Home -> Europe -> Great Britain -> Travelogue 2005 -> Saturday 3 September

The Anglesey peninsula, Wales

Wales has always attracted us, partly because it has some similarities with Scotland: once independant, but eventually conquered and annexed by the English. But it seems to affect the Welsh less than the Scottish people and only a very small majority (50.3%) choose for a Welsh parliament in a referendum in 1997.

We make a late start today, since it is nice weather and we first stay a few hours on the campsite to do some washing and read a bit in the sun. But in the afternoon we drive away, first towards Llanberis and Snowdon, the highest mountain of Wales. But when we see the crowds near the railway and the long waiting lines before it we leave the place immediately. For kilometers before the town even starts, cars are parked. We thought the holiday was over, but apperently not for the schools. So we will try again next week. The sceneries are very beautiful here, so we enjoy the view from our car and stop at quieter places.

So we go to the peninsula Anglesey (Ynys Môn in Welsh) in the north west and take a break in the town with the longest name in Europe, Llanfair PG. The original name of the place was Llanfaipwll, but the local council decided in 1860 that they wanted the longest name for their train station. Those people exactly knew what would draw the tourists!

The full name now is Llanfairpwllgwyngyllgogerychwyrndrobwllllantysiliogogogoch (hopefully we didn't make a spelling mistake) and near the railway station there are a few signs with the name on it. On the platform even a sign with the pronunciation of the name and then it seems a bit less difficult. This is supposedly the translation of the name: The church of St. Mary in the hollow of white hazel trees near the rapid whirlpool by St. Tysilio's of the red cave. In New Zealand there is a place with 92 characters but the longest placename in the world is somewhere in Thailand with 163 characters.

There are quite a few sites with prehistoric remains on this peninsula, but they are hard to find since there are no signs leading to them. This tomb, the Bodowyr Burial Chamber, looks a bit like the cairns as there are many in Ireland and stands along a deserted and narrow farmroad (and off course we have to come across the only tractor that passes there once a day!).

Bryn Celli Ddu is a larger structure, with a stone circle around the tomb, which is very rare to see in Wales. In the tomb remains of a human burial have been found. The burial mound that covers the tomb is still intact.

Along the north coast we drive back and near Red Wharf Bay the beach attracts us: it is beautiful and warm weather and there are lots of people who dare go into the sea. We just sit in the sun, it hasn't been so warm before during our holiday.

Somewhere near Beaumaris we see this house and when we see turrets we immediately say to each other: a castle! But this isn't Beaumaris Castle which is a real castle, much larger and surrounded by a canal, but we like this smaller place better. But it is so busy that there is no place to park our car, so we just make a quick picture and then drive on, back to the campsite and our own castle at Caernarfon.

When the sun sets we walk to the center of Caernarfon and along the immense castle. It is impossible to find a place where we can have a drink and a seat, since it is saturday night and the pubs are so full that most people stand on the streets. So after walking for 2 hours we go back to the campsite. We suspect this is part of the conspiracy against us, putting crowds everywhere we go...

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with Elisabeth and Teije