Another sunny, warm hello from Wales.  If this weather keeps up, I may even come home with a tan. As I'm typing this, there is a very annoying seagull outside my window loudly,cawing. I'm not sure what his deal is but if he's the little bugger who woke me up at 4:09 this morning, he better go far far away or else!

Today we had a couple of "brilliant" stops.  We started by visiting the Llechwedd Slate Mine.  After being equipt with safety helmets, we took a funicular like thing down to the mine. We had an excellent guide who gave us some great background info:  miners worked in teams of 4- 2 in the mine and 2 in the mill cutting it.  All 4 members were from the same family.  Good slate got you paid.  Bad slate barely got you paid (in many instances they ended the week in debt after buying candles, tools etc from the mining company).  They worked 12 hrs.  Horrible work above and below ground.  If workers made to 40 yrs. they were lucky because the dust would get into their lungs and after time be like concrete in their lungs making it nearly impossible to breathe.  Kids as young as 8 worked there. Hard life.  The mine is still working (under better conditions now) but they were laid off  months ago because there was no good slate being found.  The guy said they hope to be starting up again soon.

After our tour and a lunch in their cafe we headed to a town that didn't amount to much and then we went to Trefriw Woolen Mills.  It's still in working order.  There were only 2 workers and we didn't have a guide so we didn't get a whole lot of information.  It was interesting to see the different machines working.  I was mesmerized by a loom that was making a blanket.

We ended our day on a pretty note at the Bodnant Garden.  Puts the Botanical Garden to shame.  80 acres of trees, flowers, a waterfall, babbling brook.  GORGEOUS.  The garden was donated to Wales, with the condition that the family could still live in the house (aka MANSION).  The grounds were filled with flowers and trees from around the world.  Quite the sight.

When we got back to the hotel my friend and I decided to dip our toes in the Irish Sea.  We had to walk quite a bit down the boardwalk so that we could get to a non rocky spot.  Since it was low tide, we had to cross a bunch of sand to finally get to the water.  It was so refreshing!!  I was thinking it would be cold like the Adriatic Sea but that wasn't the case.  It wasn't cold (of course only my feet were in). We saw a cool jellyfish in the water and a few more stuck to the rocks on the beach as we left.  If the weather holds out, I hope to do that again tomorrow!

All set!

 High ho, high ho it's off to the mine we go!

A man giving a demonstration on how the slate is split (the tiles were/are used for roofs.  Here 6,00lbs for a roof.  The US- $90,000)

 Can you tell which is good? (answer below don't cheat!)  I can't!  He said he'd actually rather have the bad on his roof because it's stronger.

the one on TOP is the better one.

The woolen mill

This machine mesmerized me- how the wooden stick would hit back and forth the shuttle.

The beautiful gardens- too hard to choose photos!

At the beach.....toes in the sand

 

The sand says 'Wales 2014' but it's hard to see

Jellyfish!