How do you pronounce the name of this Welsh village which is prominently displayed in its railway station?
Give up? Click on the link below and hear how the locals pronounce it.
This village (with its 58-letter name) on the island of Anglesey holds the record of being the place with the longest name in Britain. The name was invented in the 1860s to attract visitors to the village.
The translation reads: St Mary’s church in the hollow of the white hazel near to the fierce whirlpool of St Tysillio of the red cave. This village, also known as Llanfair PG, is one of the many unique attractions of this beautiful country. Croeso I Gymru (Welcome to Wales). We had fun trying to pronounce all the names of Welsh towns as we drove across the country. Apparently without much success. Look at our tongues. They are all twisted. Even though it was a bit of rush after our 15-day cruise to St Petersburg, I pushed for this trip to Wales. After having visited many parts of England, and a bit of Ireland and Scotland, it is just not right to miss out this final piece of the United Kingdom. Wales produces many famous singers such as Shirley Bassey, Tom Jones, Mary Hopkin, Charlotte. Church, and my personal favourite Katherine Jenkins who once told her audience: “There are two kinds of people in this world — Welsh, and people who want to be Welsh.” I don’t know about people wanting to be Welsh but in another performance in Salt Lake City, Utah, she asked members of the famous Mormon Tabernacle Choir how many of them had Welsh ancestry, and all 360 of them put up their hands. Music is in the blood of the Welsh people. My knowledge of Wales is very limited. Left to me, I would have just gone to Cardiff or Swansea. Lucky my brother James was there, and he suggested we visit the Snowdonia region in the north instead. It is much more beautiful there. And he was right. Initially, we wanted to use as a base the home of our friends Kimmy and Mario in Hemel Hempstead. And we would have taken a train to Bangor as we could still use the discounts from our railcards. From there, we would rent a car to explore the surrounding region. All that changed while we were in St Petersburg. Kimmy had contacted a friend Doug who was very familiar with Wales. Doug and his wife Pek were regular visitors to Wales as their daughter was studying there for two years. Doug found a cottage in Llandwrog, a small village three miles from Caernarfon, at £140 for 2 nights. That’s a real bargain. The problem was that we were in Russia then, and they couldn’t contact us. That’s when Kimmy told Doug: Just book the cottage! That’s settled then. Six of us would be going to Wales — me, my wife, brother James, Kimmy, Doug and his wife Pek.
We did not have to take the train after all. Doug offered to drive us there in his “old faithful,” a six-seater car. That reduced our costs tremendously. As an added bonus, we had Doug as our guide. And he was the perfect guide. He was a mine of information and kept us entertained all along the way. He would point out to us some of the interesting places we would pass on the way to Wales, starting with the English side of the border. Among them were: 1. Milton Keynes: Named after the famous economist Lord Maynard Keynes, who gave us the Law of Supply and Demand. 2. Silverstone: The Formula 1 racing circuit 3. Birmingham: Venue of the All England badminton championship, and Villa Park, the home of a famous old football club, Aston Villa, and headquarters of Dunlop Tyres, UK. 4. Telford: Named after the famous civil engineer Thomas Telford. It is the UK’s fastest growing new town and contrasts sharply with the neighbouring Ironbridge, the birthplace of the Industrial Revolution. 5. i54: Britain’s high tech park (i for IT and 54 because it is located along the M54 motorway. It houses many global IT and advanced manufacturing companies and is home of Jaguar Land Rover. We stopped at Shropshire for an English lunch of fish and chips before crossing over to Wales. Ready or not, Wales here we come! Well they were not ready for us. There was a road closure on the A5 motorway and we had to do a diversion. Not a problem. As they say, we had to take the more scenic route.
The town names may look and sound strange to us but the shop names look familiar. Names like Williams, Owens, Evans and Hughes. They are the popular surnames in Wales.
Our first stop in Wales was at Betws-y-coed train station. One of the attractions of the station was a ride on the mini train. For the next 8 minutes, the six of us senior cittizens became kids again, and thoroughly enjoyed the ride on the choo-choo train.
We asked for a late checkin at the cottage because we wanted to squeeze as much as possible into our first day programme. There was a lot to see and the next stop, Swallow Falls is only a 5-minute drive away. Admission to Swallow Falls or Rhaeadr Ewynnol used to be free but now you have to pay £1.50 to get in. I think it is small price to pay to enjoy the beauty of this place.
Swallow Falls or Rhaeadr Ewynnol
You have to do a bit of walking. There are stairs to take you to the bottom of the falls, and a path to take you higher up for a more panoramic view. There is a charming hotel across the road for those who want to spend more time here.
We promised to be at our rented cottage by 5pm, so we started on our journey which is estimated to take about an hour. The drive would take us through very winding roads across the Snowdonia mountain range.
The mountain view is as spectacular as any you can find in the Lake District and the Scottish Highlands.
We had planned to take the Snowdon Mountain Railway the next day up to Snowdon, which at 1,085 metres is described as the rooftop of Wales. I can only imagine how much better the view will be.
Finding the Cae Berllan Holiday Cottage proved to be a problem. Basically we had too many navigators. Poor Doug. Finally with the help of the GPS and James, using good old fashioned way asking for directions from the locals, we found the place.
Cae Berllan Holiday Cottage
We fell in love with the cottage immediately. Our host, Mike, was very helpful. He used to be in the navy and had visited Penang during his service years. Plus we had as neighbours a family from Philippines, so we felt right at home in that environment.
