Good morning and happy Sunday.
Right now we are moored "in the wild" (that is, there are no permanent mooring rings in our location, so we had to put in our mooring pins) not too far from Bradford-on-Avon (not to be confused with Stratford-on-Avon), southeast of Bath, near the lock. It's about 60 degrees, and I actually went for a run this morning, because we are next to this miles-long towpath, and I thought I ought to. It wasn't much of a run - lots of walking, because I'm out of shape (for running, at least), plus the gravel is harder to run on than pavement. The pavement here (we are not too far from a residential area) would be hard to run on as well, as the asphalt is full of little rocks. No good for barefoot running, anyway.
Thursday we went into Bath again, to see some of the things we had not seen. We split up with Martha and Larry and agreed to meet up at the Abbey at a certain time. We stopped at Minerva's Art Supplies (where we had stopped the day before) and bought the kids some ink for the dip pens we got at the Jane Austen Center. We also found a fabulous bookstore where we could have spent all our remaining time, and I'm sorry to say we bought a few books (not because of the books but because we have to carry them now). I also got to photograph "Mr. Bennett," a character in costume standing outside the Jane Austen Centre, with muttonchop whiskers and top hat. He has worked there for over 10 years and is supposedly the "most photographed man in England." When we got out of the Jane Austen Centre the previous day, however, he was nowhere in sight; therefore I was determined to get a photo of him today. We struck up a conversation, mostly about conversation: I asked him if he had a lot of interesting conversations, and he said in his British accent, "Not really. Most people - not you - are really BO-ring, like all they do is watch the telly. They're very BO-ring - not you, of course." And so forth. Maybe he liked to be asked about himself; most people find that interesting. Makes me wonder what everyone else says to him that's so BO-ring. Our conversation was cut short when a tour bus stopped by to "ask directions" (a ruse, really) - but I got a photo of Mr. Bennett talking to the bus driver.
After that Giselle was hungry, so we stopped at the Intermezzo Express, where we had eaten lunch the day before, and got her another sandwich, even though it was only 10:30. I think both my kids are going through a growth spurt - they are certainly eating enough. The proprietor, Tony, remembered us from the day before, and we had a nice conversation as we waited for Giselle's sandwich to toast.
We headed for the Abbey after that and met M&L. There was a communion service being held at the front of the church, so they asked no photos there, but the rest of the place was fair game. There was an exhibition of "diptychs," in which an artist had done an illustrated manuscript/calligraphy page of a Bible verse, and the opposing page was a stitched/quilted picture. It was gorgeous, but most of the plates were behind glass and difficult to photograph because of the glare. They had postcards in the gift shop with reproductions so I bought one or two. Giselle bought a deck of cards with monarchs of the British Isles; 52 of them and 3 "jokers" - I don't know my history well enough to recognize two of the jokers, but one of them was the king who abdicated in favor of his younger brother during World War II. I learned that from "The King's Speech." Who says movies aren't good for you? I thought it was a nice souvenir. We had fun later putting them in order or reign.
After we went to the Abbey, we stopped for lunch at the same place where T, the girls and I had lunch on Monday - Gourmet Burger Kitchen. I was able to get another kids' meal (side of corn on the cob and a chocolate shake - yum) and the server recognized us. Not sure if that's a good thing or not. We were right near the train station, so we stopped to ask about trains to Scotland for Monday. The person who helped us was named Tracey, and she made us reservations on an appropriate train. I didn't know we could do that, because we have BritRail passes, but she said, "You paid for your ticket, same as everyone else, so why shouldn't you?" So we have reservations.
