Holyhead has been a gateway for 4,000 years – people have sailed these waters between Wales and Ireland since ancient times. The Welsh know it as Caergybi, "Cybi's fort," and when I walked through the town center I found the reason why: St Cybi's Church stands inside the walls of a Roman fort. The stone ramparts are 4 metres high and 1.5 metres thick, laid in a distinctive herringbone pattern that has endured since the late 3rd or early 4th century. This was Caer Gybi, an outpost of the larger Roman garrison at Segontium, and one of Europe's few three-walled forts – the fourth side was the sea itself, which feels somehow poetic for a port town.

When the Romans abandoned the region in the late 4th century, Saint Cybi arrived by the 6th century and founded a monastery within those same protective walls. Standing there, I felt the layers of history – Roman soldiers watching for raiders, medieval monks chanting prayers, and now cruise passengers like me catching trains to Snowdonia.

We took the first train to Llanfairpwllgwyngyllgogerychwyrndrobwllllantysiliogogogoch just to say we did – the station sign is longer than the platform. Then we took the coach to Snowdon along the road built from Shrewsbury between 1815 and 1819, part of the infrastructure boom after the Acts of Union 1800 made Holyhead vital for Irish trade. The mountain rose dramatically above lakes while Welsh red dragons flew on every flag. Caernarfon Castle is enormous – the Eagle Tower where the first Prince of Wales was presented in 1284 still stands proud.

We had lunch – cawl soup and Welsh rarebit at a tiny café in Betws-y-Coed, the village surrounded by fairy-tale forest and waterfalls. In the afternoon we explored Anglesey – South Stack lighthouse with thousands of guillemots nesting on cliffs. Back at the harbor, I walked along the breakwater built between 1847 and 1873, stretching 1.7 miles into the Irish Sea – the longest breakwater in Europe. The first steam ships sailed from here to Kingstown (now Dún Laoghaire) in 1819, and until 2020 this was the second busiest roll-on roll-off port in the UK after Dover. The pros: real Welsh culture without Cardiff crowds, and layers of history from Romans to steam age. The cons: long names and rain, but both are part of the charm.