Of all the things: Cocoa Krispies for breakfast. Welcome to 1969! I am ten years old and loving that sugar, baby.
We turned our backs on Tenby and headed north, along the coast, heading to the mountains of Snowdonia. Along the way we stopped at Aberaeron, with a town harbour surrounded by colored houses, another photo perfect moment. Gail talked with the harbourmaster and Oliver, the dog, as I took photos.
At Machymlleth we stopped in for cappuccino under the chime, a bell tower. We wanted to try Welsh cakes, but they were sold out for the day. With a crook of the finger we followed the café owner out the front door and over to meet the lady who baked them. Alas, no more today, hers sell out right away she is proud to tell us, but tomorrow... Not to worry, she says, she knows they will have them in Beddgelert. Be sure they are fresh brought in, not from the store. You can tell, they will be a little blackened. So far we like Wales much more than England, and driving today I had time to figure out why. It is more open countryside. Still very green, but not so hemmed in by all the trees and tall hedges. You can look for a couple miles, see barren hilltops, green fields of sheep in the distance, patches of forest. It is kind of like the difference between the eastern and western US, east it is quaint, but small-sky and hemmed in, claustrophobic to me; the west is still beautiful but wide open big-sky. Perhaps it is the sun; this is the second day of the trip that we have sun instead of clouds.
So we made it to Beddgelert after some near misses on the really narrow, narrow roads. This is just the nicest little "mountain" town. Just a couple pubs, maybe three restaurants, thankfully few stores to shop in; we are surrounded by hills and hikes along the river. There is really nothing here, a bridge over the river, three roads that form a Y, and stone buildings. So we took a hike a mile or two up river, admiring the views, enjoying the sun, and just walking. We sat outside the pub at the end of the bridge, drinking a beer on the bench and watching the big buses come through. The road is so narrow, the bridge so small and the turn so sharp that each bus would miss me by inches. Seriously. It was great fun.
Then we returned to our nice little room facing the river. We are not staying in the place we had reserved. The innkeeper met us when we arrive, and a pipe had broken in our room. So, he arranged for us to stay in the B&B next door, which turned out to be a lovely room, with the most charming hostess... it was probably an upgrade for us. I wrote them both a great recommendation on TripAdvisor. We stayed at Colwyn Guest House.
We ate dinner at Lyn's Cafe, which looked to be the best place in town. Now, this highlights the basic problems with the UK: Here we are, beautiful location, sunny day, and number one, the cafés all close at 20:00. What's that about? Second MAJOR problem: the food. Listen to this: cheese filled tortellini, with a creamy sauce of blue stilton, spinach, mushrooms and a wild rocket (greens) pesto sounds fantastic, and it looked great. So what's the problem? It is tasteless. Such a damn shame. The food sucks, and we have yet to have a good bottle of wine. And we are paying big bucks to eat. I can't wait to get to France. Gail ordered a cheese salad, which was hunks of cheese and a salad. She loved it.
After dinner we returned to the room to read, blog and watch the BBC. It is interesting, the views of America from overseas. The story is about President Obama speaking at a conference about global warming. The debate is about what he can really do, considering that congress will not back him up. There is quite a bit of exasperation about the US and our reluctance to join the rest of the world in the 21st century and deal with the problem... all the more interesting because the UK is a very conservative government. Their view is that we are being totally irresponsible in our denial of global warming. Their conservative party thinks our conservatives are looney tunes, and wish Obama could get something done. Huh. They think science is a valid thing, don't you know?