Beddgelert, Day 1

The last post I made was about arriving in Beddgelert in Wales; that was a good few days ago now and I have (luckily and also unfortunately) been too busy to post anything since then about what I have been doing! So I am going to post a series of Blogs about what I have been up to on my holiday.

For those of you that don’t know, I have just spent 3 nights in Wales and then 3 nights in the Peak District in England; it has been an amazing week full of activities I never even thought I would enjoy and now I can’t wait to return and do them again. These include things such as mountain climbing and camping. Anyway back to the point of this blog… what we did on day one!

So we actually left for Wales on Friday night and spent the night sleeping in our car in a services car park. We thought about sleeping in a Premier Inn/Travelodge sort of place but then thought it wasn’t worth it… £60 for one night and we would have only been there for about 6 or 7 hours. So we chose the car instead to save money. This meant we hit the road early Saturday morning and got there mid-morning. On our drive wesaw a lot of wonderful and mesmerizing scenery Snowdonia National park has to offer. We got lots of wonderful pictures and enjoyed the ride.

Once we arrived in Beddgelert, which is without a doubt the most stunning village I have ever seen in my life, we went straight to a cafe to have breakfast. We both chose a ‘full Welsh breakfast’ and I tried a raspberry pavlova milk shake which was yummy and quirky at the same time. After this we decided to check into our bed and breakfast. We stayed in Plas Gwyn which is right in the centre of Beddgelert and I think we were given the best room as well. Everything was perfect.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We chilled out for a bit and showered and napped to recharge our batteries so they say. I spent some more time admiring the beautiful village; all stone houses, a large river running right through the town with bridges to cross, old fashioned street lamps like the one in Narnia where the little girl meets Mr. Tumnus, baskets of flowers everywhere, and to top it off, we were in a valley so there were mountains everywhere. I have since discovered I hate flat land and cannot wait to be back in the mountainous region. Wherever you look there is something to see, and there is so much colour and adventure. I loved it there.

We then decided to go exploring up one of the hills/mountains we could see from our window. What began as a chilled out wander through the woods turned into a trek up a very steep hill/mountain. But all in all it was very fun, we were surrounded by sheep on our way up and we and the rain managed to hold out on us all day so it made it a perfect day really. The views were incredible and as we sat on top of this hill looking down onto the town of Beddgelert and the surrounding mountains (which later I find out includes Mount Snowden and Moel Hebog), I can honestly say I have never felt so calm, relaxed or peaceful in the world. I was truly happy.

 

 

We descended the mountain (which Jamie fell down 4 times) and headed home because part of our trek was very wet and boggy, resulting in soaking wet shoes and socks. We went home to dry and change before looking round the village for pubs to eat it. The first one was packed (Prince Llewelyn) so we chose The Saracen’s Head. They were super busy but we stayed for a drink for an hour then ordered food when we could, I had a MASSIVE fish and chips and eton mess and Jamie had venison sausages and mash and a bake well tart. It was a beautiful evening together, with lovely food where we just chilled out after a long day travelling and then hiking up a mountain.

When I just thought it was finally time for bed, Jamie suggested wandering up one end of the village we hadn’t been to so we did just that to see if there was anything else up there. We walked along the river and crossed another bridge to find an old abandoned house; we climbed up the walls to look in on the collapse roof and could see it was almost fully furnished. Jamie said he wanted to live somewhere like that, somewhere small and peaceful and in the woods. We then wandered back and took some nice pictures before heading home and crashing out asleep.

 

Arriving in Beddgelert

We are here! (I am currently on holiday with my boyfriend who I have been with for over two years, but we have only just come on our first holiday together). We’ve just spent our first night in Plas Gwyn Bed and Breakfast in the beautiful town of Beddgelert in Wales. It is the most picturesque village I have ever seen with wonderful rows of stone buildings, a huge river running through the village with bridges to cross and old shops like the woodcraft and antiques shops. Beddgelert is almost in a valley as well, surrounded by huge mountains and hills to climb (the complete opposite of Essex where I live which is extremely flat); so I feel like I am in a different world here. I have definitely fallen in love, and I already want to live here permanently.

Before our arrival I had planned so much to do, as I wasn’t aware just how many mountains and walks and things there were to do in Beddgelert. So I had planned trips further afield such as driving down the south coast along Cardigan Bay, climbing Mount Snowden and driving up to the north to see Conwy castle and a couple of famous gardens and climb some cliffs up there. But, we have completely changed our minds and been spontaneous (well very spontaneous for me) and decided to just stay in Beddgelert for the full three days here. Rather than drive places to visit sights, we have decided to just come back again before the end of the year and get a B and B in the south next time, so we can fully explore Cardigan bay for example, and then next time get a B and B in the north. There is so much to do, that there is no way we could fit it all into one trip. We will have to do more.

I am already very excited at the thought of returning here; it would be amazing to see all the mountains in the winter covered in snow and see how we do hiking through that. I will do another post more detailed about our first day yesterday but I have already learnt after our hike up one mountain yesterday that I am not very fit (I also learnt you MUST take water with you and I can’t believe we didn’t).

Anyway, this was just a short post to say that we have arrived and we love everything so far.