England in the World Cup Final, eh? - Saturday 13/7/24
So, we're in the final, better make sure the pub we stop at has a telly then. Actually, I had pre-planned this, and checked that the pub on the campsite we had booked were showing it.
Not because I thought we would be in it, though, I'm not that optimistic.
Or maybe I am. A while back, in 2020, during the Euro's I had put a bet on England just for a laugh, and as the
odds were good at the time on Italy, backed them too.
I remember it well, I watched it in The Wooley Sheep, Skipton. I would have been quite happy if England had won, but if Italy won
I would win more. By the end of the night I was £350 better off. Ker ching....
No expectations, and no bets either this time. We would be staying at The Snowdonia Park Campsite, at Waunfawr, not far from Caernarfon. We have been before, a great site, good pub, and a beautiful part of the country.
Leaving The Stag in the morning, we headed up to Rhyll. Not because we wanted to go there mind, but there was a boot sale on nearby, and we thought it might be worth a visit.
As it happens, it wasn't. We popped into Rhyll afterwards, and to say it exceeded my expectations would be lying, and I had set the bar pretty low. We wandered around a bit looking for a nice
cafe for our coffee, but there wasn't one so we had the worst coffee of the trip in a run down dive offering all day breakfasts for £4.50.
Leaving Rhyll behind we drove around the coast to Conwy and headed down to Betws-y-Coed, through Ffestiniog, to Porthmadog, just enjoying the beautiful scenic countryside.
We stayed a while in Porthmadog, and had a decent coffee while watching the world go by. There is a steam train that runs from Portmadog, through the valleys to Caernarfon, and I've always wanted to go on it.
Its quite expensive, especially for two, but would be worth it as it is a long trip, stop along the way, full day out. However, I would only consider it if the weather was sunny, so you could
take full advantage of the views. Unfortunately, you have to book weeks in advance online, and the weather in wales being what it is, the odds on booking a sunny day are longer than England beating Germany in the World cup.
Shame, because the line actually has a station on our campsite, so it would be so convenient.
We arrived at the campsite in the late afternoon, and strangely enough the weather was lovely. We popped up the roof,and I got the chores done, like emptying the toilet and filling up with water.
Soon it was beer o'clock, and I trotted off to the pub. A few pints later my other half joined me and we ordered a meal reserving our seats for the match.
I am not an avid football fan, but I was caught up in the whole patriotic tournament sort of thing. I soon realised, watching England play a football match in Wales was not a brilliant idea.
Watching it in a tourist area, populated mostly by Germans and Dutch people didn't help either.
The next day, we headed down to Barmouth, a nice little seaside town off Cardigan Bay. Barmouth has a railway viaduct carrying the Cambrian Line between Aberystwith and Pwllheli across the river Mawddach Estuary. The bridge is a single track and made of wood, the longest in Wales, and one of the oldest in Britain still in regular use, and grade II listed.
We had found a place in a private carpark in the centre of town to park for the night, and after negotiating a fee, got set up for the night. It soon started to rain, so armed with umbrellas
strolled off to check out the facillities.
We had a few pints in a couple of the pubs and a great meal in The Inglenook Seafood restaurant.
In the morning the rain had stopped and the sun was out again. We had breakfast at Davy Jones Locker on the Quay, overlooking the Estuary and Barmouth Viaduct.
It was time to be planning our journey homeward, and we decided to book into the Wetherspoon hotel at Ruthin for tonight, the cut across for a day in Stratford upon Avon and then finding a pub stop in the cotswolds. Heading northwest to Ruthin, we stopped at Bala on the way for a stroll and arrived at Ruthin in the early afternoon. Though the hotel was called The Castle Hotel, there was no sign of a castle, which seemed unusual for Wales which seems to have castles all over the place. It turned out that the hotel actually was the castle, which had been demolished in the English Civil War, and later rebuilt as a country house during the Victorian era.
The next day we drove to Stratford upon Avon and did the usual touristy thing, like walking along the river and visiting Shakespears birthplace.
