We just got back from a lovely weeks holiday in Wales near Aberystwyth. The Weather was really nice for most of the week which was most unexpected. In fact we had better weather in April than we had in Southern France in August last year.

We had picked the area because it was somewhere we had never been to but when we looked into it we found there were lots of interesting things to do and see. It is also a very scenic part of the world with stunning views.

On our first day - after we had made sure we had some food (didn't want to repeat the problem we had last year) we went into Aberystwyth to have a look around. We visited the castle and went down to the beach. We also noticed it had a Cliff lift which we investiagted later in the week (turns out it's the largest cliff lift in the UK.

One of the things that I noticed quite early was the number of steam railways there were in the area and we got to see not one, not two but three of them even though we only went on one of them. The first one we saw was the Vale of Rheidol railway which is in the centre of Aberystwyth. We happened to get to the station just as a train steamed in. It was a toss up between this one and the nearby Talyllyn railway as to which we went on.

In the end it was the Talyllyn because we found out that it was the railway on which the Rev W Awdry based the Skarloey Railway stories after he had worked there as a volunteer Guard. In fact the train that was in steam that day was No.2 Dolgoch which appears in the stories as Rheneas - the train that saved the railway. We also saw Rusty and I got a glimpse of Peter Sam in the sheds as we went past.

On the way home we stopped off at the Welshpool & Llanfair Railway and once again just as we arrived a train pulled into the station. Ben amd I had an intersting discussion as I thought the train was like Duck (being a GWR engine) but he said it was like Percy because he was green!! We also spotted another railway when we went to King Arthurs Labyrinth - The Corris railway which also features in the stories of Rev Awdry but sadly iy wasn't in steam that day.

Overall we had such a good time that we have booked to got back there next year at Easter to do some of the things we didn't get to do this time. Looking forward to it already!!