Taking the train up Yr Wyddfa

I've wanted to ride the steam train up Yr Wyddfa (Snowdon) for a long time. A previous attempt only took us halfway because of adverse weather (mainly high winds) so I'm delighted to have finally made it to the top.

The Snowdon Mountain Railway seems to be sticking to the English name for the mountain, but our engine was called Wyddfa. 

It is the only rack-and-pinion railway in the UK, literally grinding its way up the mountain with a cog wheel connecting with a toothed 'rack' in the middle of the track. The entire line is on a slope, even the stations, and the boilers of the steam engines are built on an angle so they stay level on the sloping track.

Our seats at the back of the coach gave us a very good view of the engine. 

The views were great until the three quarter mark when we entered some low hanging cloud. That meant our short time at the summit was cloudy and cold. But we still went up to the cairn at the top.

Then we got back on the train to head back down. The views were even better on the way down as the sun was shining in Llanberis at the end of the line.

We both really enjoyed our trip on the railway. The only downside was the cloudy summit, but that just means we have to do it again some day!

Silly Lego mischief

At the back of the Lego store in Cardiff there is a 'pick a brick' wall. (Think of pick and mix sweeties and it's the same concept.) Anyone can pick up a cup and fill it with fun Lego pieces. There is an art to packing the cups to get as many pieces in as possible.

I often stroll past the hoppers of Lego bits to see what's available. Currently they have cloud shaped pieces (which Lego fans will recognise as the figurine bases from the Unikitty blind-bag range) and they also have eyeballs. And, um, yeah...

I originally only made one of these, but then Cathy found the other eye shapes so we ended up with two little characters. While grey, is probably a suitable 'sky' colour for Cardiffians, Cathy thought it looked dull, so I moved my cloud people to the hopper full of aquamarine bits.

It just shows how much fan can be had with just a few pieces of Lego.