Allie in Wales: 7/9/12

I know I say this about every day, but today was just amazing! Tecwyn is keeping us busy, that's for sure. We went to Caernarfon Castle, which is a Norman castle inside the city of Caernarfon. The city is surrounded by tall stone walls and inside are small shops, restaurants, and the castle. This castle is where Prince Charles was inducted as the prince of Wales. It was huge and we just spent a lot of time wandering up the stone spiral staircases, finding hidden rooms, and climbing to the top of the towers. From there we moved onto Cricieth. This is by far my favorite town we've visited so far. It is right on the beach with amazing mountain views. Not to mention it had the most adorable atmosphere with its people and buildings. Tecwyn bought us all ice cream, which was up there with Graeter's! We walked up to Cricieth Castle and the views were just breathtaking. You could see for miles. We were even able to see Aberystwyth, our third stop. The last part of the day we went to the Llechwedd slate mines. In North Wales, the slate industry was absolutely huge. It isn't anymore, but a few mines are still open for tourists. What appear to be mountains around the mine are actually slate tips, where they dump the slate they don't use. We got to go down into the mine which was interesting, as well as see how they used to go about mining the slate. I have a feeling I'll be posting lots of pictures from Bangor because there are so many beautiful and interesting sites here! I can't pick just a few!