Tywyn escape

As the Covid situation got messier and messier, we decided to take advantage of the Welsh government's decision to end their fire break as planned, despite England entering 4 weeks of lockdown. Seeing that the infection numbers in some parts of Wales were still grim, we booked a cottage in Mid Wales for a week, thinking that it might be our only chance for some new scenery before they are forced to introduce new and more draconian restrictions. So, on the first day of relative freedom, we headed up north, through mid Wales (lovely) to Tywyn:

The "3 hour" route through mid Wales is lovely, the only drawback is having to drive past Merthyr Tydfil which is a truly horrid place at the best of times (one of the most depressed towns in Wales so we heard with many social issues) and it was the Covid capital of the entire UK too with the very worst infection rates. We kept the windows closed and the aircon on recirculate until well clear.....

Mid Wales was as spectacular as ever with nice roads, vistas and little traffic so we enjoyed the drive up and a brief coffee stop in Brecon.

The cottage in Tywyn had good views from the kitchen and a sofa in there too so you could admire them:

and a beach in very close proximity which Izzy enjoyed:

with some interestingly painted stones in one area:

We think that Patrick has already visited Tywyn and quite some time ago looking at how weathered the paint was:

Some short excursions followed to Machynlleth, the claimed ancient capital of Wales, Barmouth and Dolgellau. All had rather wonderful coffee shops for us with excellent cakes and good walks to amuse the dog. Machynlleth has a real "Cornish town" feel about it, very alternative, very Eco friendly, loads of independent shops, beautiful old buildings and on market day a proper little town buzz. Such a contrast to some of the "little towns" we visited in Scotland that are, frankly, scruffy and sad. The housing stock here is way better looked after too.

Barmouth had the delights of a huge sandy beach to amuse Izzy:

and a lovely coffee spot (look up Goodies) with great staff, coffee, ciabatta and cake. Suitably fuelled we walked around the town and discovered that Izzy must have been here before and modelled for a pub sign:

Then we walked to the old footbridge that runs across the estuary with the railway line. A proper piece of Victorian railway engineering that the Railtrack guys have to live with and maintain now. Ouch. Have a look at Wikipedia entry

The views of and from the bridge are lovely especially as the sun came out for us:

The trip back was over the toll bridge at Penmaenpool. Here is a stock picture - kind of hard to get one when driving over it:

A proper wooden bridge and well worth the 80p toll. Actually, we gave them £1 and didn't wait for any change in these Covid times. Extravagant we know but safety first and all that.....

Back at base, the sous chef was ever hopeful that we would drop something:

with a stare that tried to force something tasty to fall on the floor.

The other day trips were to Dolgellau and Aberdovey, Dolgellau had a nice flat (for the crew's dodgy knees) walk along the river using an old railway line and another truly excellent coffee and cake stop with the freshest cakes we have tasted whilst "out" for ages. A quirky place, using an old hardware store and keeping the original shop counters and fittings. Again some borrowed pictures and from the pre Covid times too:

 Aberdovey was a big hit with Izzy, another large beach:

and the chance to do some digging:

which clearly was tiring. 

All in all a very beautiful area and one which we will happily revisit sometime. In fact, if England continues with a post Xmas lockdown and Wales stays a little more "open", the revisit might be sooner than we expect.