Mick's Motoring Wales Wander

[mickthemaverick]

All Integrale were LHD........

Indeed they were from the factory Alasdair, but I know two chaps who both converted them to RHD. In my label I was indicating how I knew it was likely to be an Integrale from a distance

[CitroJim]

Do enjoy a great trip Mick and Bob

[mickthemaverick]

Time for the tale of Day 2. Bob is currently down a slate mine while I sample the cafe's offerings so time to update

Having had an exceptionally good evening in Amici's with Gibbo where much reminiscing of times and adventures of days gone by was thoroughly enjoyed we headed off to bed in The Angel.

Day 2 began with a stroll round Coleford before breakfast and I collected the following pictures. Gibbo will be able to expand on any I'm sure:

Our evening meal venue

The terrace looking a tad sad now

Central Car Park 1

Central Car Park 2

Central Car Park 3

The local entertainment

What is around

Anyone for a workshop?

The Signal Box

Rolling Stock

Train Museum Gates

The modern unisex toilets which replaced the old town ones.

Having captured the feel for the town I went back for breakfast:

Bob's Full English

My American

Both were delicious and consumed with relish before setting off on our journey to Llandrindodd Wells where we stopped for beer and ice cream and a stroll round the local sights:

The Rock Park

The Spring

The Llanerch Inn for liquid refreshment

The Metropole Hotel, home of the CSMA Curtiss Bennett Rally in the last century!

The interesting Road/Rail truck in the Metropole car park.

The lake end

The other end

Essential lakeside refreshments

Having downed our ice creams we set off for The Elan Valley and the next post in this series!!

[mickthemaverick]

Having satisfied our Ice Cream yearnings we struck out for the Elan Valley, via my favourite signpost in the UK. Unfortunately when we got there I discovered my original loved finger post has been updated and the new one, while containing the same amusing directions, doesn't quite strike home as the old finger post used to because it has additional information which detracts from the obvious dilemma that greeted every driver who arrived at the junction in the past!!

Which way to Elan Village?

Having left that in our wake we headed into the valley proper which Jim and I had visited earlier this year when we went to see Gibbo. This time we had better weather and I stopped a few times to put together this set of pictures:

The sheer rockface adjacent to a view point

The low level reservoir

Along the valley to the dam

The relief valve

The dam which can hold back 8 billion gallons!!

The information plaque

Having left the valley we headed north to our overnight stay in Machynleth passing some interesting carvings and an exceedingly stoney beach, not to mention the AA box at Devil's Bridge:

1

2

Looking South on the Cambrian Coast

Looking North on the Cambrian Coast

Carving 1

Carving 2

Finally we arrived at The White Lion where we found the bar somewhat deserted

The bar

Our table

Of course we did not let that deter us and ordered in two different local beers:

Light for Bob, dark for me

Having dispatched a couple of those we ordered dinner, ate it and then headed for bed ready for a sensible start today to get here, to the Caves which Bob is still down in!!

Mt Steak and Guinness Pie and Chips

Bob's Beef Chilly and Rice

We actually both agreed I might have had the better choice!!

If you are still awake have no fear day three is to come!!

[MattBLancs]

I'm still awake, see you tomorrow!

[Paul-R]

Et moi.

[CitroJim]

FOMO!!!!

[mickthemaverick]

Is that lycra lingo??

[Hell Razor5543]

Fear Of Missing Out.

[MattBLancs]

FOMO!!!!

Fear Of Missing Out.

Not to be confused with

Spoiler: show

(Nicked from: https://ebay.us/m/pQzzCw )

[MattBLancs]

Heck of an exhaust silencer on top of that yellow truck! (Is it a Unimog?)

[bobins]

Here's the other side of that 'silencer'

More here: https://superrod.co.uk/on-line-on-track ... -drainage/

[mickthemaverick]

Day 3 began with the sun beaming into the room and waking me early. I watched 2 hours TV before going down for breakfast at 8.30. Bob had his usual Full English but I settled for orange juice, a bacon sandwich and a pot of tea still feeling full from Monday evening's meal!!

