Wales Holiday Diary
View From Tan Dinas
11th June 2012
I found out that the welsh language is nothing like I know. Also the pronunciation is so different from other languages! For example LLANGOLLEN which is pronounced “clangoclen” (the group CL is pronounced with the tongue in the palate).
So, we arrived at our destination, Tan Dinas Country House, Betws-y-Coed, Snowdonia National Park, North Wales, at about 6 o’clock in the afternoon. We left Cavendish about 11 o’clock in the morning and we stopped 4 times for little brakes and one for a lunch as well. And of course for Simon to have a cigarette. So Wales is not so far away!
The guest house is placed on a slope of a hill (or mountain?) surrounded by forests, in front of the house you can see a valley where you can hear the sheep and further slopes of a hill, dressed with forests. Beautiful view! So much green and so refreshing!
Tan Dinas Country House, Betws-y-Coed
After our host received us and showed the rooms we went somewhere to find a restaurant or a pub where we could eat. We wanted somewhere nearby. We had fun where we stopped for a meal because the one who was there and received us and served us was very peculiar. The waiter was mumbling and grumbling all the time we were there, till we started to eat and even after that. I had welsh lamb, which is very famous as very tasty.
Actually as much as one can see around here there are sheep. Everywhere you look, on the hills and mountains you see sheep. In distance they look like stones, thrown everywhere.
After dinner we went to bed because we were really tired, especially Simon who drove for so long!
12th June
Our host told us that the breakfast is between 8 and 9. It was a very nice breakfast, we enjoyed it.
After that, at about 9.30 we started our little trip to Bodnant Gardens, Tal-y-Cafn. It is really very beautiful. It’s huge, about 80 acres (this means more than 40 hectares). With everything you can think of about gardens: flowers, trees, hedges, shrubs, a little river, little lakes. And the most I liked were the roses, the garden of roses. Beautiful! More than beautiful, if it can be said like this! And the weather was marvelous! Sunny and warm.
We walked around there from 10.30 till 14.30. We had little breaks, resting on a bench, but everything was impressive! Really beautiful and lovely! I don’t have enough words to express how much I liked Bodnan Gardens. We had my mother in law – mother Rita as I call her - in a wheel-chair, which we pushed in turn, mostly Simon because the ground was not so flat.
Bodnant Gardens, Tal-y-Cafn
Of course we went to the garden center that existed there to buy some flowers, I and mother Rita, because both of us love plants and gardening (you have to take care of flowers, not only look at them!).
After that we went to find a place to eat something. Later we went home, we left mother Rita to rest and Simon and I went for a little drive, wondering around.
In the afternoon we looked for another place, another restaurant or pub to have a meal, but in the same village with the guest house, Tan Dinas.
I have to admit that everywhere we went for a meal the food was very tasty, very good. Only the service was a little bit peculiar, or maybe just different from what we are used to here, where we live.
After dinner Simon took us on a mystery tour, as we will call it from now on every time it will happen. This because we didn’t plan anything, we didn’t have a special point of destination, just wondering, seeing and admiring Wales!
We didn’t care which way we went because we couldn’t get lost having Brenda (our sat-nav, as Simon called it).
It was really nice. Stops everywhere we wanted, taking pictures and enjoying the views.
Mount Snowdon
We arrived at Snowdon, the highest mountain in Wales, about 1,085 metres high! The host asked me, knowing that I am Romanian but obviously not knowing anything about Romania, if we have mountains in our country. My answer was: yes, we have, but this one is like a hill compared to our mountains!
But the flora here is so different and impressive! And the soil as well! Only hard rock, acid soil and you could see here and there rhododendrons and gorses. And the rhododendrons have such beautiful flowers! And the sheep, like the rocks, everywhere!
Really beautiful! I was very impressed about the views and everything actually I saw in Wales! At least up till now!
It is late and we are tired. Good night!
Wales Holiday Diary Continued >>
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