I've been starting to feel a little gloomy at the thought that this adventure is starting to slip away. I know it's silly to waste my time with these thoughts but it's hard to break the habit. But this morning I did the maths and realised that today is day #14 in the UK and I still have 15 days left to go! That was a bit of a surprise as I mentioned in my blog that I passed the midway point a day or two a go. What a wally. It was a good wake up call and I need to make sure I don't slip into that mindset too easily again.

Today was the end of my stay in North Wales and time to move on to Manchester. I knew that check-in time in Manchester wasn't until 4:00pm so there was no point in rushing. So I had another leisurely breakfast and took my time to repack. Speaking of which, I had to expand the suitcase today. I don't really understand why though. I haven't really bought that much. Is it due to those purchases or just poor packing? I guess I'll work it out on my next re-pack. 

The weather in Llandudno was clear when I first looked out the window this morning but turned to high white cloud by breakfast.  

I checked out just before 11:00am and made the 10min walk to the station. I am noticing a slight lowering of my walking pace which is a sign that I'm starting to wind down a bit. That's good. 

I caught the 11:44am train to Manchester Picaddilly station. The train started from Llandudno which meant I could choose my seat. Unfortunately, it was quite an old train with no luggage rack. There was, however, an area with folding chairs that provided space for my luggage so that was OK.

When we got to Llandudno Junction a man got on with a walking frame. He sat beside me as there was space for his frame and I think it's the first time I've shared a seat on public transport this trip. He was keen to chat and had a great knowledge of places around the UK due to his own travels in his more mobile days. He was very keen to give me his tips for the places I have yet to visit and I was very grateful. I probably have more to see than time will permit, but it's good to have choices (and left overs for next time).  This did mean that I didn't take any photos of the journey. I noticed a couple of scenes I would have ordinarily snapped, but it was no great loss and a pleasure to chat with Antony. 

By the time we reached Manchester around 1:30pm it was raining lightly. I found some lunch at the station before making the 5min walk to the apartment. For the first time this trip I'm staying in an apartment instead of a hotel, mainly so I can have a bit of personal space and so I can catch up on washing. They upgraded me to a 2 bedroom apartment - I don't need a second bedroom but I assume it's generally roomier. 

I popped out straight away to have a look around and do some grocery shopping. I took my camera but the constant drissle made photography a challenge and wandering around not really fun. I decided to do my shopping and head back to the apartment to plan the next couple of days instead (plus figure out how to use the washing machine).

Manchester was selected as another regional base. My plans for the next 2 days will be dependent on the weather. Luckily I am spoilt for choice.  

One of my "must do" activities in Wales was to ride on one of the heritage steam trains through Snowdonia. The weather would have been perfect on Sunday, however limited public transport options made it almost impossible for me. I had to wait until today. Even then it involved getting on the number 5/5C bus to Caernarfon at 7:30am in order to get there in time to catch the 10:00am train.  

There were two steam railways I was interested in. One goes between Caernarfon and Porthmadog and the other goes between Porthmaog and Blaenau Ffestiniog. The route maps are at the end of this post. Rather than choose one line and make a return trip it was possible to create a kind of circuit by travelling one way on both. To complete the loop there is a mainline train from Blaenau Ffestiniog back to Llandudno.

I got to Caernarfon in plenty of time to get a ticket and find a good seat, though I had no way of knowing which would be the best side. Plus, single seats were only on one side so I didn't really have much of a choice. The weather at the start was grey and lightly spotting with rain. Not ideal, but OK. 

There was a sense of excitement as the train arrived at the station. 

The initial landscape was similar to what I've already seen though there was a lot of a rust coloured grass that was a nice contrast against all of the green. 

About 1/2 hour in it began getting more mountainous. Unfortunately the weather started getting worse. The combination of misty mountains, rain on the windows, smoke from the train and generally low light made photography very difficult.

I wasn't able to get any good shots of the really dramatic mountain tops. It would be spectacular on a clear day. 

We ran by and crossed a number of rapidly flowing streams and rivers. 

Towards the end of the first line the area had clearly flooded as the water level was coming up to the top of the fence line. 

The first trip took just over two hours. It was definitely a case of the "pensioner express" which made me feel a little bit younger than usual. I managed to get a shot of the carriage as we were alighting. 

As well as a better picture of the engine. 

And the full train. 

I had roughly an hour and a half in Porthmadog before the return trip but the weather wasn't all that pleasant. I did a quick trip down the high street. I noticed that the clouds/mist was slowly coming down the hills at the back of the town. 

Good to see the tide in for a change. 

At 1:35pm the second trip began on a different train. Again, I wasn't really on the best side for photographs of the dramatic landscape but there were other things to capture. 

