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Tuesday 6 September, to Shrewsbury and back to Wales

Great Britain 2005 - part XVIII

Elisabeth & Teije
2006-08-28 17:44:06

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The sun is shining when we wake up but the tent is still very wet and we want to have it dry when we leave. So it is quite late, after eleven, when we finally leave the campsite. It is very busy on the road and it takes hours to finally reach Shrewsbury just outside Wales.

Shrewsbury is a nice town, but after an hour and a half, we have seen enough. We wanted to see it because the stories of the medieval detective-monk Cadfael are situated here (in the books of Ellis Peters) which we like very much. Naturally, we even have some books of this series with us.

Another inhabitant, a real one, of Shrewsbury was Charles Darwin, who was born here. A bust of him can be found before the library, facing the castle.

After this visit we drive through the English area bordering Wales, Shropshire. But after an hour or so, we long for the hills of Wales and drive back into that direction.

This time we go south of the Snowdonia park to the west, since we want to see more of the northern part of Wales. The sky has become very clouded and grey and therefore we forget to take pictures, which is a shame, since there are quite a lot of pretty landscapes on the way we take from Newton to Machynlleth (not the A470 but smaller roads like the B4518). From there we take the A493 which leads us along the coast to Tywyn where we want to turn to the north. But in the beginning of the village is a long line of vehicles waiting, and a bit further lots of police cars and a helicopter. A serious accident has happened and it will take at least two hours before the road will be clear again. So we see no other option than turn around.

On roads like these, accidents happen easily, since there are many sharp turns and it is busy with traffic. We have often seen situations that only just went well. Driving all the way back costs us a lot of time, so we change our plans once more. We decide to stay two nights in this area instead of one, to have some extra time to look around and enjoy this region.

Meanwhile, the sun is hining brightly again and it has become very warm, almost 29 degrees! After a delicious meal on the terrace of a hotel (near the junction of the A487 and the B4405, we can recommend you to have a meal there), we drive to Harlech where we have stayed last week already for one night at the Queens hotel, standing under the large castle. We are lucky they have a room available for two nights.

We are just in time to see the sunset and after that we take a refreshing shower. The facilities on the campsite at Caernarfon were not so bad, but in a hotel we feel we can get totally clean again and stay clean... It feels different, more luxurious, and we enjoy it.