L is for LLANBERIS

This week we are honouring the letter L as in lion, letter, language, leapfrog, lettuce, llama, lovely, and literature.

While visiting Wales this summer, I learned that lots of places haves names beginning with a double LL...like Llandundno, Llanarth, Llandona, Llandyfrydog, Llanellen, Llangeview, and Llechcynfarwy. Now the "Ll" part at the beginning of the name sounds kind of like a hard "chl..." and Llan means "village" or "parish" and Llech means relating to slate. One of the loveliest places I visited was the village of "Llanberis" which is where you get the train to go up Mount Snowden.  It was a lighthearted day with my friend Jane and the village was lively with tourists, both Welsh people and people from other parts of Great Britain and the world. 

We started off on our own tour of the area, first stopping at a local lake called Padarn Lake, where we saw boats lazily drifting along.  There is an entire country park at this lake (or Llyn, in Welsh) where you can see Dolbadarn Castle, Quarry Hospital - a museum housing the restored ward, operating theatre and various gruesome 19th Century hospital equipment, the National Slate Museum, a diving center, and more.  We stayed on the side of the lake where we got the train up the mountain, and while awaiting our turn, we had an hour to kill.  So we wandered over to the Llanberis Lake Railway where a little steam engine takes you on a five-mile return journey around the lake. Watch the youtube video below and be sure to turn up your sound for the music and some explanations and you can also watch it in full-screen, just clicking on "escape" to go back to normal. I'm going to do this trip next time I'm in Wales.

https://youtu.be/hJQwuHRCO9o 

Then it was time to load the train with the 3 o'clock visitors so off we went.  It wasn't sunny, but it wasn't raining so we locked hands and hoped the weather would hold until we reached the summit, which was an hour's ride away.  We had to laugh as we got about halfway when the rain started coming down in sheets!  Well, we wouldn't get the lovely view from the top, but we did have a coffee and bought some postcards of the view when we got there.  It was a bit better going down, and the sun was shining when we reached the bottom.  It was well worth the ride, though, and I would do it again in a minute.  Enjoy the brief slideshow of our time there. All the photos are mine except two at the end that I found online but don't know the photographer. 

With legendary thanks to the Lady Denise Nesbitt, creator of ABC Wednesday, and to Lord Roger, our administrator, for all the laborious work he puts into organizing our weeks. Also, thanks to the loyal and lively group of assistants who leap through their day so they can leave all of us lavish and limitless appreciation of our contributions.