After dinner, we did a bit more touring. First we crossed the Britannia Bridge, designed by Robert Stephenson (the Father of Railways), to the island of Anglesey.
We headed for the village with the longest name but stopped only for a while as the shops in the station were already closed.
Another popular attraction, Beaumaris, lies further up the coast road. This was the first place Prince William and Kate Middleton lived as a married couple. Again most of the shops were closed, so we just did a quick tour of the town.
We stopped briefly outside Beaumaris Castle to admire this Unesco World Heritage site. It is an awesome castle, one of the many built by Edward I.
We took a different route back to our cottage, this time crossing over the Menai Bridge which was designed by Thomas Telford. We passed a town named after him in England, remember?
The next day, we paid another visit to Llanfair PG, the village with the longest name. We wanted to look for souvenirs and find out more about the place. Doug wanted to send a postcard back from there. I managed to persuade a lady at one of the shops to pronounce the name for me. And i had it recorded because i know I will never be able to repeat it.
We had scheduled visits to two castles for the day. The first was Conwy Castle, an impressive 13th century fortification. It stands guard over the River Conwy and the medieval walled town of Conwy.
Visitors can hike up to the four circular towers of the castle but we were not up to it. We were satisfied just strolling about the town, and going through little treasures in the antique shops.
Caernarfon Castle ... investiture of Prince Charles as Prince of Wales in 1969
Caernarfon Castle is the most famous castle in Wales. Unlike the other castles, it was built in 1283 not just as a military stronghold. Edward I wanted it to serve as a seat of government and a royal palace.
It gained worldwide fame in the modern era when it served as the setting for the investiture of Prince Charles as the Prince of Wales in 1969.
Again, we did not have time to go inside the castle. I would have loved to visit the Regimental Museum of the Royal Welsh Fusilliers, Wales oldest regiment.
We decided to have our lunch at the Wetherspoon in Caernarfon. This pub chain owns over 900 outlets in UK and as it was Thursday, the weekly food promotion was Curry Club.
Our two destinations in the afternoon proved to be a disappointment.
The first was at the Dinorwig Power Station in Llanberis. This place was recommended to us by an English "guide" while we were on the train journey from Glasgow to Mallaig. The English guy was very proud of the power station's clever use of gravity to generate power and he insisted we should visit this place.
This operation, known as pumped storage electricity, involves having two reservoirs at two different altitudes. During periods of peak demand, such as intervals of very popular football matches, water is released from the top reservoir to turn the turbines below. The water is later pumped back up during the off peak hours when power cost is cheaper.
When we turned up at the visitor centre, we were told that the tour for the next two days were fully booked. From the brochures, I see that the tour is very impressive as it takes you deep into the mountain and you get to see the huge turbines up close.
Our second disappointment was that there were no tickets for the Snowdon Mountain Railway. Tickets are priced at £37 (RM208) each and the ride to the summit takes about two hours.
We took the long route back to our cottage. We passed Llyn Padarn, one of the largest natural lakes in Wales, Lyn Peris, which forms the lower reservoir of the Dinorwig power station, and we stopped briefly at Miners Track. A group of hikers can be seen coming down from the Britannia copper mine.
The view of the surrounding mountain range is impressive even though it may not be as good as the one from the summit of Snowdon. A small consolation for us.
On the third day, we were all packed and ready to leave at 7.30am
I thought Doug was driving us straight back to Hemel Hempstead. To my surprise, he took us to Llandudno, the base station of the Great Orme Tramway.
1. Llandudno
2. Great Orme Tramway
We had arrived early and the tram only starts moving at 10am, so we took the opportunity to explore the town.
This tram operates like Penang Hill's funicular railway where the descending car helps to pull the other car going up. And like the early Penang Hill railway, it has a midway station where you have to get off and take another train to the top.
The fare is £7.50 for this 1 mile trip up to the summit where they say on a clear day you can see as far as the Isle of Man, Blackpool and the Lake District. Unfortunately it was raining when we reached the top and it was very windy, preventing us from moving freely on the summit.
This summit, which stands at 207 metres above sea, used to serve as a radar early warning station during the Second World War.
On the way down, we decided to stop at the Halfway Station to explore the nearby Bronze Age Copper Mines. It has become one of Britain's most important archaeological sites since excavation began in 1987.
These mines date back 4,000 years and have changed the views long held about the ancient people of Britain. It showed their civilized and structured society 2,000 years before the arrival of the Romans.
These discoveries nearly did not come about. In 1987, the local council had wanted to turn the whole place into a car park. However, an underground survey had to be carried out before this plan could be implemented. It was during this survey that a labyrinth of early mine passages and chambers was discovered, together with many of the ancient mining tools.
Like the other two holidays, this Wales trip proved to be quite hectic. We tried to squeeze a lot into two and a half days.
In our three holidays covering 5 weeks, we have used almost all forms of transport:
1. Air travel
For my wife and I, we had to fly for 13 hours from KL to London, as the Britannia would sail from Southampton. For my brother James, add another 16 hours from Launceston in Tasmania to KL with many hours in transit.
2. Rail and road travel
i. Lake District and Scottish HIghlands
10 days criss-crossing UK on trains and by car. We had gone from London in the south, all the way to Inverness in the north.
ii. Wales
Nearly 3 days on the road, from Hemel Hempstead to Caernarfon in Wales.
3. Sea travel
15 days by sea from Southampton to St Petersburg and back.
Now we need another holiday to recover from these three Dream Holidays.
