Wales 1996

Quick reference

Tuesday 20 August
Wednesday 21 august
Thursday 22 August
Friday 23 August
Saturday 24 August
Sunday 25 August
Monday 26 August
Tuesday 27 August
Wednesday 28 August
Thursday 29 August

Tuesday 20 August

Today the holiday starts by traveling from Elst (home) to Hoek van Holland, to take the night ferry to Harwich. It's nice to leave in the late afternoon for holiday, normally you have to wake up early because of a long journey. And now, you just sleep while you are traveling! Oh yes, don't forget to set your watch one hour back!

Wednesday 21 August

In the early morning I took the intercity from Harwich to London Liverpool Street Station. To take the train to Cardiff (main city of Wales) I had to go to the other side of London, to Paddington Station. It is peak hour, so taking my bike into the tube is a bad idea. Ok, well then let's try it to do it by bike! The traffic was very heavy, but nearly all cars (mainly busses and cabs) are almost not moving at all, so it was very easy. Only the air wasn't fresh at all, I saw some other people cycling with a cap before their mouth!

City park in North Cardiff

In the afternoon I arrived in Cardiff. The castle was beautiful, and the shopping center was nice too, only I couldn't find any supermarket. But I needed to buy some food anywhere! Lucky for me: in the shop where I bought a map of Wales they knew were to find a supermarket...

In Cardiff I visited the National Museum of Wales. It was very nice to see how they explained the evolution by use of many objects, movies and sounds. Also, there was an temporary exhibition about insects. Some large models were made, 200 times enlarged and moving! It was also nice to see how a man showed some very large (about 20cm long) creepy insects and put them on a hand of some fascinated children, while their parents were looking very scared, well, if they could look at all...

Cardiff Youth Hostel, the place where I stayed for that night, was quite good, but the visitors were not very nice. But that was no problem, because I could think about just one thing: getting in bed!

Thursday 22 August

Brecon Beacons

The next day I went to Llanddeusant YH, which is in the western part of the Brecon Beacons National Park. In ancient times the people made big fires on the hills (about 800 meters high), which were used as beacons for the ships

I took a regional train from Cardiff to Merthyr Tydfil, which was also the last station on this railroad. Merthyr Tydfil is just south of Brecon Beacons. From there I cycled to Brecon, about 20 km (7 km climbing, 7 km flat, and 7 km downhill). The landscape is beautiful! Nice lakes, hills, and valleys with some wood and small rivers. The shapes of the hills are very remarkable.

I did some shopping in Brecon (northern part ov Brecon Beacons), and then I continued my journey via Sennybridge and Trecastle to Llandeusant YH. About 10km before the youth hostel I was on the top of a hill. The only things you see there are sheep, dry grass, sheep, the road and sheep. You don't here anything there (except the sheep).

The youth hostel was laying deep in a valley, and the road went steep downwards. Thanks to the rain my brakes didn't work very well, so I was going faster and faster. The road wasn't very well, and there were many arcs, but lucky for me on my right a entrance appeared, so I cycled up the entrance which was going uphill to get my bike stopped... pooh! When I walked further along the road I saw that it was a good choice to get my bike stopped, otherwise I would be landed between the trees, perhaps many meters lower than the road...

The Youth Hostel was very nice. Ok, the shower was not clean, but after a long day you're only interested in a fresh shower, not if it is clean or not... There were two other guests: a boy and girl from Manchester who were walking arround there for a few days. The warden lit on the fireplace later that evening, and we had a nice conversation. After hearing their stories about this part of Brecon Beacons I knew it for sure: I have to come back here once!

Friday 23 August

I took my bike to cycle to a nearby railway station (Llangadog). After waiting for about half an hour, I was walking arround on the platform, when I saw a small poster: "Train service disruption", "strike", ...... oh no... s@!)^#%&)# !!!

Ok, I had to change my plans. The next railway station to get away here was Swansea, about 60km away from Llangadog. That moment I knew I had to cycle a lot today. Unfortunately there was a lot of rain, so it was a long road to get back to the living world.

At the end of that afternoon I arrived at Swansea Station, where I took the intercity to Bristol, the nearest youth hostel where I could found a bed for that night and not too far from a intercity railway station.

Bristol is a big industrial city, there are not many things to see there. Well, there is one nice place to visit in the evening: an old building along an old port, which now houses cafe's, bars, restaurants, etc. O yes, there was a large group of female scouts from Canada in Bristol Youth Hostel. I talked a bit with their leaders.

