Thursday, July 28, 2011

Our first stop was the Dinorwic Quarries, now known as the National Slate Museum at Llanberis. We watched Carwyn Price demonstrate how to split and dress slate, along with Hywl Lewis, Welsh Minister of Heritage and Member of the Welsh National Assembly. Hywl had his picture taken splitting slate, which his great-grandfather had done. We visited the 50-foot water wheel, still in operation, that had provided mechanical power to the slate works. The chief engineer's residence gave us a good idea of what life would be like in Wales for a middle-class person in the early part of the 20th century. Bill and I visited the lake created by the Vivian Pit, where we saw bubbles rising from divers in the 60-foot-deep lake.

We boarded the van and drove to Pen-y-Gwryd Hotel, where we had a very nice bar lunch. Edmund Hillary and his team had stayed there in 1953 while training on Mt. Snowdon for their later ascent of Everest. Some of them, including Tony Bennett, had signed the ceiling. The walls of the interior were rough-hewn logs, stained and varnished.

We drove to Swallow Falls. The road passes down river on a bank well above the river, requiring a hike of many steps to get below the falls. Abby, Reta and Lois decided to stay in the van. The falls are a long series of rapids and falls that go on for miles through a dense hardwood forest.

Our next stop was the Trefriw Woolen Mills. It seemed to take only one or two men to operate the mill, though at a rather desultory pace. The mill takes in raw wool and dyes, cards, spins and weaves it into fabric. They even have their own pelton-wheel hydropower plant, one of several power plants that we saw on the trip. A hard freeze last winter burst the hydropower pipes, causing the mill to be without power for an extended period. They are still replenishing their stock of sales goods from the period of lost production. Lois was the last one out of the shop and into the van, with a large bag clutched in her hand. She told Bill that she had bought a hundred pounds of yarn, which caused Bill to exclaim, “You’re going to have to arrange to have that shipped!” Lois patiently explained that the local currency is the pound, and that 100 pounds of yarn actually didn’t weigh that much.

Rob took us to the medieval walled town of Conwy and its castle, a place visited by our friend Lynn several years ago and highly recommended by her. Downtown Conwy is graced with Lancaster Square, which is a nice feature for any town. Conwy castle is famous for its towers, three of which were extended in height in the early years to allow archers to shoot down on would-be invaders. Welshmen pretending to be carpenters had tricked their way into the outer defences of the castle and had been difficult to dislodge by the English soldiers in the interior of the castle because of the lack of archers’ towers. Hence the addition of archers’ towers. Conwy castle has a huge well, 91 feet deep, fed by springs coming down out of the hills above the town. In the same castle are archers’ towers of great height, and a well of great depth, still with water at the bottom. Kylie and Teryn acquired a book with clues in it. If you found all of the clues, you got a prize, which is a sticker. The girls found all the clues, but there was no time to claim the prize. They were remarkably philosophical about it.

At about 5:30 we piled into the van to drive to Llandudno, where we had 6:00 dinner reservations at the Osborne Hotel. We were escorted into a back room, which we had all to ourselves. They had a number of gluten-free items marked on the menu, which pleased Reta. She and I both had the monkfish in curry sauce. We did not have time for the three-course meal, but we did have time for a main course and dessert. The gooseberry and elderflower trifle was outstanding.

Rob had arranged reserved seats for us at a nearby Methodist church in Llandudno to hear the Maelgwn Male Voice Choir in concert. The choir had 80 voices and a 30-year-old conductor with a superb baritone voice. There was also a soloist, two pianists, and an organist. They sang a variety of works in English and Welsh by an assortment of composers, including Beethoven, Elgar, and Mozart. The soloist sang mostly show tunes. The last piece by the choir was an American medley that included “Dixie” as well as “The Battle Hymn of the Republic.” It was sort of an American reconciliation piece. The sound of the choir was outstanding, especially when considering the advanced age of the singers. At the very end, the audience sang “Love Divine“ with the choir, but not to the tune to which we are accustomed. We arrived back at the Menai Bank Hotel in Caernarvon after 10:30, tired but satisfied.