Walked back to the boat, and set off toward Bradford-on-Avon. We got to go through our first lock, which was an interesting experience. Larry, the girls and I went up to operate the paddles, and open the gates, and M and T piloted the boat into the lock. We were going "uphill" so we had to let the water in to raise the boat up to the next level. Clever engineering. After that I got to pilot the boat to the "winding" place, where we turned the boat around and headed back toward the lock to moor. We found a place about 1/2 mile from the lock and about a mile from town, but I didn't know the distance until I looked it up last night. We were right by a stairway leading up the the road, and we turned right when we should have turned left (not that we would know this) and walked along a residential street all the way into BoA, as they call it around here. Once there, we found an information center (and M&L bought duck food for the kids to use instead of crumbs to feed the ducks, who tend to follow people around, begging) and got some maps. We walked around town and did a bit of shopping, then walked back via the Tithe Barn and then the canal. It brought us on the path next to the lock again, so we were much closer to town than I had thought.
Time to get going, so more later.
blessings,
wendy
Sunday, July 16, 2017
Thursday, July 13, 2017
Wednesday
Hello friends,
I was right - the day turned out sunny and pleasant, though it was iffy there for a while - cloudy and a drip of rain once or twice. We headed into Bath and walked through the city; we started at a particular store that Martha and Larry wanted to see, stopping at the post office for them to change back some Euros from a previous trip first. Then we walked to the King's Circus, which is a big architectural circle of apartments with some pretty interesting features, including acorn structures on top of the buildings, and took some photos there. I have a panoramic feature on my camera that works pretty well, so I played with that for a few minutes. We next walked to the Crescent; again the panoramic photos. There were two ladies standing by the wrought iron gate, talking and smoking. I got them in a few photos, then decided to move over next to them to get them out of the photos (I had been waiting for them to move on). Of course right when I moved, they started walking away in a direction that pretty much guaranteed they would be in all future photos for the next several minutes. I gave up.
We had walked by the Jane Austen Centre on the way to the Circus and headed back there. Martha and Larry decided to go to a park nearby, because they were not interested, but our family went in and had a little guided tour talking about Jane Austen and her family, her time in Bath and its influence on her novels, etc. The rest of the tour was self-guided, with a short video hosted by the actor who played Wickham in the BBC production of Pride and Prejudice. I had read P&P to the girls a few months ago, and we had watched the BBC miniseries, so they knew what was going on. Pride and Prejudice is one of my favorite "comfort" books, like a blankie if I'm not feeling well, or just to read its familiar funny scenes. There was a place to try on period costumes (which we did not do) and to write with quill pens, which both the girls enjoyed enough that we bought some nib pens in the gift shop. They also had some attractive little editions of Austen's writings for sale, and I admit I bought a couple of them. I haven't ready any books of hers other than P&P, and I was inspired to do so after this visit, and see what they have to do with Bath as well.
After that, we found Martha and Larry in the park, and all set off to find some lunch. There was some hemming and hawing - it's always tricky to synchronize the agendas of 6 people - so we split up again and they went for fish and chips, and we went to a little hole-in-the-wall sandwich shop called Intermezzo Express, where they made sandwiches to order (rather like Subway, but much better, and with cooler accents). The bread was amazing. We sat on benches in the square to eat and met up with M&L again after the appointed time, and walked on.
On our way to the Roman baths, we stopped in a few shops including a candy store that was AMAZING. The kids wanted Chocolate Frogs (Harry Potter) so we got those, and some fudge. There was also a discount shop called Works that had books, Terry Prachett audiobooks, office supplies, toys, etc.
We got to the Baths around 2:45 and paid the admission. It has an audio tour given through a device rather like a telephone handpiece; you dial in the number of the exhibit you want (they are listed on the signs) and listen, or not, as you like. I thought it was good, but it effectively prevented us from talking to each other because we were listening to the dial up guides, and after a while it got to be a bit much for me because all i wanted to do was sit down. It was also very crowded after a while, and the masses of people listening to the audio tour and not paying attention to where they were going, all packed by the exhibits, got to be too much for me. I think there comes a point by which time one's brain has seen enough and can't process any more. I hit that place about 2/3 through the Baths. So all that remained was to wait for the rest to catch up (I walked ahead slowly with the girls, who tuned in here and there to find out about the exhibits). We spend about 2 minutes in the gift shop, which was quite nice but I was done, then walked out to the main plaza again. We made an executive decision to go back to the boat, because we were all pretty tired. We can moor here until this afternoon (48 hours) so we will go back into Bath again today and do a few more things.
