We really ARE high and dry!

 I guess our blog name came true! It was another beautiful clear day in Wales and we got to see a castle and the highest mountain in Wales! 

Thankfully it seems Rabbies found us a guide and a Rabbies coach to take us to today's planned itinerary: 

-Snowdonia National Park

-Beddgelert Village

-Harlech Castle

It was a lot like driving up the mountains in Gatlinburg as well as taking the bus up Hakone: small roads, a lot of curves and going back and forth and up and up. Blrgh, I was starting to get a little carsick! Luckily when we got there the wind was nice and fresh and the view was great!

The pointy one in the middle left is Snowdon, the highest point in Wales! No snow up there yet...

And then ziggity zag we went back down the mountain to the nearby town of Beddgelert for a short break, souvenir shopping, and some candy bars for us since lunch wouldn't be until after the castle.

Little town, it's a quiet village...

The fact that the Welsh flag has a dragon on it may or may not have played a factor into our choosing this place for our vacation...

Then we drove to Harlech castle. Built and finished in 1283 for Edward I it used to be surrounded by the sea and well protected. Now the coast is about a mile or two away and the castle is up at the top of a reeeeally steep hill. So steep that one of the streets leading up to it is in the Guinness Book of World Records for steepest street in the world! 

It's a very cool old castle with plenty of stone pathways and steep, narrow, curving staircases to get you up on the battlements. But the views are the best part!

                                     

There's not much to explore as most of the castle is crumbling and off limits, but it's fun to climb as high up as you safely can and look out over the scenery! And there was a really nice little cafe we ate at called The Place where we ate on the back patio with the same view and enjoyed that and some sandwiches for lunch. 

After all that we were taken back to Aberystwyth for our last evening before we move to our second home-base of Tenby. It does take a good hour or two to get from Aberystwyth to Snowdonia and Harlech castle.

I think it's supposed to be rainy tomorrow, but we'll see! I feel like Weather Underground's default prediction is rain because most times they'd be correct.

Jeff, how did you feel about today?

As a Feared Of Heights person, today was a mixed bag. I was trying my best to admire the scenery out the window, but some of those drop offs were enough to give me some rough vertigo. The ruins were lovely, the small towns were nice, and the company of my wife was great. 

I think that, if I had the day to do over again, I would've offered to swap seats with one of the folks who were taking photos all day, so they could enjoy the terrifying drop-offs. 

I'm looking forward to the drive south to Tenby tomorrow, as we'll mostly be out of the highlands and more into some rolling hills. Plus, the south of Wales is where my family was from before moving to the States, so it'll be interesting to get back to the homeland (as much as somewhere my family hasn't lived since the American Revolution can be called a homeland). 

Onward, to bussing!