Polution aside, it was quite mystical to see the train smoke occasionally wafting between the trees. 

Or when another train approached. 

At one stage the line loops over itself. 

Which gave me my best opportunity to get a shot of the front of our train in motion. 

There were a number of dramatic waterfalls down the sides of the mountains. Unfortunately, I wasn't able to capture the largest ones. 

The second train journey took about an hour and a half. In theory that would leave 20min before the next mainline train to Llandudno. We must have been running late though and there was a train waiting and ready to depart. We needed to dash to make it because the next one was over 2 hours later. 

All in all it was a great journey and I'm really glad I did it. It's the first serious steam engine I can remember going on and the scenery was spectacular. It would have been so much better in clearer weather or combined with some walking at one or more of the stops. In summer the trains are more frequent which would make getting off to walk for an hour more viable.

The forecast for today was rain. And that suited me perfectly. As usual, I've been setting myself a ruthless pace on my holiday. Today is roughly half way through and I'm exhausted! I needed a slow day to recharge and rain is good for making me slow down. 

For the first time I savoured breakfast and took my time. Only then did I realise how quickly I'd been trying to get through it on the other days. Last night I was too tired to write up my blog so I spent sometime sitting down in the lounge this morning writing up the entries. After that I was feeling quite sleepy so I decided to have a late morning nap - something I rarely do. I slept for nearly 2 hours! That's unlike me so I know I must have needed it.

When I awoke I could have happily stayed in the hotel but the weather outside was OK, grey but it wasn't raining. I had been doing some reading and had found something I wanted to explore. I've seen that there is a cable car going up to the Great Orme, the rocks/hill to the side of Llandudno. I'm not keen on cable cars at the best of times. But this morning I discovered that there is a cable tram that also goes up there. That sounded OK and fairly unstrenuous, so I decided to give it a go. 

The tram takes you up in two parts. Halfway there is a cable house and you change trams. 

At the top it was blowing a gale and lightly spitting of rain. It wasn't enough to get wet, but it was enough to wet my lens when I pointed towards it. All the same, I managed to get a few OK shots. It would be spectacular up here when the sun is out. 

On the side of one hill were hundreds of names and messages made out of stones. I liked the idea - a much less destructive and more transient way of leaving your mark. 

There was a cafe at the top which was a great refuge from the wind and ideal for coffee and some cake. 

There's a cemetery up there too. 

As well as masses of this yellow flower. Unfortunately, I didn't get close enough to be able to get a good shot. The best I could get was from the tram while it was moving. 

When it came time to come back down I made sure I secured prime seating position as determined on the way up.  

That was quite enough activity for the day. Tomorrow I'll be getting up early to attempt a steam train adventure, so I'm planning a very early night tonight. 

Talking to the man on the train from Bangor to Llandudno Junction, I asked if he thought I would get any good sunset pictures at Llandudno. He thought so and suggested a few spots. 

As it was already getting on by the time I got back to Llandudno (or so I thought) I decided not to go straight back to the hotel. Instead I grabbed some fish and chips to eat by the sea. The serving was HUGE - way too much for me, but very tasty.  

After that I wandered around in hope of a colourful sunset. Of course, I had no idea how long that wait might be for and it ended up being longer than anticipated. Never mind though, it was a nice way to spend the evening. Although it was quite chilly by the end. 

I started by walking back to the western side of the town to take more photos of the landscape I had photographed when I first arrived. 

Walking back to the eastern side I came across this chap keeping watch. 

Unfortunately, the colourful sunset didn't eventuate. However, in the "golden hour" it was possible to get some nice shots of the foreshore. 

This shot shows you just how long the promenade is. 

As I walked back from the end of the pier I managed to get just the right angle to show buildings on the promenade and the mountains in the distance. 

After Conwy Castle, next stop was Caernarfon Castle. I walked 15min back to Llandudno Junction before catching the 12:54pm train to Bangor. It had started spotting rain a little so I whipped out my jacket. It didn't last long though. 

Arriva are the train company in Wales and I've noticed that the wi-fi on their trains is always reliable and all of their trains have a catering trolley. 

At Bangor I took the 5C bus from the train station to Caernarfon as the train doesn't go there. There was some beautiful scenery on the way, some of which I managed to capture on the way back.

I arrived at Caernarfon at 1:15pm. It was only a few minute's walk to the castle but I stopped for some lunch on the way.

The castle looks small from this angle but this is the view at one end.

Like Conwy, the castle is largely ruin with a large open area in the middle.  And once again, you could access most areas and towers.

However, compared with Conwy Castle, there were a larger number of enclosed rooms and passage ways which gave you a greater sense of what it might have been like to live in one of these places.