As we walked home we passed a place that we had seen two very pretty snails the day before. Giselle and Genevieve didn't recognize the path, and I said, "It's where we saw the snails yesterday." They vaguely recalled it, and then Giselle said something about "Snails are ugly; snakes are cool." I said, "Watch out - now you've made them angry and they are going to come swarming after us - amble for your life!" Later on, we found some blackberry bushes along the canal and kept stopping to pick some. Giselle (who i think wanted to get home) said, "I think the snails are catching up with us...."
I had bought some minced (ground) beef at the grocery store the other day, and so I made burgers for dinner. One end of the package was frozen (efficient tiny fridge, a bit too cool) so I just "scrunchled" it loose. I had enough thawed to make 6 small burgers. We also had some berries from the store, and that we had picked.
M, L and T went "for a walk" after dinner. M&L went to the grocery store, I think. The girls and I stayed in the boat, which was idling to charge the battery. I couldn't believe they wanted to go for a walk - I thought my legs were going to fall off.... I transferred some photos from my camera to a USB drive (which took longer than I thought) and then my nifty galifty internet hotspot refused to work, so I went to bed. It seems to be working this morning, so here's hoping. I woke up at 4:30 this morning and couldn't go back to sleep which has been typical for me this vacation. There is a lot of foot and bike traffic on the tow path by the canal which is gravel, so one can hear passers by quite easily. I think Ill get up and have some breakfast.
Have a good day, all. :)
wendy
I was right - the day turned out sunny and pleasant, though it was iffy there for a while - cloudy and a drip of rain once or twice. We headed into Bath and walked through the city; we started at a particular store that Martha and Larry wanted to see, stopping at the post office for them to change back some Euros from a previous trip first. Then we walked to the King's Circus, which is a big architectural circle of apartments with some pretty interesting features, including acorn structures on top of the buildings, and took some photos there. I have a panoramic feature on my camera that works pretty well, so I played with that for a few minutes. We next walked to the Crescent; again the panoramic photos. There were two ladies standing by the wrought iron gate, talking and smoking. I got them in a few photos, then decided to move over next to them to get them out of the photos (I had been waiting for them to move on). Of course right when I moved, they started walking away in a direction that pretty much guaranteed they would be in all future photos for the next several minutes. I gave up.
We had walked by the Jane Austen Centre on the way to the Circus and headed back there. Martha and Larry decided to go to a park nearby, because they were not interested, but our family went in and had a little guided tour talking about Jane Austen and her family, her time in Bath and its influence on her novels, etc. The rest of the tour was self-guided, with a short video hosted by the actor who played Wickham in the BBC production of Pride and Prejudice. I had read P&P to the girls a few months ago, and we had watched the BBC miniseries, so they knew what was going on. Pride and Prejudice is one of my favorite "comfort" books, like a blankie if I'm not feeling well, or just to read its familiar funny scenes. There was a place to try on period costumes (which we did not do) and to write with quill pens, which both the girls enjoyed enough that we bought some nib pens in the gift shop. They also had some attractive little editions of Austen's writings for sale, and I admit I bought a couple of them. I haven't ready any books of hers other than P&P, and I was inspired to do so after this visit, and see what they have to do with Bath as well.
After that, we found Martha and Larry in the park, and all set off to find some lunch. There was some hemming and hawing - it's always tricky to synchronize the agendas of 6 people - so we split up again and they went for fish and chips, and we went to a little hole-in-the-wall sandwich shop called Intermezzo Express, where they made sandwiches to order (rather like Subway, but much better, and with cooler accents). The bread was amazing. We sat on benches in the square to eat and met up with M&L again after the appointed time, and walked on.
On our way to the Roman baths, we stopped in a few shops including a candy store that was AMAZING. The kids wanted Chocolate Frogs (Harry Potter) so we got those, and some fudge. There was also a discount shop called Works that had books, Terry Prachett audiobooks, office supplies, toys, etc.
