Ady only had one pair of grubby jeans and one pair of soggy jeans. Davies only had a very wet pair of shoes and a pair of jeans that we’d packed without realising they should have been in his ‘to grow into’ pile and lots of shorts. But it was raining. And quite cold.
We’d planned to visit Snowdon Railway with Marcus, Michelle and Chloe so we decided to go ahead and nip to Asda for suitable clothing / footwear and meet them there. We did indeed get clothing and footwear and were on our way to meet them when Marcus rang to say there were no tickets for the train available til 430pm that afternoon. We said that would be fine and we’d find something to do and meet them there and to get us tickets. Which he did and rang us back to give us the shocking news of the cost of them which had Marcus kindly returning them again on our behalf and us realising we’d need to make alternative arrangements for the day instead as it was way out of our budget. 🙁
Next stop was an outdoor shop we’d spotted closing the day before where both Davies and I finally got proper, waterproof, fleecelined coats suitable for winter walks, boat rides, camping trips in the British summertime and many of the other pursuits we regularly follow but are never correctly attired for. Bargain prices too thanks to the mid season sale and we got them for about half the price the train would have cost us.
We then had a Family Debate about what to do with the rapidly disappearing day. Scarlett and Ady voted for back to the beach, Davies and I wanted to go somewhere Welsh on the basis we have a beach at home and should make the most of being in Wales. After some discussion we decided to go to Llangollen which is near where my Dad grew up and the venue of many, many holidays Ady and I have had and many day trips when we lived in Manchester. There is a steam train and a horse drawn canal boat both of which would have been good trips to take so we decided to head there. I still really wanted to go and see some copper mines I had a leaflet for but was overrruled.
The Sat Nav took us on a gorgeous route following the coastline so I spent much of it nose pressed to the window looking for dolphins ;). We suddenly saw signs for LLandudno which is another place we’ve visited a couple of times, most recently when on holiday with my parents about 12 years ago where we have pictures of us all stood on the pier looking at jellyfish. I’d wanted to go on the cablecars at the time but they’d been closed so we decided to try again and turned off to follow the brown signs.
We arrived at Marine Drive toll where the man told us the cable cars where closed again due to high winds. He offered us the £2.50 drive along the coast road instead which we almost didn’t take but decided to have a go with. I’m SO glad we did. We stopped a couple of times to peer over the edge of the Great Orme at the seagulls (and of course to look for dolphins) and it was stunning, and indeed very windy. 
At the halfway point you could carry on or veer off to the Summit Visitor Centre and tramway and cable car area so we came off and went up the steep, twisty road to the top. Where we happened upon the Great Orme Bronze Age Copper Mines which had been precisely where I wanted to go but hadn’t looked closely to realise was in Llandudno! How happy was I?! 🙂
We *really* enjoyed that. Bargain price of £16 entrance for an amazing place. It was only rediscovered in 1987 during a plan to landscape the area and is 4000 years old mined in the Bronze age for copper using tools made from stone and bone. Amazing.
There are some 9 chambers going deep, deep underground although only the top 2 are accessible yet. It is an amazing archaeological find with all sorts of evidence simply sealed off for thousands of years. The passageways are narrow and low, there is no natural light and methods were primative and tough but ingeneous. Another self-guided tour this time it was done by signs written in the voice of a caveman of the time and was made very accessible for children. An amazing place 🙂
We had a walk round the outside too before retiring to the second hand book shop and tea room for tea, coffee and flapjacks and a peruse of the books for sale. Davies really liked the idea of certain stones having powers so he bought a rose quartz worry stone in the shape of a pig on some leather to wear round his neck and a green stone which is supposed to be lucky. Scarlett later regretted not getting a lucky stone too but fortunately they are in every gift shop so we got her one the following day elsewhere.
For the first time ever I sort of got the whole excitement around archaeology that Davies feels. I met with some resistance but I’m really pleased we saw the two mines we visited. They worked well together in terms of being from two totally different periods, one very recent, the other ancient history and gave a really good feel of what it might have been like to work there aswell as two different types of mined materials.
We drove onwards to the summit centre but only had 15 minutes or so there before they closed which was a shame as there looked to be plenty to do there including a wildlife display and cafe. We looked at the amazing views over bays, mountains and oceans inlcuding a green area which people had ‘graffitied’ using pebbles from the cliffs themselves positioned to write names and messages. I really liked that :).
Back down the hill and round to the other side. We drove back to the campsite stopping on the way for fish and chips for dinner, which were very nice and we sat eating while looking over the view.
We had a lovely walk along the beach as the sun set which was just stunning, before coming back to have another campfire and more marshmallows.
