One of the cornerstones of my trip and the literal peak of my time in Wales will be climbing Snowdon Mountain. Well, “climbing” isn’t quite the right thing to say as I plan on taking a steam train to the peak and then hike back down. Without a car, my planning challenge has been to get to the base of the mountain early enough to pull this off. Today was to have been Hike Day but my perfect weather took a turn for the worse. Flexibility in my day’s plans was called for.
My plan now became to hike if the weather cleared. When my train arrived at Bangor it was still nasty out so I stayed onboard and rode it to the end of the line. Holyhead is a port city with ferry and cargo terminals focused mainly on Ireland. I had 30 minutes to run around so I took some pictures and hopped back on my train. I had one more stop planned before reaching Bangor and it had only one purpose. I wanted a picture of the longest town name as it appears on the train station: Llanfairpwllgwyngyllgogerychwyrndrobwyll. I got it, mission accomplished!
Though it was still raining when I got back to Bangor, I decided to to disembark anyway. Even in the rain I could accomplish a few things at this western edge of the Wales mainland. Bangor wasn’t without its attractions: a cathedral, a university, etc. Furthermore there were two noteworthy castles nearby in Caernarfon and Conwywhich, I wouldn’t pay to tour in the rain but, which were nevertheless impressive structures to see. The most important thing I could do from Bangor was resolve any remaining questions about my Snowdon train-hike adventure.
A 30 minute walk and two train rides had delivered me to Bangor. I still needed to get to Llanberis which is where the train and trail begin. I still needed to buy my Snowdon train ticket. I still needed to consult with an expert on Snowdon to decide by which of the many paths I would descend. This was all worth doing today even if it kept raining, which it did.
By 2:30 my Llandberis/Snowdon knot had been untangled. I knew how to catch the right bus and had ridden it. I had tickets for the 12:00 train to the summit on Thursday, the day we forecast was most likely to have good weather. I knew which trail I’d take down from the peak. All that was left for my day was to retrace my steps back to Liverpool.
Even though this 10th day of my trip was the first day of protracted bad weather, I feel I made the most of it. The last unknowns for my Snowdon adventure are known. I just need to keep busy till Thursday so I think I’ll take in more sites around Liverpool tomorrow. It’s a town well worth further exploration.
by 