We got to the Baths around 2:45 and paid the admission. It has an audio tour given through a device rather like a telephone handpiece; you dial in the number of the exhibit you want (they are listed on the signs) and listen, or not, as you like. I thought it was good, but it effectively prevented us from talking to each other because we were listening to the dial up guides, and after a while it got to be a bit much for me because all i wanted to do was sit down. It was also very crowded after a while, and the masses of people listening to the audio tour and not paying attention to where they were going, all packed by the exhibits, got to be too much for me. I think there comes a point by which time one's brain has seen enough and can't process any more. I hit that place about 2/3 through the Baths. So all that remained was to wait for the rest to catch up (I walked ahead slowly with the girls, who tuned in here and there to find out about the exhibits). We spend about 2 minutes in the gift shop, which was quite nice but I was done, then walked out to the main plaza again. We made an executive decision to go back to the boat, because we were all pretty tired. We can moor here until this afternoon (48 hours) so we will go back into Bath again today and do a few more things.
As we walked home we passed a place that we had seen two very pretty snails the day before. Giselle and Genevieve didn't recognize the path, and I said, "It's where we saw the snails yesterday." They vaguely recalled it, and then Giselle said something about "Snails are ugly; snakes are cool." I said, "Watch out - now you've made them angry and they are going to come swarming after us - amble for your life!" Later on, we found some blackberry bushes along the canal and kept stopping to pick some. Giselle (who i think wanted to get home) said, "I think the snails are catching up with us...."
I had bought some minced (ground) beef at the grocery store the other day, and so I made burgers for dinner. One end of the package was frozen (efficient tiny fridge, a bit too cool) so I just "scrunchled" it loose. I had enough thawed to make 6 small burgers. We also had some berries from the store, and that we had picked.
M, L and T went "for a walk" after dinner. M&L went to the grocery store, I think. The girls and I stayed in the boat, which was idling to charge the battery. I couldn't believe they wanted to go for a walk - I thought my legs were going to fall off.... I transferred some photos from my camera to a USB drive (which took longer than I thought) and then my nifty galifty internet hotspot refused to work, so I went to bed. It seems to be working this morning, so here's hoping. I woke up at 4:30 this morning and couldn't go back to sleep which has been typical for me this vacation. There is a lot of foot and bike traffic on the tow path by the canal which is gravel, so one can hear passers by quite easily. I think Ill get up and have some breakfast.
Have a good day, all. :)
wendy
Wednesday, July 12, 2017
Catch up 2
Hello, friends,
I think I got us up to Sunday night. It is now Wednesday morning and so I'll try to get caught up all the way before we get our day in Bath started.
Monday morning we got up early - the kids didn't even complain - got our stuff packed, rechecked the sweet little house for leftover stuff, and left. There was a moment of panic when I couldn't find the car key but it was superficially packed - I didn't have to open every bag to find it - and another once we walked around the block to the little parking lot when Giselle discovered that her mp3 player was not where she usually puts it. Easily enough fixed - we swung the car around and drove by the place for a last check. It wasn't in the house so she knew she packed it - somewhere. We got in the car and drove to the rental place, which is kind of an overstatement - it's a former gas station turned car wash with no parking, no real drop off, and signs everywhere that say "no parking." I managed to find a spot not blocking any gates or driveways, we said goodbye to the car and walked 1/2 block to the train station, where we caught the 7:25 to Cardiff Central. We actually got off one station before that. It was so cool to hear the station names being announced both in Welsh and English.
We were on the train for about 2 hours before we reached our stop, then trudged to the information kiosk and found where the train to Bristol was, then connected to Bath from there. We got to Bath around 12:30 and walked around a bit. In order to get out of the train station, one has to run one's ticket through an electronic turnstile; we have rail passes and they wouldn't fit, so we asked the nice employee by the exit what to do. He very solicitously let us out, and told us where to find a grocery store. We were right near the bus station, and wandered a bit, before we realized that we didn't ALL have to drag our luggage to the grocery store, so I left Genevieve and Thad with the bags on a bench in the square, and Giselle and I scouted. The store was another block away - no problem. We decided to get lunch, as we had eaten so early, and settled on a burger place. I got a kids' meal which came with a grilled corn on the cob option and a shake, so I was happy.
