Croeso i Cymru: mijn bezoek aan Wales, de locatie voor 'Het laatste licht'

So, I did it again - I went to one of my book places! In this case, it's for 'Het laatste licht', a book set in the beautiful Welsh town of Penmaenmawr.
Moira joins her Wicca-practising sister Tabby when she wants to do a Halloween ritual at the ancient stone circle in the hills behind their village. Little does she know that this will transport her to a magical land and she'll go back to that land in her dreams every night. Why does the mysterious boy named Hayko need her help, and will she be able to stop herself from falling for him? After all, he doesn't really exist - or does he?

Welcome to Wales!

As you may have noticed, the title of this blog post had some weird, non-English words. That's because people in Wales, besides English, also speak Welsh, an ancient Celtic language. Croeso i Cymru means 'welcome in Wales' and is pronounced kroy-so ih koom-ree. As you can see on the welcoming sign for Penmaenmawr, the road signs are bilingual.

Moira, the main character, works in a small hotel in town called the Gladstone. This is what it looks like from the outside:

And this is what it looks like on the inside:

This is the town station, where Moira had an accident one year ago:

And this is what I imagined Moira's house to look like. The only thing that's not there is a garage, otherwise it's pretty much the house I had in mind!

This is Penmaenmawr Promenade and the beach. It's high tide in this photo, so you can't actually see the sand!

Walk to the Stone Circle!

Walking around town was fun and all, but my bigger plan had always been to visit the stone circle I used in my story! So, off we went (I dragged my sister, or rather, she dragged ME as the climb got steeper and steeper :).

We walked all the way uphill via Mountain Lane and only found out we could have driven that bit up when we got to a parking lot, haha! After that, there was still a brisk walk ahead. When we got to this milestone, at least we knew we were on the right track (though, to be fair, we did get lost once).

After that, we went higher,

and higher,

and higher still, (you can see my sister and the stones sticking out in the distance)

until we were there! :)

(me, completely exhausted)

(my sister, looking way fitter)

Invoking the magic...

Here I am, sitting at the exact spot where I imagined Moira to be sitting while doing the ritual. Of course, in the book I have three people (Moira, her sister Tabby, and her brother Dai) forming a circle within the circle.

... isn't the view just amazing? :)
And all the way down, we could see Penmaenmawr. I can't believe we walked all the way up here! My knees were still suffering after a few days. But it was totally worth it :D