No, Disneyland is not fake because that is what that place is actually called.
‘Llanfairpwll…’ is fake because nobody actually calls it that and the name didn’t arise organically, but was made up to impress tourists.
So it’s fake in the sense that it was intended to play up to the ‘those crazy Welsh and their crazy language’ crowd, but doesn’t accurately depict the way the Welsh use the language.
pdts
What’s funny about Safeway?
pdts
Just the fact that we’d been traveling around England and Wales, staying in bed and breakfasts, eating pub food, going to British markets like Tesco, and suddenly out here in the middle of Wales is a Safeway that could have been transplanted bodily from our home area in California. It was kind of cool seeing something that looked so simultaneously familiar and out of place.
If you and your wife are mechanically inclined or like loud noises, I heartily recommend Dinorwig, the world’s most interesting (though least useful) power station.
Yeah, Aberystwyth is lovely. If you are taking the coast road up Cardigan Bay, you’ll drive right through it.
Rhossili is nice.
At one time there were hundreds of Safeways in the uk – it was one of the major shops.
pdts
I agree, Aberystwyth is really nice. Conwy Castle is awesome. Beddgelert in Snowdonia is gorgeous.
Well, the new wife and I just got back from our honeymoon, and we had a wonderful 12 days in Wales. We saw lots of castles and some beautifully rugged coastline. The weather cooperated about half of the time, but we didn’t bother taking the train up Snowdon; it was £25/person and the stated visibility was “poor”.
We pretty much drove the whole country (clockwise, for the most part) and stayed in several nice places, including Thornbury Castle near Bristol, England, a nice pub in Raglan, a “gastropub” a few miles north of Brecon, an inn in Wolfscastle, a resorty type place called Portmeirion (a little spendy, mentioned upthread), and a hotel in Cardiff before our morning flight home. Thornbury and Raglan were our favorite castles, and Bondant Garden was spectacular. My wife absolutely adored a little inn on the shore of Tal-y-llyn Lake where we had tea. She’s a bit of an anglophile, and had been dreaming of just such a spot. We avoided military shelling long enough to see the Green Bridge of Wales and Stack Rock. Tintern Abby was stunning.
With the exception of the hotel in Cardiff the last night, the food was universally delicious. We had a nice mixture of pub food and restaurants, and every place we stayed had a lovely breakfast of eggs, sausage, bacon, mushrooms, potatoes and tomatoes. (Speaking of mushrooms: what WERE those? They were AMAZING!) I think I ate my weight in steak and ale pie!
I took a ton of photos (so many that my Aperture disk is full and I’ll need to buy a bigger one), and will link to some in a few days.
Thanks everyone for the tips!