We set off for Blaenau Ffestiniog where Bob had booked a tour of the deep mine as per:

https://www.zipworld.co.uk/adventures/deep-mine-tour

I settled down in the cafe to write up the previous couple of posts on this thread and then spent a while encourageing a robin to have some of my crisps!!:

My writing partner!

Eventually, an hour or so later, I headed back out to the car to bring our maps up to date, as we had taken a faster route in the morning to get to ZipWorld on time, and I like the maps to reflect the actual route taken rather than the plan when we make alterations.. After Bob rejoined me we set off through Snowdonia heading for the destination both named and explained in the following:

Snowden from the SW side

The Menai Straight

What it is

The usually published name plate

What it means

How to pronounce it!

They remind you where you are in the extensive shop

Random bloke proving we were there!!

Having made our best efforts at saying it correctly we set off for our overnight stay in Colwyn Bay via Bangor and LLandudno arriving at the guest house at 5.30. We checked in and put the luggage in our rooms before setting out to find some dinner. I had picked out a potential place, The Valentine Inn, which is about 4 miles east of our guest house and we drove there only to find absolutely nowhere to park!! We drove around all the streets close enough to walk from with no luck at all. So we decided to head back to Colwyn Bay and look for somewhere there. Bob spotted a pub up a side turning from the main road so I executed a U turn at the next available place and we went back to it. Both being fairly hungry by now, almost an hour had past since we started out, we parked and worked our way in via two poole tables and past two dartboards. There was no sign of anyone eating so we rather dejectedly asked the barmaid if they served food. "No I'm afraid not!" was the reply so we asked if she could suggest somewhere that did.

Soon we were on the road heading down to the Brewers Fayre pub about 2 miles further down the main road which she had advised and on arrival we liked the look of it so hurried in to satiate our empty tums. We met the back of a queue of 5 people standing behind the "Please wait here to be seated" sign. Hmmm!! So we stood and waited and watched and waited and watched until about 5 minutes later a girl arrived and engaged, what we had now realised to be, the group of four at the front in conversation. After a few minutes she picked up a bunch of menus and took them into the seating area. More time passed and two more couples came in behind us and joined the queue. Bob and I exchanged irritated glances and then another woman appeared at the front and announced to the queue in general " You should be aware there is a 1 hour and 20 minute wait for food" We exchanged another look and extracted ourselves from the queue and headed back to the car to resume our search.

By now it was 7.30, remembering we had set out at 5.50!! so the conversation turned to cornish pasties from Lidl or maybe a visit to a chippy followed by a park bench picnic!! Then we realised we hadn't actually seen a chippy the entire time so we decided to carry on to the next roundabout in the hope of finding a place before returning to Lidl which we had passed. On the way to that roundabout we passed a Railway Station and I said to Bob "I wonder if there is a Station Hotel?" because that is a common occurrence around the country and blow me down 50metres further on to the roundabout we came across the Station Hotel. Brilliant we thought, parked and entered. We were settled and served drinks in a few minutes and our dinners arrived 10 minutes later, Steak Pie for Bob and Gammon Steak for me, they were delicious!! The hotel was quite interesting too:

The Station Hotel bar

Flying boats?

The fireplace

Our dining area

Having finally fed ourselves we returned to the Guest House and are now each doing our own thing until tomorrow's brekkie!!

Tomorrow we head along the coast via Prestatyn and Flint to meet Paul R and Matt in Sealand! Looking forward to it!

[MattBLancs]

Here's the other side of that 'silencer'

More here: https://superrod.co.uk/on-line-on-track ... -drainage/

Call that a silencer? This is a silencer! (In best Crocodile Dundee impression)

The bit wot I meant

[MattBLancs]

Trying to think what crisps would best suit an avian diner.
SeabROOK ?
Unlikely Walkers (as they are more flyers, obviously!)

Was trying to guess if "Zip world" was more:

Spoiler: show

but I then realised it is Zippo !

Or

Spoiler: show

Wheeeeee

Or even

Spoiler: show

I don't think it's really NSFW (Not Safe For Work) but equally maybe you work in a nunnery.

(Image is from an Amazon listing, don't be frightened!)

Spoiler: show

Quite a different zip world option