Anyway, we hitched a ride with classmate, Ray, and we joined a car-load of others on Friday afternoon for a late afternoon hike up Mt. Snowdon. Although it is only about 3,500 feet high, it is the highest peak in Wales and all of Great Britain. Also, apparently, Edmund Hillary climbed Mt. Snowdon as training for his climb of Mt. Everest (which seems a bit absurd, considering that Mt. Everest is literally almost 10 times higher!). We started up the trail at about 2-2:30 PM and got to the top at around sunset (which is about 4:30 PM in these parts!). Although I was feeling a bit winded on the way up and I was definitely the slowest (and, pitifully worried about climbing back down in the dark), it turned out to be a lovely hike. I don't recall which track we took up, but it was a bit steep and somewhat challenging. It was a beautiful, clear day (very rare anywhere in the UK, as far as I can tell), so it was great that we were able to take advantage of the weather. The pinnacle is also reachable by train, and it was a bit odd to come up to the top ridge to to find a train track up there. Once we got to the top, we took in the view and some photos and hurried back down the much easier Pyg and Miners Tracks. We were happy to find that it was a full moon that night and we were able to find our way back in the moonlight. The view of the moonlight on the lake was quite stunning. Susan was our photographer that evening and she did not take pictures of the moonlit lake, although Ray took some beautiful ones. We're hoping he'll share them with us.
After our hike, we went to a pub in Llanberis to meet up with some other classmates and then we went to a restaurant (Pete's Bistro, I believe?), which was a family-owned restaurant that serves Tapas-style meals. Their menu had a description of their dreams to have a big bed & breakfast type place and that the restaurant was only the beginning. We were given a room all to ourselves (as there was about 16 of us) and at one point, the "grandson" who was to take our order came in the room and said, "Are you ready to order, or would you like to write it down yourselves?" We all had a good laugh over that, but in the end, it turned out to be the best way to handle it. As it turned out, the food there was quite good. Afterwards, someone suggested that we delve into the board games that she saw on the way into the restaurant and so we started on a game of Jenga (well, a knock-off version really) on one end of the table and a "Don't Lose Your Marbles" type game on the other end of the table. We're all getting pretty rowdy and having a good time, when all of a sudden the owner (the grandmother) brings out a GIGANTIC version of Jenga ("Four Feet Tall!") for us to play. Then, someone else in the group group found a gigantic version of "Connect Four" and they started playing that. Overall, it turned out to be a fantastic place to go -- with great food, fun and extremely welcoming staff, despite our large group.
On Saturday, Suze and I took off on our own with her friend, Jo, who came to join us for the weekend on Friday evening at Pete's Bistro. She had her trusty little red car, Francesca, so we were free to roam on that rainy Saturday afternoon in search of... castles! Acutally, we only went to one castle, Caernarfon Castle, which, as it turns out, is the castle where Prince Charles was crowned as Prince of Wales in 1969 (We learned this little factoid at the castle). I was quite happy because I was catching a cold and was NOT in the mood to be cold and wet that day! It was a lovely castle and had been all fixed up with roofs and floors in some of the towers, which was very neat to see. One tower even had a cinema in it, with a very badly overacted but somewhat informative film about the castle's history.
Saturday night, we stayed at the cottage and utilized the available kitchen facilities where the whole group feasted on fajitas. Later, we played silly party games like a convoluted version of Charades (Secret Telephone Charades) that involved us splitting into groups and pairs having to convey Charades to the next pair until the last pair has to figure out what the topic was. It was pretty funny. We even did the Limbo with a broomstick (which, sadly, despite my short height I'm terrible at because I also sit at a computer WAY too much!).
Sunday, we did another day hike with everyone up Mt. Tryfan. However, this time, we split up into two groups -- one that went the steep way, which require lots of scrambling and climbing and one that went the "easy" way, which required much less scrambling. I was quite happy to be in the easy and slow group, as I'm usually the bringing up the tail-end on these excursions! At one point, our guide for the hike tried to use me as a "guinea pig" to try to convince me to climb up a harder path, but I made them turn around and go the easy way. Yes, I'm a wimp. Anyway, the hike took us about four hours and it took us nearly as long to go the long, easy way as it it did to go the short hard way, so we found the other group on our way back down. A few folks decided to stay and do more climbing, but the rest of us continued down the mountain, headed off for some lunch (leftover fajitas, yum!) at the cottage, cleaned it up and headed back to Liverpool.
Here's the link to more photos of the weekend: http://picasaweb.google.com/barckhoff/WalesSnowdoniaCaernarfonCastle
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