Thursday 14th June - Surf's Up!

I was writing yesterday's blog entry in bed last night, had done all the text and gotten the photos just how I wanted them, but could I get it to upload? No chance. After some time messing about with settings, I gave up and went to sleep.

This morning, I had another go......major problems.....the program I use on the iPad crashed and refused to work again. Fearing that I had lost the whole lot, I downloaded the latest version of it and tried again. Phew, my work was still there, but there was no way that it would upload.

I tried posting a test entry directly via the web browser and that worked fine, so I knew that it wasn't Blogger itself that was the problem. No worries, I would just copy and paste the whole thing between the programs.

Yeah, right....because everything with computers is simple isn't it? Eh, no. I had to do it a paragraph at a time, and it would not let me do anything with the photos. Once the text was uploaded, all the formatting had been lost so it was one huge paragraph. I was not a happy bunny.

So, Scallywags came to the rescue, she edited the text on her laptop, and after a looooongggggg wait got all the photos to upload, and finally, after about two hours of messing about, the entry you see for yesterday now looks just like the one I created on the iPad before I went to sleep last night! I hope you think it was worth the effort!!

So, here we are, mid-morning, and still in the process of getting up and ready to go out. It is sunny again after last nights rainstorm, but it is very windy, and the waves onto the shore are by far the biggest we have seen since getting here, hence the blog title for this morning!



Breakfast (which I am about to make) will be Shreddies, with toffee yoghurt and banana.

Today we decided to have a touring around day. The first place we went to was Beddgelert. What a lovely little village it is, full of history, legend, and gift shops that actually sell things you might want at a price that doesn't make your eyes water!

The river running through the village gave up some nice photographs, and the views on the road up to the village offered some impressive views.



The road from Beddgelert to Capel Curig gave us some even more spectacular views, including some of the top of Snowdon. The weather was still sunny, but now very clear, and it was impossible to show the sheer scale of the scenery in photographs. The one below has a house in it - find it and you will start to understand the scale!



There was a small parking spot with views of the Snowdon Horseshoe, again, the photo won't give the full impression of the enormity of what you are seeing.



Now I have a favour to ask of you. Please please please make the effort to drive along the road between the Pen-y-Gwryd Hotel and Llanberis. It is the A4086 through the "Pass of Llanberis".

The journey along this road heading North is one of the most amazing, stunning you will experience in the UK. To begin with the road climbs steeply up into the mountains, before dropping almost as steeply into the pass. The mountains of the Snowdon Horseshoe tower above you to the left, and to the right the remains of mountains that have been quarried for slate and rock tower to your right.

The sight is both breath taking and awe inspiring. That mother nature created such a thing and man then took what he wanted from it against huge odds. It was a sight that I actually felt physically if you know what I mean - I felt it in my heart.

I wasn't able to take any photos as there was nowhere to stop, but there would have been no point anyway - they would not have done it justice at all.

We turned around in Llanberis and took the same route back. It is not such an impressive journey going South on the same road which seems a bit odd, and it didnt seem to take as long either.

After this, we went on to Betws-y-Coed, where we stopped for a look around the town and lunch at a pub. We both opted for the gammon, and I have to say that it was the best gammon that I have had for years.

Leaving Betws-y-Coed, we took the A470 back towards Porthmadog, going through Blaenau Ffestiniog, which was a bit of an eye opener. All of the mountains surrounding the town have been quarried for slate to such an extent that the whole area looks how you would expect it to look if an atomic bomb had been let off there. It is, quite frankly, a mess! It must be very depressing for the locals to have to live there with the remains of their now basically defunct source of income glowering at them.

By now, the weather had changed, and it had started to rain. By the time we got back to Criccieth, it was pouring down. We had planned to go to the local Cadwalladers Ice Cream parlour this evening as they were having live jazz, so at half six we braved the still pouring rain, and trudged up the hill.

The band was still setting up when we got there, and the parlour was filling up quite quickly. We sampled their famous ice cream, which lived up to its reputation. The jazz was supplied by a trio of trumpet, guitar and upright bass. They were very good even though some of the tunes they played were not really the type of jazz I'm partial to.

We stayed until eight, and made our way back. It was still raining, although not quite as heavily. Almost as soon as we got back, the heavens opened again, so our timing was pretty much spot on!

I'm going to end today's entry with another photo taken in Beddgelert, which made us smile. ( by the way, the majority of the photos so far have been taken by Sally)