Picture postcard posted underground…

Have you ever been to Wales, or as they spell it themselves, Cymru? Then you know that mountains of grey waste rock lie in North Wales. Remnants of a time when there were many slate quarries here. Like the Pentre Llechwedd, close to the village of Blaenau Ffestiniog. During one of our many holidays in England and Wales, we visited this slate mine. A mine, started in 1849, which you could descend into in a small train that went steeply downhill!

The mine consisted of several levels, and the small above-ground station was located on the second level, 259 meters above sea level. After descending 30 meters, the end point was reached, and here another 61 steps had to be descended to a level that was furnished entirely as it was a hundred years ago.

After a guided tour of about half an hour, during which explanations were given in English and Welsh, one could go back up. Back up again by little train from the so-called 'Deep Mine’Beautiful! And especially at the end, where a song was sung by a large choir of miners in one of the enormous carved-out slate chambers.

But there was even more underground. Something totally unexpected: a small underground post office. Here you could buy a card, stamps for sending the card via Royal Mail, and extra stamps for transporting your card from this underground post office to the nearest Royal Mail post office.

The underground post office had existed since 1979, when the mine was opened to tourists. In addition to regular postage stamps and the mine's 'own' stamps, a special stamp was also used. The mine was visited on July 25, 1984, and the card was at the post office of Blaenau Ffestiniog stamped on the same day.

The small train depicted on the Llechwedd stamps is not the train to the Deep Mine, but another train on the same site that also goes underground, but horizontally into the mountain. Here, too, enormous caves have been carved out to extract the slate. This section was opened to tourists as early as 1972 and is called ' The Miners' Underground Tramway'.

Upon arriving home, the card was already on the doormat, and with it, we had a tangible reminder of that special day when we could conduct postal business underground.

Do you ever send postcards to yourself from your vacation spot? I do! They're a great way to add to my vacation photos. And it's always nice to see that card again and get homesick. Bye for now!