National Slate Museum

I'm finally posting my last day of my recent Wales trip, it's been quite hectic with work so there's been a lack of blogging!

Here we have Caernafon Castle, it was a grey wet day, it made the castle look very menacing! Caernafon was a lovely place with a nice harbour area. Although I did have a particularly bad coffee and dry bit of cake at the Galerie bar on the marina and the service was miserable. Even with bad coffee (it was the over-roasted illy type stuff & the milk steam wand was dirty & encrusted with burnt milk) and stale cake, a smiley faced waitress would have made all the difference to my view of the place as I believe customer service is second to none.
Rant over.


Onwards and upwards to what proved a fantastic few hours at the National Slate Museum in Llanberis. The museum has free entry and I find these sort of old industrial sites most fascinating.

Lots of displays, exhibitions and a film to watch. There are the slate workshops, joiners workshops, workers cottages to go around, water wheel, mini steam engines, so much that I have far too many pictures to post.
Here we have a slate splitting demonstration by an ex slate miner, of course he made it look so easy!

Loved these old cogs & wheels.

Taking a wander outside the museum is just as interesting. You don't have to climb far for some fabulous views of the surrounding vista with Snowdon in the distance.

These steps lead up to the slate factories hospital building.

Below is the hospital.

This is the view from the top of those steps.

It would only have been better on a lovely sunny day but we really enjoyed our visit.

Foodie things with Bob in Wales

Bob the Bunny hadn't been to Wales before so he packed his favourite red scarf, a few carrot sticks and he jumped into my rucksack for the journey.
Being an active little rabbit he was keen to seek out the legendary eatery known as Pete's Eats in Llanberis. A cafe well known by walkers, climbers and cyclists and one of the few spots to eat in Llanberis.

This is the fairly colourful main street although it's all a bit quiet at this time of year and it is suffering a bit with the trend in Wales for having quite a lot of boarded up shops which is a shame.

Ta da, Bob easily found the bright blue building which is Pete's Eats. And it's equally bright and friendly inside.

No picture of food as it was eaten too quickly but I had Red Dragon pie, a sort of lentil & bean shepherds pie. Nothing out of the ordinary but a reasonable choice of veggie options and great for a snack.


Next day Bob's destination was a cafe in Dolgellau called T H Roberts.

The cafe used to be an ironmongers and it's quite an interesting interior with the original solid wood counter, the shelves with lots of little drawers, and the original lamps which would have been gas lamps.

I tried the cappuccino, the homemade cakes looked fabulous but it was quite early in the morning so felt a bit naughty having something too indulgent so I settled for a scone.

My only criticism would be that it was a bit chilly inside and I think I'm quite tolerant of cold but it was chilly. I like to go into a cafe and take my coat off which I did but I noticed all the other customers and even a member of staff was wrapped in a scarf so I quickly wanted to wrap up again. They use quite darkly roasted beans in their coffees which are not quite to my taste. Interesting place though.


Day 3 and I took Bob to Machynlleth, one of my favourite places, known as the ancient capital of Wales and of course home to the Centre for Alternative Technology, MOMA, and to a few groovy shops including a fabric shop.


We had a quick whiz around the Celtic art exhibition in MOMA featuring Welsh, Scottish & Irish artists.

Then to show Bob my favourite eatery, the CAT cafe known as The Quarry, a very groovy place and I think it's all veggie food.

Bob's carrot supply had run out so we needed to have a big bowl of salad to share and it was quite yummy, served with lashings of warm ginger cordial in a big mug.

Very satisfying and that completes our little food & drink experience on this trip.

North Wales - landscape

In a way this last minute trip to Wales was well planned as it got me out of this freezing cold house for a few days during the worst winter week so far.


The journey wasn't too bad, only hitting a bit of snow across the high point of the M62, Saddleworth Moor. It's always bleak across that stretch and the times I've been across it I don't think it's ever been fine or I've seen the sun.

Destination was Llanberis at the foot of the Snowdonia mountains.

The hotel was cheap and cheerful and most importantly WARM with a capital 'W', bliss, didn't need a vest! Even better there was a view of the mountains and sheep in the hotel car park!

The purpose of the trip was a combined break and to view some properties but unfortunately I haven't found my escape to the country yet. One property I viewed in the morning had received an offer on it a couple of hours later and was basically sold stc by the end of the afternoon so that was a bit of a waste of time. 
Another property I saw was the most interesting little cottage steeped in history. I'll show you just a smidge in order to preserve the owners privacy.

The history of the cottage dates back to the 1400's when it was a self sufficient small holding with about 40 acres, it now has about 1.5 acres. It was completely off the beaten track, you got to it by driving about a mile through a forestry track and on mud tracks around field boundaries, I think a 4WD would have made access a bit easier so it turned out to be more inaccessible than I thought.
The owners had restored the cottage very sympathetically, it was a bit like looking around a heritage museum with the huge inglenook complete with original meat hooks, bread oven, slate floors, panelling, crog-loft bedrooms, half metre thick random stone walls. It was fascinating inside and equally outside, there was a small meadow with ancient species of grasses & wild flowers, an orchard with old, rare apple & plum varieties, a patch of woodland by a stream, another small paddock for chickens. In many ways it was my sort of place but being realistic about the house, the rooms are quite small, the windows tiny which isn't good for the light I need in my work and I think to put my modern & plentiful Ikea furniture in would totally ruin the ambience of the place. In a way it needs someone to buy it who will totally appreciate the historical aspects and preserve what has been achieved.
Amazing that this type of place still exists in this day and age.


Time to enjoy the scenery after the house hunting and it was my first time in the Llanberis area. Just outside the village you can see evidence of the huge scale slate mining that went on. 

Platforms are carved into the hills creating a very angular & cubist landscape, it's very dramatic.
Driving on a bit and I traveled through the Pen-y-Pass mountain road into the foothills of Snowdonia. The weather was chilly but lovely and sunny, almost a bit too bright for capturing the snow on top of the mountains.

The water was very still on this lake as you can see from the reflections.

And just a stones throw from that lake, another lake was completely frozen, as were all the leaves on the ground.

That's a look at some of the scenery, I will do a couple more Wales posts on food and craft purchases.