We checked out of the Premier Inn Aberystwyth and began a roughly two hour drive towards Harlech, stopping to get a view of the ocean at a viewpoint Janie spotted, not realizing it was a cemetery overlooking the ocean.

The first stop of the day was Harlech Castle, which stands atop an outcrop overlooking Cardigan Bay. Built by 1289 by King Edward I, it was overseen by his master architect, James of St George. It played a role in several Welsh wars, surviving the siege of Madog ap Llywelyn between 1294-95, but falling to Owain Glyn Dwr in 1404. During the Wars of the Roses, it was held by the Lancastrians for 7 years surrendering in 1468. It was the last castle to fall to Parliamentary forces in 1647 in the English Civil War. We had more issues finding the right location to park as GPS sent us down Ffordd Pen Llech, which a sign said was the world's steepest street with a maximum grade of 37.45% and no good place to turn around at the end.

After Harlech, we took a slight detour to Portmeirion, a private village built in Italiante style. We thought the village and its gardens would be interesting to see but at 20 GBP per ticket, and the limited time we had to spend, we decided not to go inside.

In order to head through Snowdonia National Park, we aimed ourselves for Blaenau Ffestiniog, a small town where we hoped to find lunch. Most of the town was residental and the one place we saw did not open until 4PM. But we spotted a small cafe where we were able to get a pasty and a sausage roll, which both were very good.

We went looking for a place to park to see Swallow Falls. Janie had found a blog that said to park at the Swallow Falls hotel, so we did and it was a short walk to the entrance to the falls. We, and several other people, struggled with the cashless payment as the machine would not allow you to use the same credit card twice. Luckily we had more than one card on us and were able to get it. There were a number of stairs down to the falls, where we encounted a small group, including a guy dressed in a blazer on a very hot day, trying to do a photoshoot. Once they left, we had a good view of a pretty spectaular waterfall where the River Llugwy passes through a narrow chasm.

Snowdonia, now known by its Welsh name, Eryri is Wales' largest national oark, covering a total of 823 square miles. We did not have enough time, unfortunately, to take the cog train up to Snowdon (Yr Wyddfa), the highest mountain south of Scotland, at 3560 feet above sea level.

We had another castle to visit today, this one Caernarfon, one of the greatest buildings of the Middle Ages. King Edward and James of St George erected a castle, town walls and a quay over 47 years. It was born out of the bitter war with Welsh princes, so its curtain walls and King's Gate were designed to withstand assault, but the polygonal towers, eagle statues and multi-coloured masonry sent a message which echoed Roman architecture, especially the Constantinople walls. It was an impressive castle and they did a good job explaining not only its history, but the history of Wales, the complicated relationship with England, and the various Kings who ruled the area. Caernarfon remains the place where each Prince of Wales is officially invested, the last time in 1969 for now King Charles III. (William never had an official ceremony as Welsh politicians are calling for abolition of the title).

Having not eaten much today, we stopped into Nemo Fish and Chips for a couple of orders of, well, fish and chips, and two sodas.

Our need for food meant we arrived too late to see the inside of Conwy Castle, despite being there a half hour before it closed when we should have still been allowed in, but they had already roped off the ticket area. This was probably due to a large bus load of Chinese tourists who had just pulled up and the operator did not want to allow in a big group for the final half hour. Seeing the castle, we were disappointed we could not go through the spiral staircases and walk the battlements and bridge.

We had chosen the Caer Rhun Hotel to stay in tonight as it looked quaint online and it was something different. We probably should have stayed in Conwy as the hotel had no lift or air conditioning. The check-in clerk gave us a lesson in Welsh and was gracious enough to carry our suitcases up the flight of stairs. The room was unbearably hot because the drapes had been left open all day during a day of record heat. We went back down to the bar to have a couple of pints to cool off and then walked around the gardens. It was a pretty hotel and on a cooler day would have been a nice place to stay. We were glad we had dinner earlier as the hotel restaurant was not open, which we knew.

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