Saturday 24 August

Today I shouldn't wake up in Bristol, but in Corris, in the southern part of Snowdonia National Park. Thanks to the English Railways...

Ok, I took an intercity to Birmingham, Crewe and Chester to get on my scheme. In Chester I did some shopping and took another train to Bangor (far northwest of Wales). What a journey! Because of my bike I had to stay in a luggage room of the train, so I opened the door of that cabbin... oops! Someone (sitting inside against the door) nearly fell out the train! He was very angry about that... I knew better: don't sit against a door!

At Llandudno Junction I left the train to take the Conwy Valley Railway to Dolwyddelan. This was a beautiful journey! Through the valley along a big lake and a small river, nice towns, nice hills, beautiful nature. But don't forget to tell the crew where you want to leave the train, it's "stop on request". Near Dolwyddelan I spent the night in Lledr Valley Youth Hostel. I met some Dutch people, and also some others, like a strange bookseller who was walking arround in the surrounding mountains for a few days.

Sunday 25 August

I went back to the railway station of Dolwyddelan, to take the train to Blaenau Ffestiniog. This is a nice town between large hills of slate stone.

Ffestiniog Railway, Tan-y-Bwlch station

The famous Ffestiniog Railway brought me further in the hills (or should I say mountains?). The small railtrack was made in the previous century to get slate stone from the hills to the coast. On top of the hill cars were filled with slate stone. Then they pressed the car down, and because the railroad is only going downwards nothing was needed to get them to the coast. To get the cars back upon the hill they used horses and later trains. 2 Engines still exist: the "Prince" (still running on this track) and the "Princess" (nowadays located in a railway museum).

During the journey I left the train at 2 places: in Tan-Y-Bwlch (beautiful lake up in the hills) and in Tanygrisiau (another lake, made to get water energy).

Back in Blaenau Ffestiniog there was a lot of rain, so I went into a local pub. Wow, what a crowd! Oh, an important football match just begun...

In the evening I went back to Dolwyddelan YH.

Monday 26 August

With the Conwy Valley railway I went back to Llandudno Junction, and took the train to Bangor. During this journey I spoke with a boy from London. I met him already in the Youth Hostel. He had been cycling in Snowdonia for about two weeks. In Bangor I wanted to take the bus to Dwyran, there should be an interesting sea aquarium. Unfortunately it was Summer Bank Holiday, so there were not many busses riding, and it was too far to cycle (also because of the rain).

So I cycled to Penrhyn Castle. It isn't an ancient castle (about 150 years), but neithertheless it was worth to visit. I went inside and took a roundtrip (with a walkman). There were also some paintings of Dutch artists like Jen Stien (Jan Steen) and Rembrent (Rembrandt). Those Welchmen can't speak their names!

I slept in Bangor YH. Oh, yes: they have a pool table!

Tuesday 27 August

Just think for a moment: yes, today was the second day of strikes at the railway. Lucky for me the intercity's were still running, so I could take the train to London Euston Station. I arrived there in the afternoon, and had some time left. So I visited the Planetarium, very impressive!

With a regional, not striking, train I went to Jordans YH, just west of London. This is getting my normal place to stay when I visit London. After 6 years nothing has been changed, except the wardens. This was now a couple. The wife came from Holland (Peize, near Groningen) and they had lived in Holland for 2 years. So the man also speaks a little bit Dutch. He was impressed by the many cycle roads and bike traffic lights in Holland. They don't have them in England.

As usual, it was very nice to stay at Jordans YH. That evening I spoke to a student from Japan, who was travelling arround in the United Kingdom for a month, and wanted to end his holiday by visiting London. I told him some nice places to visit in London. I also talked with a family from Slough (not far away from Jordans) about the landscape arrouond Jordans.

Wednesday 28 August

Steam engine in the National Museum of Science in London"

Back to London, I visited the National Museum of Science, one of the large musea in London. EXCELLENT! Enormous steam engines (still running), airplanes, ships, etc.. At the space department the had some real rockets (like V2, XLR-1) hanging on the roof, and also a real Apollo capsule (Apollo 10).

During peak hour I cycled to Liverpool Street Station to get the train back to Harwich. That night I went with the ferry to "Hoek van Holland", back to my own country.

Thursday 29 August

In "Hoek van Holland" I took the train to Rotterdam, and there a train to Arnhem. From Arnhem I took my last train to Elst, the town were I live...