The Royal Victoria Hotel sits at the head of Llanberis Pass, close to the foot of Mount Snowdon. Its elevated position provides superb perspectives over Llanberis town, harking back to a smart old school master valuing his class.
Stuck between the 2 lakes of Llyn Padarn and Llyn Peris, the hotel is a brilliant base for exploring the wild terrain of Snowdonia. The rain had continued thru the night and showed small sign of letting up. Allegedly Llanberis gets two times as much yearly rainfall as Caernarfon 10 miles to the west and I could actually believe it. Staffs dressed all in black were very happy to serve your each fancy. For the early risers, there’s the posh of a table in the conservatory and great perspectives across the hamlet and lake. Sadly my painful limbs wouldn’t permit the good thing about an early start and I took my place with the commoners in the breakfast room.
The staff all appeared to have bizarre accents; my best guess that of EU. Everywhere I have travelled in the United Kingdom latterly has been staffed with foreigners. There seems to be some type of Western European swap shop going on. Somewhere in the far flung corner of the continent must reside an excess of English folk serving coffee and tea, and asking folks what they thought about the weather.
Notwithstanding a population of just two thousand, Llanberis provides jobs for over 1,200 folks, mainly thru tourism. It’s most renowned attraction is the Snowdon Mountain Railway, Britain’s only rack and pinion railroad. Accept it or not it opened the same day as the modern Olympics at Athens in 1896. Sadly the opening day wasn’t without its casualties when one of the carriages derailed and tumbled down Llanberis Pass. Surprisingly there were no more derailments to this day, a comforting thought as I made my way to the ticket booth. Alas, the train today would only be going three-quarters of the way up due to ice on the track at the top. Having driven all of the way to Llanberis the least I am able to do is wait for the ice to clear and travel to the peak. Hopefully the rain could also have cleared by then. It’s only later I realize, not only is it the incorrect day, but the incorrect season and the snow won’t clear till the summer.