A pleasant eight day drive around Wales.The weather was excellent and we made good use of the Hop On and Hop Off buses in the larger cities.
- Night 1 & 2
- Off the flight and drive to Cardiff for two days. It was a crowded city with a world qualifying rugby match (Wales vs Italy), Saturday afternoon and a professional football game (soccer) on Sunday afternoon. However we were able to tour Cardiff castle and the city.
- Night 3
- Next day we had a relaxed drive to St. Davids with a stop at Tenby for some sightseeing, lunch and a beer. Overnight in St Davids and the next morning toured St Davids Cathedral and the Bishops Palace.
- Night 4
- In the afternoon we drove north along the coastline to Porthmadog where we started looking for a room at the Inn of which there were none. Finally we were sent about 15 Kms north to Bryn Elltyd ECO guesthouse in Tanygrisiau. A carbon neutral B & B on a small lake in the shadow of rocky tors dotted with abandoned slate mines and hardy sheep.
- Night 5 & 6
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The morning of Day 5 we backtracked to Portmeirion and toured the famous village then it was off to Conwy with a spectacular drive throught the Cambrian Mountains and passing Mount Snowdon and scores of hikers and walkers.
In Conwy we faced a "no room at the Inn" scenario again and were sent to Llandudno on the Irish Sea where holidayers abound, ages between 60 and After being turned away from several hotels we found one right on the scenic Llandudno promenade. Day 6 we took the HopOn/HopOff bus and had to do a bit of shopping. - Day 7
- We had an early start, 09:30, and headed over to the east side of Wales and then south. We were heading for "The Big Pit". We stopped at Brecon after an "interesting" drive which traversed goat trails, bridges designed for two wheeled donkey carts, one way roads populated by sheep and mountain (sort of) roads devoid of guardrails. We found good accomodations at the Castle Hotel and relaxed in their pub, preparing for the descent into the mine the next day.
- Day 8
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The next morning we drove to the Big Pit. Cam & I (minus our spouses)suited up with our miner lamps and hard hats, climbed into a "cage" with fourteen other folks and descended 300 feet into the mine. No cameras, watches, phones, etc were allowed in the mine. Following our guide, a retired miner, we soon appreciated wearing the hard hats as some of the tunnels we went through were no higher than four feet with a very rough and uneven roof. After a very informative hour we re-boarded the cage and ascended to the surface. Our first task was to reassure the wives that we were ok. After we woke them up we did.
We then got back on the M4 and headed for Heathrow. We stayed our last night at the Sheraton on the Colnbrook by-pass