Yr Wyddfa

[jackdaww]

.

on our annual holida day out by train from birmingham in the 1950's colwyn bay was our choice , rhyl was considered a bit down market .

returning to colwyn bay about ten years ago was a shock - very run down .

llandudno is still good.

colwyn bay was my first experience of the sea.

I think Llandudno is pronounced - Clan - Did - Know. Is that right?

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i think thats right .

[AleisterCrowley]

We used to go to a small coastal village called Borth when I was very young - pretty much due west, so shortish trip. Then we switched to Llandudno which was always pronounced as spelt (in our ignorance!) but I do manage 'lan-did-know' now..
The last few years of full family holidays were around Portmadoc/Tremadoc, which I really liked.

[Mike88]

.

on our annual holida day out by train from birmingham in the 1950's colwyn bay was our choice , rhyl was considered a bit down market .

returning to colwyn bay about ten years ago was a shock - very run down .

llandudno is still good.

colwyn bay was my first experience of the sea.

I think Llandudno is pronounced - Clan - Did - Know. Is that right?

=======================

i think thats right .

Llandudno is not pronounced Clan. The only way I can think of pronouncing Ll is to place your tongue in the roof of your mouth and breath out through your mouth.

[stewamax]

Llandudno is not pronounced Clan. The only way I can think of pronouncing Ll is to place your tongue in the roof of your mouth and breath out through your mouth.

When you breathe out, the air comes (unsurprisingly!) out of either side of the tongue.
If you cannot easily master this, 'thlan' is close enough

[Moosehoosenew]

Impressed that Mingavie, (Millguy) got a mention on here. Kingussie is another challenge.

[stewamax]

The last few years of full family holidays were around Portmadoc/Tremadoc, which I really liked.

Ours were spent in nearby Harlech, and the place we stayed - then the 'Noddfa Guest House' - is still there but has gone more up market.
I well remember the long walk from the 'seaside' to the sea itself that seemed miles away.
And apart from visitors, everyone spoke Welsh day-to-day.

[AleisterCrowley]

I've been to the castle , but we were on a caravan site near Tremadoc and mainly stuck to Black Rock Sands, Borth-y-Gest, Portmeirion, Criccieth (great chippy in those days)

[stewamax]

Stewamax, I do indeed remember the Rhyl illuminations. When I was young I used to love going to Rhyl, a day out in Rhyl baths was my idea of heaven.

I went to Rhyl Grammar School, and swimming lessons (or just swimming) in Rhyl Baths were compulsory. They were unheated, and no allowance was made nor excuses accepted for the glacial water temperature in the Spring. We felt the school motto should have been "Mens sana in corpore frigore".
The illuminations along the prom were something else though, and I well remember eagerly looking forward to the nocturnal expedition with my parents. By today's standards they were low-key and trivial, but the outing as dusk fell was wonderful. A lovely softly-glowing caterpillar still sticks in my memory.

[Lootman]

I went to Rhyl Grammar School, and swimming lessons (or just swimming) in Rhyl Baths were compulsory. They were unheated, and no allowance was made nor excuses accepted for the glacial water temperature in the Spring. We felt the school motto should have been "Mens sana in corpore frigore".

Ha. Reminds me of the outdoor pool at my school. A bequest specifically for the pool was enough money to offer the choice of either heating the pool or installing some wrought iron ornamental gates. Of course the decision was made to install the gates.

In April the water was cold enough to turn your skin blue, and it did.

It did not help that the schoolmaster who invigilated the pool was of course the most homosexual of all the masters, whose nickname affectionately coined by the pupils was "Hooker". He would ensure that each boy entering the frigid pool was administered a sharp smack on the buttocks.

Now he would be arrested and put on the child sex offenders list. Then he was merely considered a character-building anomaly.

Happy days. Sorry for the digression.

[stewamax]

On a side note, is there a Welsh edition of scrabble containing significantly fewer vowels than the English version?

'Tis the other way round: Welsh has seven vowel letters - the English a, e, i, o, u plus y and w, although 'y is sometimes vowel-like in English as well.
But it is the W (as in Wyddfa!) that is the additional vowel in Welsh.

