Gordon, Keith, Jon and Robin’s diary of Little Trains of Wales

3rd -9th of May 2009

We all arrived at the house on Sunday. Roy, David and Gordon had a bit of an adventure on the way as our taxi broke down in Shrewsbury and we had to get another one.

The house was lovely with lots of space and beautiful views of the sea and a golf course.

After a cup of tea and some homemade welsh cake we did our unpacking and got to know the others on the holiday. We met some old friends from previous holidays.

In the evening we had a nice buffet dinner and watched a film in the evening.

In the morning after breakfast we went to Caernarfon to catch the Welsh Highland railway to Bed Gelert and on the way Geraint told us how the place got its name. It was a story about a man who told a dog called Gelert to look after a baby but he found the dog with blood and the baby gone. He shot the dog then found the baby and a dead wolf and the dog had killed the wolf to save the baby so he built a memorial to the dog.

We had a picnic lunch on the train on the way back.

Phillip reminded us that we had fish and chips for tea.

The next day, Tuesday, we went to Snowdon and had cakes and coffee in the cafe and then we went up the mountain on the train. Gordon found it a bit high. It was 775 metres up. It was a bit misty so we could not always see a lot. We visited the gift shop and went out to a cafe for tea.

We went back to the house and after more tea and cake we had a tasty lasagne made by Wendy and Adrian, followed by Rhubarb crumble or Tiramasu but I did not want pudding

On Wednesday we went to the little town near by and went on the Talyllyn rail to Nant Gwernol. When we got back to Talyllyn we had lunch in the cafe (luckily Jon kept all the leaflets so we can spell the names). In the evening we had a nice dinner of smoked salmon and pate nibbles followed by Peppered Pork with Mustard Cream sauce and then an Italian Fruit Trifle and coffee and chocolates.

On Thursday we took a drive to Aberystwyth and took the train to Devils bridge. The railway was called the vale of Rheidol Train. We had a picnic at devils bridge and for the first day we had sunshine.

In the evening we went out for a nice meal in the Dovey Inn