I don’t tend to do relaxing holidays preferring instead to cram in as much as I possibly can. After our mental day in Cardiff (see my last few blog posts) our mission for the Sunday was simply to travel from Cardiff to our hotel at the foot of mount Snowdon. On our way we took a detour to the Dan-yr-Ogof Showcaves, a place I found on Google while doing some research. It was a pretty poor day weather wise with sporadic rain showers throughout our visit but the caves were magnificent and well worth the trip plus they had dinosaurs, what more could you ask for!

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Back on the road we drove through the Brecon Beacons, a trip we did on our previous visit last year. The scenery was so different given the lack of snow there was back then but still completely breathtaking, Our hotel also had some beautiful views of the mountain itself and a lovely little castle in the grounds which we visited the following day in the drizzle after deciding that it was too dangerous for us to climb Snowdon with the weather as it was.

We popped into Penceunant Isaf for a quick visit and the best hot chocolate in Wales (the owner Steffan’s claim not mine!) before getting the last diesel train up to the summit of the mountain. It was so weird watching the mist get thicker as we got higher and higher up the mountain. We soon realised that we had made the right decision not to make the climb ourselves as we definitely aren’t experienced enough and one wrong turn could have been disastrous.

The summit itself though was pretty incredible to see and really busy too, not just with other visitors who had taken the train but also people who had braved the entire mountain just to reach the top. I had a cheeky glass of wine in the visitor centre and that mixed with the altitude made me a bit giggly. Matt and I have decided to return next year to try again and hopefully third time will be the charm!

All too soon it was time to make the trip home but not before we stopped in by the Welsh Mountain Zoo on our way to see some animals. The zoo was a little disappointing to be honest and I thought that some of the enclosures were a tad on the small side but we saw two shows by one of the keepers (the sea-lion and penguin ones) and it was clear to see just how much she loves these animals.

If you want to see more pictures I uploaded some extra ones to my Facebook page! It was a wonderful trip and as always I was feeling a bit blue at the thought of returning to work but it’s not long until I have more time off work for a fortnight’s adventure to Scotland, Atlanta and Toronto!