Welsh does not use the letters k, q, v, x and z but makes up for it with eight digraph consonants: ch, dd, ff, ng, ll (of course!), ph, rh and th. Note that these are not combinations of two consonants but single consonants in their own right and merely represented as two consonants to make typography and orthography straightforward. There are 29 consonants in all and a Welsh Scrabble tile set (they do exist) should have the lot.

[zico]

Impressed that Mingavie, (Millguy) got a mention on here. Kingussie is another challenge.

Kirk Cud Bright is another challenging pronunciation. It's Care-Coo-Bree.

[Rhyd6]

I'm so glad you all remember your trips to North Wales with affection. OH and I are going to Sarn Meyllteyrn - Sarn as spelt Maithtayrn make the best you can of it, its usually just known as Sarn (Crossing) on the Llyn peninsula for a couple of weeks. It's near Pwllheli - we'll settle for Pootheli, and we're looking forward to reacquiainting ourselves with Porthmadoc, Criccieth, Borth, Harlech and of course popping over to Anglesey. To be honest I shall be quite happy just walking along the lovely beaches for a complete change of scenery.
Nos da

R6

[jackdaww]

Impressed that Mingavie, (Millguy) got a mention on here. Kingussie is another challenge.

Kirk Cud Bright is another challenging pronunciation. It's Care-Coo-Bree.

=================================

hope to be there in a few weeks time .

kur koo bree

[BellaHubby]

Impressed that Mingavie, (Millguy) got a mention on here. Kingussie is another challenge.

Kirk Cud Bright is another challenging pronunciation. It's Care-Coo-Bree.

=================================

hope to be there in a few weeks time .

kur koo bree

[pedant]
kur koo bree
[/pedant]
bh

[Lootman]

I'm so glad you all remember your trips to North Wales with affection.

My wife had never been to Wales when we first went there. I took her on two holidays there, one to North Wales and one to West Wales (she particularly wanted to visit Portmeirion). The odd thing was that there was a heatwave each time and no rain. So she now has this perception of Wales as having perfect weather. We all know of course that is far from the case. In all my other trips without her, it has rained.

[Mike88]

I'm so glad you all remember your trips to North Wales with affection.

My wife had never been to Wales when we first went there. I took her on two holidays there, one to North Wales and one to West Wales (she particularly wanted to visit Portmeirion). The odd thing was that there was a heatwave each time and no rain. So she now has this perception of Wales as having perfect weather. We all know of course that is far from the case. In all my other trips without her, it has rained.

I spent an entire summer in KInmel Bay where we marked out plots of land for housing and then had to establish ownership which we did from the then District Valuers Office in Colwyn Bay. During that entire period it didn't rain once; the weather was glorious and my then impression of North Wales was similar to your wife's. Years later I spent a fair amount of time in North Wales where my experience of the weather was very different.

Incidentally one of the owners of the plots of land was either James Hanratty (who claimed to be in Rhyl on the night he was accused, and later convicted, of murder) or a close member of his family.

[jackdaww]

Kirk Cud Bright is another challenging pronunciation. It's Care-Coo-Bree.

=================================

hope to be there in a few weeks time .

kur koo bree

[pedant]
kur koo bree
[/pedant]
bh

==================================

so accent on second syllable then ?

[AleisterCrowley]

I'm so glad you all remember your trips to North Wales with affection. ...we're looking forward to reacquiainting ourselves with Porthmadoc, Criccieth, Borth, Harlech and of course popping over to Anglesey. ...

R6

I love North Wales - the coast and Snowdonia. Also SW Wales-my family on my dad's side were from Pembrokeshire. To me Pembrokeshire is like Cornwall without the mass tourist influx and social problems due to second-home owners (although it's probably getting worse)

[UncleEbenezer]

I'm so glad you all remember your trips to North Wales with affection.

My wife had never been to Wales when we first went there. I took her on two holidays there, one to North Wales and one to West Wales (she particularly wanted to visit Portmeirion). The odd thing was that there was a heatwave each time and no rain. So she now has this perception of Wales as having perfect weather. We all know of course that is far from the case. In all my other trips without her, it has rained.

Well, the subject is Snowdon, not Rainedon.

Is there a Welsh/Celtic Rain God(dess)?

[mark88man]

Are they going to twin it with Milngavie?

I'm not quite sure how you pronounce that - I will have to give it a mull, guy! (or do you prefer dude!)