Caernarfon's most striking feature is its world heritage listed Caernarfon Castle. If you were to arrive into the town via the Welsh Highland Railway as we had done, the castle is un-unmissable, as it dominates the view of the town. We made it the first stop of our visit, and it was one of the largest and most well-preserved castle ruin I have ever been to.

What I especially loved were the many passages and towers that were accessible, and wandering though them was quite a fun experience, if slightly claustrophobic at times. The views that several of the higher towers provided of the castle's grounds, the town, and the surrounding countryside were added bonuses.

After exploring the castle, we also spent some time exploring the walled section of the town, which was adjacent to the castle itself. As our accommodation was located in this area, the wandering was done in the form of a relaxed stroll.

The views of the castle and walled town from the outside was also fairly beautiful, especially at sunset (Though sunset at the time of our visit was approximately at 10 30pm..).

The next morning, we headed to Llanberis for a day's exploring of the area and the surrounding National Park. Our first stop there were the ruins of Dolbadarn Castle, just outside the village. Unlike Caernarfon Castle, this was much smaller and less intact, mainly consisting of the remnant of the central keep tower and surrounding foundations. The location itself though, was very scenic.

After the castle, we returned to the village to catch the Snowdon Mountain Railway up to the summit of Snowdon. The scenery en-route was fairly lovely, if a little gloomy due to cloud cover over some of the higher peaks. Taking photos was also somewhat difficult during the ride up; The configuration of seats in the carriage weren't particularly conducive for proper photos to be taken, unless you hoarded the windows continually and blocked the views for the other passengers.

Snowdon is the highest peak in Wales, and the Summit of Snowdon itself was a fairly crowded place. This was probably due to the popularity of the hiking trails that led to the summit, as well as the ease of access accorded by the Snowdon Mountain Railway itself. The clouds had lifted a little by the time we got to the top, and we were able to see a fair amount of the surrounding highlands.

We spent about half an hour at the top before we had to head back down mountain (As was the railway's policy to ensure that everyone who had tickets had seats). Once we were back, we wandered around the shore of the lake next to Llanberis for some time, but had to return to Caernarfon fairly early due to the limited number of public bus trips that ran between Llanberis and Caernarfon. In hindsight, one thing that I'd wish we had done was to have given ourselves more time to explore the area, as it would have been nice to have at least hiked down Snowdon, so as to have taken better photos, if nothing else.

The day after was our trip to Snowdon was our final day in Wales, and largely consisted of travelling. We started that journey that morning with a bus ride to the nearby town of Bangor where we were to catch our train back to London. As we had some time to spare when we arrived, we wandered around the town a little, ultimately making our way to Bangor Pier. The pier, which stretched halfway across the Menai Straits towards the Isle of Anglesea, provided good views of the surrounding coastline.

Our trip to Wales ended shortly after leaving the pier, with the remainder of the day consisting primarily of an uneventful three and a half hour train journey (fortunately non-stop this time) back to London.

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Till the next time,

Raylen