Both Caernarfon and Conwy castles had treacherous spiral staircases with very narrow steps and only rope to hold on to. They were definitely the most dangerous I've come across this trip.

Of course, I had to climb them though. 

I noticed numerous outcrops of wildflowers embeded in the barren castle rock. A testiment to resilience.

This gull seemed to think he was king of the castle. 

A number of the towers housed exhibitions. This one traced all of the Princes of Wales. 

I didn't realise, but the weekend coincided with Castell02, which was an art project consisting of exhibitions and installations around parts of the castle. It was a showcase of 16 artists and their work produced in response to Caernarfon, the castle, its stories and people. Unfortunately, I didn't manage to get to see all of them.

This was part of an installation in the well tower. It consisted of a series of crocheted water buckets joined with crocheted water coming out of the well. The hands were cast from people currently associated with the castle - workers and artisans.  Unfortunately it was too dark to get a good shot of the entire installation and I think it's probably better close up. It was lovely talking to the artist - she was so excited about the exhibition.

Another involved a guy playing very dreamlike washes of electric guitar in one of the other towers. I'm sure the installation had more to it than just that, but I thought that ambient sound made a perfect soundtrack to wandering around the castle. I think it would be great to have it all the time and was a huge contrast from the constant "pomp and ceremony" soundtrack they played at Warwick Castle.

You can read more about the exhibition at  http://www.stamp.cymru/en/project/castell-en/.

After spending another 3 hours exploring the innards of the castle it was time to move on and I wanted to get a better picture of the outside. On the water side you could see the town wall.

Getting a good picture of the entire side of the castle proved more difficult than expected. I started by crossing over the river but then I figured my wide angled lens would have worked just as well on the castle side. I was wrong and the only pictures I could get included cars in the car park. By the time I realised that the other side of the river would have been the best option it was too late to go back. 

In order to get back to Llandudno at a reasonable time I had to make my way back to the bus. I caught the 5C bus at 4:42pm back to Bangor. This bus route was really cool because there was a screen and voice announcement for every bus stop which made it super easy to work out where I was and when to request a stop.

There I had a little wait before catching the 5:58pm train to Llandudno Junction. This time I managed to get some shots of the scenery on the way.

The land on the other side of the water is Anglesey, an island on the north west tip of Wales.

As I was framing some shots on the train the man in the seat in front spoke to me hazarding a guess at the shutter speed and ISO I was going to need. As it turned out I was managing slightly lower ISO but he was close. Turns out he was a professional landscape photographer and we had a nice chat about travel photography. It was a nice interruption. He have me some tips for photographing around Llandudno too. 

Finally I caught the 6:24pm bus back to Llandudno. 

The public transport went really well today. Everything worked easy and I felt confident and not too worried about missing a connection. I had helped that I'd done my homework thoroughly before heading out. 

I didn't really feel like rushing about to catch trains and buses today but the forecast was for really good weather so I felt I shouldn't waste it. After spending a bit of time researching, I found a way I could easily get to visit both Conwy and Caernarfon castles in the one day. I have a number of travel apps and planners for the UK but recently I've found that directions in Google Maps provides the best results. They have all the UK public transport information and provide really easy to follow plans. 

When I left the hotel the sky was perfect blue but the wind still had a bite to it. Having said that, it was the first day this trip I felt able to head out without my big coat. A jumper and spray jacket should suffice (and they did). 

Even though it was a Sunday morning, there were plenty of buses to chose from to get to my first destination. Conwy is very close to Llandudno Junction but too far to walk. I caught the number 13 bus at 9:55am which would take me to within 15min walking distance of the castle.  

The castle looked spectacular on approach. 

Beside it is the walled town of Conwy. 

The castle was pretty much a ruin with information placed at points of interest. Still, it was well preserved and you were able to walk just about anywhere, including nearly all of the towers. 

As you'd expect, the towers gave a great view of the surrounding area. 

There were some internal areas still enclosed.

You could tell where the floors would have been inside the cavernous towers. 

It was a great experience and certainly would have been an impressive structure in its heyday. Speaking of which, the castle was one of a series of castles built by Edward I to suppress the Welsh after England invaded.

I spent about 3 hours walking around the castle which was just enough. After that it was time to move on to the next one. 

I awoke at 5:55am to what sounded like someone rustling in the room next door. When the sound didn't stop I realised there must be another explanation. It was the wind blowing something on the scaffolding at the front of the building. It had been raining overnight and was just grey and windy now. I headed down to breakfast at "opening" time in anticipation of a weekend crowd.

Last night I tried to do some planning. Although on paper all my destinations are accessible via public transport, sometimes when you get to the detail you realise things might not work out. My ideal plan wasn't going to work so I had to come up with alternatives. 

Today, the decision was to visit the Pontcysyllte Aqueduct. Getting there would take some time and this was going to be a day trip. 

