Great Orme Copper Mine ...Plus!

We had a delicious made to order breakfast with sides of fruits and breads from the buffet.  I think we each slept well.  The bed is comfy, the comfortable snuggly, and the pillows are soft.  I stayed up late to catch up on this blog while Elva was in bed early.  She hits the bed and almost immediately is asleep.  Now that is a gift!  After writing I took a nice and hot shower once I figured out yet another European faucet system!  I read for awhile and the only downside was that to turn off the book light which is built into the headboard I had to get up out of bed.  Now that is just silly!  So I lay awake awhile but woke up about 5:30 to the sound of the mountain birds.

The sky is a brilliant blue this morning and the clouds are the cotton ball kind of your childhood.  It is warm enough to take off your jacket!  I commented to Conwy, our Welsh guide, is this a Welsh joke?  He looked at me quizzically.  I continues, this is the first beautiful, sunny  morning and you are taking us down into a giant hole in the earth!  everyone laughed.  Yes, we went to the Great Orme Bronze Age Copper Mine!

Orme is a Scandinavian word meaning head of a snake. When the vikings came to Wales they saw this 'head shaped' mountain protruded through the never ending mist of the Irish sea and thought it was the head of a sea serpent. The 4000 thousand year old excavation site was uncovered when a new 'car park' was being planned.  Health and Safety required the developers to make sure that the hill was safe to build on.  Well, it was but not right there!  A thousand years of rubble had been taken from the earth and piled on top.

Copper isn't a metal when it is mined, it comes by way of a process that begins with a green rock.  This is pounded to a powder, piled on or under, charcoal that is ten times the weight of it.  It is melted and can be molded but to be copper it needs to be smelted together with tin!  How did these people know that or know where to get tin?  How did they bring it to Wales and how did they distribute the finished tools and weapons all over Europe?  They have been found in so many places.  Amazing.

The Great Orme Copper Mine

To get to the mine we drove to the Victorian seaside town of Llandudno.  Hotel after hotel lines the shore side while the humpback mountain looms over it all.  We rode a funicular type trolley to the halfway point up the mountain and then walked over the grass, avoiding the goat droppings, to the entrance.  Today was Elva's turn to trip and fall.  I think she was trying to take a picture and stepped on a mole hole.  Elva, being Elva, bounced right up off the spongy grass and continued with us all to learn the history of the mine.  Then, sporting colorful hard hats, we went 80 feet down into ground.  The passageways were narrow, the ground was slippery rock, and it was dark.  I was leading our group and I would call out warning - steps, and count them. or low ceiling, or sharp rock on the side.  Quite an adventure for such a short trip.  A little more touring at the site and we took the tram down.

Nick is one of the miners and gave a wonderful tour.

These are shaft entrances.  It is not a deep pit mine although it is deep in many places.

Back at the hotel we have the afternoon off. Serge, our driver, has a legal mandate to have 24 hours off.  So this today we have lunch on our own so Elva and I visited the little church next door.  It is High Anglican and quite lovely.  Pink sandstone arches really are set off against the grey limestone walls.  I find that small churches are so pretty and a relief from viewing cathedral after glistening palace!  Each pew has both an English language and a Welsh bible.  Those were neat to compare.

Reflections

We then walked across to a small shopping area that I think is built for this town's booming tourist trade.  Betws-y-Coed is the entry way for the Snowdonia National Park.  Aspenish in character although I don't remember ever having actually been in Aspen.  We walked along peeking in each shop and settled back at the begiining for a delicious Pizza Marguerite and a bottle of Curiosity Cola.  Sitting in the metal basket chairs at a little round table in the warm sunshine made the pizza extra tasty.  This area, just like all of Wales, is dog friendly.  Dozens dozed while their owners ate.  This guy tried to steal the ice cream of his Mom!

From 2:30 until about 4:30 we had talks with Conwy in the bay windowed 'function' room of the hotel  It was warm and I was not the only one fighting to not doze.  This is the first real sit down time we have had.  The talks were very good about the topography and history of Wales based on it.  The second talk was about how the Welsh identify as a nation within a country.

I knew that if we just settled into our room we would both be asleep long before our 7:00 dinner.  We walked up the road in the opposite direction of this afternoon and crossed the river to see several waterfalls.  The sound of rushing water battling its way over the rocky riverbed is so beautiful.  The tall trees of the park shaded our walk and the sun was dappling the rough ground with dancing shadows.  We met nice people along the way and saw lots more puppies.  On the way back we also so nice places to shop.

 

 

Dinner was delicious.  I had chicken stuffed with leeks and cheese, potato casserole, and for dessert fresh fruit.  We sat with Rita and David and enjoyed have totally new conversations.  I really like them.  They are from Connecticut and I think we will be friends.

Back in the room Elva and I each had near misses which un-nerves us temporarily.  Elva got a credit fraud alert which she was able to resolve.  I misplaced money and my Global Entry Card.  Totally unpacked everything twice and then on the third go round found it right where it should have been.

Good Night, nurse!  and just plain, good night!