Wales
Once the world’s busiest coal port, Cardiff has reinvented itself as a modern capital city. The reminders of industrial wealth are still present in the opulent state apartments of Cardiff Castle and the grand galleries of the National Museum of Wales. Caerphilly Castle ruins dominate a valley where coal was once mined. In South Wales, Tintern Abbey and St. David’s Cathedral are noted ecclesiastical monuments.
North Wales is dominated by the rugged mountains of Snowdonia, it is here that some of the finest medieval castles in Europe are located. The bristling turrets of Caernarfon and Conwy remind us of the violent conflicts between England and Wales that took place here. The engineer Thomas Telford opened up the region to commerce by building roads, bridges and canal aqueducts, and a number of miniature steam railways were built to export slate from the quarries. A charming oddity is Portmeirion, an Italianate village built as a Utopian example of urban planning.
North Wales is dominated by the rugged mountains of Snowdonia, it is here that some of the finest medieval castles in Europe are located. The bristling turrets of Caernarfon and Conwy remind us of the violent conflicts between England and Wales that took place here. The engineer Thomas Telford opened up the region to commerce by building roads, bridges and canal aqueducts, and a number of miniature steam railways were built to export slate from the quarries. A charming oddity is Portmeirion, an Italianate village built as a Utopian example of urban planning.