Our final outing on this particular stay in Wales was to the Barmouth Mawddach Estuary where the mountains meet the sea, along the wooded banks and sandy shores. It is in the south west corner of the Snowdonia National Park,
Barmouth is perched on the side of a mountain with beautiful views of the harbour and Barmouth Bridge which spans the river mouth. There was a bitterly cold wind blowing that day in January but we took a short walk along part of the Railway Walk to the toll bridge across the river mouth.
The Railway Walk - Barmouth to Dolgellau
After our walk we went to The George III Hotel in Penmaenpool, Dolgellau for lunch, a lovely location with beautiful views over the estuary. The main hotel was built around 1650 and was once two separate buildings. One half was a pub and the other half a ships chandlers serving the local boat building industry. In 1890 the buildings were joined to make the place into a hotel. Until 1964 the hotel was adjacent to a railway station, but sadly it was a victim of the Beecham Railway Cuts The hotel was extended in 1977 when the Victorian Railway Station Waiting Room, Ticket Office and Station Masters Quarters were obtained and extended to form bedrooms for the hotel.
Our lunch was excellent as the hotel prides itself in using the highest quality locally sourced fresh ingredients and the interior surroundings were a cosy respite from the cold weather.
This is another area we would very much like to return to next time we are visiting my sister.
My mosaics and photos will enlarge if you click on them, however if you would prefer to view the photos individually, you may do so in My Flickr.com album entitled. Travel Tales - Barmouth Mawddach Estuary
For further information I direct you to the sources I used myself, The Railway Walk - Barmouth to Dolgellau , Barmouth Snowdonia National Park, The Mawddach Estuary, The George III Hotel Beeching Railway Cuts.
The next stop on our UK trip was to drive from Salisbury to stay
with my sister and her husband at their relatively new home in Tywyn Wales, which
they are in the process of renovating as a lovely home for their retirement
years.
The pace of life there is definitely more relaxed than
Salisbury, where they lived before. Tywyn was not unknown to them as they had lived in the town
before, about thirty years ago in fact on the army base. We had spent a holiday
there with them and remembered how beautiful the area was and taking a ride on
the The Talyllyn
Railway. Of course this trip it was mid winter and rather different but
it was still lovely to explore the area and spend some quality time
together.
Tywyn is a small town and seaside resort on the Cardigan Bay
coast of Gwynedd in north Wales and it has everything one needs for town living
within easy walking distance including a cinema and a library. There are also
excellent rail connections if you need to visit other parts of the country with
out driving. However I think a huge draw for my sister and her husband was the
fact that they are also minutes on foot from the beach and the welsh
hills.
The Town
A Walk To The Broadwater
The Broadwater, is a lagoon just a mile to the north of the town which flows into
Cardigan Bay, popular for fishing, canoeing and bird watching.
Bird Rock viewed across The Broadwater.
The Beach, Sea, Sky.
My next couple of posts will also be tales from our stay in Wales.
All photos will enlarge if you click on them, however if you would prefer to view the photos individually you may do
so in My Flickr.com album Travel Tales - Tywyn
For more information I direct you to the sources I used
myself. Tywyn – Wikipedia, and The Talyllyn
Railway Tywyn Tourist Information
