A day in Llandudno

Llandudno is a really nice city in the North of Wales located on the Creuddyn peninsula, which provides one of the best scenarios and views of the Irish Sea. In fact, in the 1860s it was called ‘the Queen of the Welsh Watering Places’.

The town represents also a great pole in terms of commerce and economy, at least from what I’ve noticed being there. It has a quite big shopping center, with shops of famous clothing brands: Primark, River Island, New Look, JD. As usual in the UK, there’s also a nice Starbucks café.

Attractions

One of the main attractions involves surely the magnificent landscape of the North Wales coast, towards the Anglesey Island. In a sunny day, it’s likely to see the Irland (not what happened, due to the extremely changeable UK weather). Even in a cloudy weather, it’s possible to have a view of Conwy Castle.

As the city is at sea-level, getting on the best viewing point (which is on a hill) requires 2 trams. The path is about 4 or 5 km and it is steep, so forget a nice walking. It lasts 10 minutes more or less (quite slow), but it makes possible sightseeing a bit during the journey. Here’s a photo-shot of some sheep that were hanging around the railway.

This photo was taken by me

Despite the cloudy weather, the landscape preserved its beauty. Here is a photograph depicting partially the Creuddyn Peninsula.

This photo was taken by me

In front of the arrival point of the 2nd tram, there are some little souvenirs shops and some cafés, where you can have a 5-o’clock cup of tea matched with a nice and sweet slice of cake.

If you want to get a better viewing of the hole city and of the countryside, Cable cars are a wise choice. The prices are variable, depending on the age of the passenger.

About wales

Geography

Wales is a generally mountainous country on the western side of central southern Great Britain.
Wales is only about 20,000 square kilometres in size. The country has a varying geography with strong contrasts: in the south, flat coastal plains give way to valleys, then to ranges of hills and mountains in mid and north Wales.

There are three national parks and five areas of outstanding natural beauty, which cover 25% of the land mass of Wales. 80% of the land is dedicated to agriculture, ranging from crops to livestock. The largest mountains in the north are part of the Snowdonia range, with the largest mountain, which is the Snowdon (1,085 m). There are over 1300 kilometres of coastline ranging from long flat sandy beaches to towering cliffs.

Snowdonia range

Origins

Romans first started recording the history of Wales in 48 BC, but the Welsh had been there much before the arrival of Romans. In fact, Wales has been inhabited as far as back 230,000 BC.

The Roman conquest began in 48 AD and took 30 years to be completed. The territory was used to extract large amounts of gold, copper and leave, as it had a rich mineral wealth. However, Romanic economic development was concentrated in south-eastern Britain. This was because of the geographical characteristics of Wales, which is mainly montainous.

Interesting facts and myths

Wales is known as “the land of the castles” and rightly so as there are 400 castles. By now, many of them have been reduces to ruins, but 100 castles still remain intact. The most spectacular castles are Conwy Castle, Caenarfon Castle and Harlech Castle.

Merlin’s oak:

Carmarthen is said to be the birthplace of mythical
magician Merlin, who apparently was fascinated by this
particular oak tree. As a child he would always be
climbing it. So fond was he of this tree that he prophesied: “When Merlin’s Oak shall tumble down, then shall fall Carmarthen Town” –in other words, “don’t harm my beloved tree or I will destroy the town”. The tree stood tall for many years in the 1850’s the tree was poisoned by a local person who objected to people holding meetings beneath it, but its trunk was preserved within iron railings. In the late 1970s however, someone set it on fire. In 1978 the last fragment of the tree was removed from its original spot, and – true to Merlin’s words – the town fell victim to the worst flooding it had seen in years.

King Arthur:

Arthur’s name is first mentioned in a great sixth-century poem called The Gododdin, about a real battle – they were times of warring tribes in Britain. The Sword in the Stone tells us that, just before his death, King Uthr Pendragon gives his baby son, Arthur, to the care of Merlin the wizard in the hope that his boy would grow up to save Britain. Years later, a young boy does what no one else could do. He draws the sword from the stone. He is the boy Arthur.