I started by catching the 10:08am train to Llandudno Junction where I then caught the 10:25am Birmingham train to Ruabon. On the way we passed what looked like a massive castle built into the side of the hills. Why had I not seen this place in my research? When I checked tonight I discovered it was actually a manor house built in the 19th century to look like a grand castle. Imposter! Not so interested now. 

At Ruabon I caught the number 5 bus to the town of Trevor where it was only a 15min walk to the aquaduct.  

I had to admit when I first saw this sign I only noticed the part at the top and did think it was a bit discriminatory to only allow Anglo Welsh parkers. It was only later that I realised Anglo Welsh was the name of the business. Oops! 

Next I came across the canals that connect to the aqueduct. 

And then the aqueduct itself.  I've seen it on TV and it was built in 1805 so that a canal system could cross over the valley of the Dee river. It's 307m long, with 19 arches up to 39m high. It's near Llangollen which is in the mid-north west of Wales.

And of course, barges float across it, high above the river below! 

With greats view of the surrounding country. 

In the distance was another engineering feat, a viaduct for trains. 

I'm not usually very good with heights but surprisingly this didn't bother me. Maybe it's because I was more worried about falling in the canal as people tried to pass each other on the narrow foot bath. 

After walking across the aqueduct I was on a mission to get a side on view. The options were limited from the immediate area around the aqueduct. 

So I started walking towards the small bridge I had seen from the top. It didn't take long to get there but the large trees in the valley obscured most of the aqueduct. So I tried walking the other direction. I walked almost to the railway viaduct but unfortunately encountered the same problem. I really wanted to get a shot that showed how wide it was, but had to settle on this one.

On my walk to find a view I came across this bright fungus. 

And an avid wildlife photographer pointed out to an uncommon duck he had seen. I would never have noticed as it was over the other side of the river but I was able to zoom in and get a decent snap. 

In all I spent a couple of hours walking around the site. When it was time to return I caught the 3:10pm bus back to Ruabon, the 3:38pm train to Llandudno Junction and the 7:26pm train to Llandudno. I must admit I think I could easily have fallen asleep on the train. But I didn't and instead got this shot of Conwy Castle which is near Llandudno Junction. I will be exploring it at some stage while I'm staying here. 

When I got back to my hotel room the sunlight was just right to illuminate the massive wind farm off the coast. 

I chose Llandudno as a base for the Welsh part of my journey because it's central to the places I wanted to visit and seemed like a reasonable spot in its own right. 

The hotel is on the promenade overlooking the sea.  

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The sun was valiantly trying to peek out from the clouds so I went for a quick stroll around town. There were some people on the pier but I imagine it would get much busier here on the weekends in summer. 

It provided great views back to the beach and coast. And it was a great spot to pause for a drink.

Llandudno is sort of on a peninsula and it's possible to walk to the other side. Along the way I could see the houses perched on the side of the mountainous part at the end of the peninsula. 

The view on the other side of the peninsula is just as beautiful.

All of the official signage here is in Welsh and English. At the station, the train announcements were made in Welsh first and then English. 

My hotel room is a sea view room. Unfortunately they're doing some major extension work requiring scaffolding at the front of the building, but that doesn't prevent me from still getting a clear view of the sea as you can tell from this picture. 

Tonight I will read through all the pamphlets I have accumulated to plan my activities over the next few days. I'm looking forward to exploring. 

Today it was time to move on from Oxford and the Cotswolds to my new destination - North Wales. 

I woke up early to pack after a really restless night from an uncomfortably warm room. The morning was grey and it had rained overnight. After breakfast I spent some time downloading timetables for the trains and buses I would need in Wales - just in case the wi-fi at the next hotel was not as good as this one. 

I got to the station early to catch the 9:39am to Birmingham New Street station. The scenery at the start of the journey was very familiar but misty.

At Birmingham I changed to the 11:25am train to Llandudno Junction. From Birmingham to Wolverhampton the scenery was all industrial. But after Wolverhampton the country returned, eventually becoming hillier.  

By the time we reached Chester it was raining lightly. Shortly after leaving Chester we reached the coast of the North of Wales at Flint. 

As well as this curious "beached" ship. 

The train had wi-fi, which was excellent because my daughter Emily emailed me to tell me she had just won Best Documentary at the South Australian Screen Awards. Modern technology immediately allowed me to then share the wonderful news from the other side of the world! 

From Llandudno Junction I had a 20min wait before the final 10min train trip to take me to Llandudno itself. 

All together the journey took nearly 5 hours. The Birmingham to Llandudno Junction part was particularly slow because it had so many stops. There may have been a faster route but this was heading through country I hadn't seen before so I didn't mind.