces of turbines laying around and used as “sculpture.”  One blade formed a car bumper stop in the parking lot.  It was interesting though.

Our next stop was the Meirion Woolery Mill.  How could Pat pass that up?  Waste of time!  When we got there it was nothing more than a hyped-tourist store.  They told us “Oh.  There hasn’t been a woolen mill here for years!”  At least there was a very interesting structure - Pont Minllyn, a “pack horse” bridge.  While looking at this ancient structure two fighter jets screamed overhead – quite a technological contrast.

Finally, at the end of the day, we came to our first Welsh Castle - Castle y Bere.  This was mostly in ruins but we had the place to ourselves.  It commands a great view on top of a hill in a broad valley.  Wandering around the ruins it wasn’t hard to imagine the serfs in the fields below and the castle withstanding every attack – at least until they ran out of food, water or something else.

The rest of the day we spent on the road, arriving in Harlech at dinner time.  The inn was right below the massive Harlech Castle, which we would go see on another day…

Day 9 – Oxford to Shrewsbury, Through the Cotswolds

We got away at noon after a morning breakfast, a few loads of laundry and picking up the rental car.  We got a brand new 2010 Toyota Prius – a nice outcome since that is a car that we are considering purchasing the next time we need a car (which may be soon).  The four of us piled in with Jackie driving and off we went towards Wales, through the Cotswolds.

We drove through and stopped in several classic Cotswolds villages including Stow-on-the-Wold, Bourton-on-the-Water, Upper and Lower Slaughter and Chipping Campden.  Just the names alone bring images of British murder mysteries, Agatha Christie and knitters around every corner…

We ended that night at a Hampton Inn in Shrewsbury, in west central England.  It was a typical business-persons motel in a corporate park and in many ways it seemed like an American motel – spacious rooms, very quiet - but the one thing that was definitely different was the pub.  When we asked what time they closed the bartender simply said “we don’t.”  Nice.  We had a cold one before calling it a night.

The weather in England has been cold and wet.  We wear a sweater (jumper) most of the time and don’t go anywhere without our raincoats and umbrellas.  The showers never seem heavy enough to stop us from doing whatever we’ve planned on doing but it sure rains a lot in England.

Day 8 – Hadrian's Wall Hike and back to Oxford via Train

We left the Twice-Brewed Inn after a somewhat fitful night before.  We just happened to be there on the night of the “pub quiz,”  a rowdy, music filled night of follies where patrons compete for admittedly worthless prizes, but have a lot of fun nonetheless.  That all ended about midnight and through the middle of it Pat chatted online with her brothers Bob and Mike at the beach in North Carolina.  At one point Bob said “I can't quite make out what you're saying but I hear something – that was the music from the pub below up.  We had fun trading vacation barbs, but I'm still betting that we are having more fun here in Britain!

After a hearty English breakfast, we drove our rental car north to the Housesteads site and left it there.  We caught the Hadrian's Wall bus – yes, there really is such a thing – south to the Once Brewed Visitor's Center and began our hike up to Steel Rigg, our entry point for Hadrian's Wall.  We started in a slight drizzle and a cool wind, which fortunately (due to Pat's careful planning) was at our backs.  As we climbed up the steep, rocky slope to the wall the sun came out partially and we intermittently had our jackets on and off throughout the hike.

We traveled by foot for three miles over a route made famous by Roman emperors and soldiers almost 2,000 years ago.  The wall through this section was mostly intact, and every Roman mile (slightly less than a statute mile) we came across a “mile castle” which would have housed several soldiers.  The views of the valley below, including too many sheep to count and at least four beautiful lochs at the base of the cliffs were spectacular.  We also passed by the symmetrical sycamore tree in the pass made famous in a 1991 Robin Hood movie with Kevin Costner.  This hike was everything we had hoped it would be and more.  The people along the trail were friendly; some were day hikers like us while others were through-hikers enjoying a longer route.  We ended at the Housesteads fort and returned easily to our car.

From there we drove back to Penrith to return the rental car and get on the train.  The back road route that we picked took us through a beautiful, high mountain pass with fantastic scenery.  Once there we visited the Penrith Castle before settling in for the four hour train ride back to Oxford.  Back at our home base with Jackie and Bob, we found time for one quick pub ale in the Trinity College beer cellar before calling it a night.