Leaving Wales

 Spoiler alert... the end of today was one of the hands-down highlights of my entire Wales trip. I'll get there, but first a rundown on how we spent the last day in Wales.

An early start from Beddgelert as we headed for the 'hills' of Snowdonia in search of colorful morning light, pictures of the peaks and the lakes with views to take your breath away.  It was a crap shoot and we were just guessing where the sun would hit - a plan that also relied on clouds parting. While the weather was super pleasant, it was nothing close to clear skies and the pics I have are nice but not 'wow'. As usual my greatest joy did come from the sheep on road and photogenic birds!

Egg salad sandwiches eaten in a parking lot overlooking Welsh mountains was not the worst idea I'd ever had. We were hungry early (as usual) and had long since worked out that coffee shops and breakfast places dont serve until 8-10am here. 

Pen-Y-Pass twice was quite lovely and the little stop in Llanberis was also well earned. We nixed the idea of taking a little train to the top of Mt Snowdon upon realizing the top was still thickly enshrouded with cloud. 

Ok, last Welsh bucket item was a waterfall. You might remember it from a planning post I wrote:

Pistyll Rhaeadr

It became sooo apparent that 30 miles taking well over an hour to drive was accurate as we got closer. Waterfall Rd is about 3 miles long and terminates at Pistyll Rhaeadr - rumored to have a cafe and all. 

The lane was tight. Our car plus a couple of inches each side! No more than a bump-out infrequently spaced and MAYBE able to let two cars squeeze by each other. Brambles, road drop-offs and rock walls defined the edges. Our DS car was midsized but to be fair we were not the biggest thing on the road and some unlucky oncoming cars had to navigate past a camper! WTF!?

There was a point at which 4 cars (us included) had to pass 4 oncoming cars. The road looked like a real-life dicey hand-held game where you have to move one car a few inches, to move another, then another gets repositioned etc. The only reason 8 cars ever got out of there is that one fantastic Brit lady got out and directed traffic. During these tense moments (too tense to remember to film it!) Mark and I kissed goodbye any attachment to our £2000 deductible and actually lamented not doing it sooner given the style of roads I had navigated through this week. I took a video going back down, but it was relatively smooth and in no way reflects the trauma experienced on the way up. 

The waterfall. Well first you have to squish yourself into something resembling an insanely crowded parking lot...or just park along the road before you get there and hike up. That's what we did! All this would have been hilarious if it wasn't the messy situation we also had to get out of a bit later. 

If it wasn't clear already, we were not the only ones visiting this famous-in-Wales waterfall. But despite the little crowd, Pistyll Rhaeadr did not disappoint. It was worthy of 100 pictures and it almost goes without saying that I took way more than that.

I know... it does seem like the waterfall and driving experience that went with it, was the highlight of today but actually we were in for a surprise. 

Back story: In 2010 while traveling solo in India, I had the good fortune to meet another solo traveler named Rhys. We were traveling in the same direction with the same things on our bucket list and both reading the book "Men are from Mars. Women are from Venus". What are the chances? For the next week we took in the sights, festivals and camel safari joys in and round Jaisalmer and the Thar Desert.

Check it out - could we be more similar?!

 We stayed Facebook  friends but with him in the UK and me in the US, we had never met in person again. 

When planning the UK trip, I reached out and we made a plan to meet. I was going to finally meet his beautiful Louise. (Stole this pic from FB... sorry, but not sorry!)

Ok, so following 10 amazing days of sights and sounds, new experiences and weather that exceeded expectations, I can still say the best was yet to come. 

We enjoyed a truly special evening with friends new and old. Louise and Rhys made us dinner and dessert, we chatted and laughed for hours and then Mark and I fell into a deliciously comfortable bed, exhausted. It was the best evening and the greatest way to end the trip!!! 

My favorite part of the trip turned out to be, not the aqueduct, but the reunion and human connection.

YouTube Guided Tourist in Wales... That's me

 Today was forecast to be pretty crappy. 99% chance of rain after 11am and heavy at times.

We opted to go in search of another castle (Castle Caerneferon) and then the little 'Italian' (loose description on a good day) village, dreamed up and built by an eccentric visionary in the 1920's. It was called Portmeirion.

The clouds gave way to showers at 10-11am - right on time. Showers gave way to downpours on and off all day and we stayed dry-of-sorts and mostly warm as we wandered. (Dry-of-sorts means at some point the humidity level of 100% inside the weather gear means you feel wet anyway.) One of the locals told us they called this rain "throwing down". It seemed REALLY appropriate!

Caerneferon Castle was in some ways better than Conwy. Most history and links to the royal celebrations that still go on today. Did you know there is a Royal Goat? A mascot with a rank in the regiment, who gets promoted or demoted depending on behavior in public! All this and more in the very comprehensive castle museum on site. One could spend all day here... but we didn't of course. Places to be an all. 

Just enough time to discover and photograph seagull chicks clearly camouflaged against castle tower walls then we were on our way again. To be sure, I had actually asked the universe for "more baby animals" this morning and did not specify lambs or other fluffy things, so baby seagulls, wet and gangly, were going to have to do. (And they were heck-of-a cute in their own way.)

Portmeirion <sigh> 

If you can imagine Disney, Gaudi and Cinque Terre  had a baby (or threw up in the same bucket) you can imagine Portmeirion. Odd, compelling and maybe marvelous for someone like me with an interest in architecture, landscape design and who admits their boat is floated by gently breaking the traditional rules of both. The colors, textures, blended symbolism and lack of religious anchor (despite resembling worship architecture in places) were beautiful in it's own way. And sure did brighten up a very grey afternoon. But at £20/person probably a oncer for us. 

Seen it. Ate the ice cream. Sloshed along the shore. Admired the balls it must have taken to "rescue buildings instead of women" back in the 1920's-1950's... And called it good. 

We stayed in Beddgelert. Beddgelert was a village I had about from a YouTuber (broken record!)

It was said to be beautiful and easy to miss, but shouldn't be. A gateway to Snowdonia and a storybook looking stone village on a river that was worth an evening stroll around. The rain had stopped. 

We found the Royal Goat Hotel to be a fitting place to turn in for the night and had fingers crossed that tomorrows sunshine would light this place up. It was here in our quaint little room with electric tea kettle that Mark learned (and witnessed) my plan to boil eggs in said kettle and make egg-salad sandwiches for our picnic breakfast tomorrow. It is fair to say I was a tiny bit over the pub food and craved simple salads and sandwiches. We were 10 days into our trip.