While we waited for our food, I trotted over to the grocery store and picked up some supplies for the boat, which we had arranged with my mother-in-law and her husband to do, because where the boat company is has no good grocery store. Then we took a taxi after lunch to the marina. I was SO glad not to have to drive anymore; riding with the taxi driver, who presumably knows what he's doing, was bad enough. (He drove safely; it's just the narrow streets with maybe 1.5 lanes between hedges and stone walls that get to me.) The kids here are not out of school yet; I think they have another week. Apparently the school day is about 6 hours - Genevieve was envious that they get to "sleep in," but I reminded her that they go to school through July, and she decided she likes her school hours/vacations better.
We met Martha and Larry at the Bath Dundas Marina just before 2, but the boat wasn't ready yet, so we walked around by the canal, used the bathroom, etc. Then we had a tutorial by a man named Gareth, who had been commandeered to do it for us (I think they were VERY busy). He said he hadn't done it in a year but it seemed to go fine. We had watched a youtube video at home about how to run the boats that I think was released by the narrow boat company, so a lot of it was familiar already. Larry, Martha's husband, is captain (obviously), and he made me "assistant skipper," probably because I was standing there when Gareth asked who was second in command, and Larry pointed to me.
We got a much later start than we had thought - more like 5 than 3. Gareth took out the boat from the marina, which was fine with me, as there were boats on either side for about 1/2 mi or more (I couldn't really tell) and it was tricky. Then Gareth left and walked back (there is a tow path on one side of the canal all the way along) and Larry took over. He and Martha had piloted a narrow boat in Wales with some of their other kids and grandkids last week, so they knew what they were doing as well, which was nice. After having had to be in control for 4 days of driving, it was nice to let someone else take over.
We went a few miles and then found a place to moor, and some people got out and wandered around, and some of us organized photos, repacked, chilled, wrote, whatever. The boat is tied up to permanent rings on the shore of the canal. Larry has a map showing where the turnaround points are, and the bridges and locks. We haven't done a lock yet, but there were two bridges, one swing (pivots laterally to open) and lift bridges, which have to be levered up to let the boat through. There are set procedures for opening them, and each boat has a key that unlocks the bridge (if needed), and foot traffic has the right of way over boat traffic. When we get to one, I'll take photos and post them on social media. :)
So that was Monday.
Tuesday morning we got up; Genevieve and I took a walk together and found some blackberries (just a handful of ripe ones) which we brought back, since both of us like to pick the but neither of us likes to eat them. Then we went with Giselle and Thad to a little waterfall which was down the path and across the train tracks (crossing those made Genevieve nervous). Back to the boat and underway; it was my turn to pilot. The boat is 62 feet long and when you steer, it pivots from the center, so it takes some getting used to. I let Larry take over for some very narrow bits when a couple of other boats were passing on the other side, but otherwise it was not too hard to get the basics.
We found out Monday that our 240V plugs didn't work, nor did our Wi-Fi on the boat, so we planned to head for the Bath marina to get that checked out. We can't go any farther than that because our boat is too long for the next turnaround and the company doesn't want us going on the river, where there's a current. When we got to the marina it was very crowded, so we had to turn around to find a spot to moor. That's where I stopped writing yesterday. Larry got out to go to the marina; the rest of us took a little longer to get ready, so we decided to go toward the city and find a grocery store (small dorm-fridge-sized fridge in this boat). We did that, and wandered around the outskirts of the city a bit. By the time we found Larry again, the company had been on the boat and said that it hadn't idled high enough the day before to charge the battery, but now it was reset and fine. The engine has to either be running (forward)or in high idle for at least 6 hours a day to charge the battery.
We returned to the boat with our groceries and stowed them, then got ready for an excursion into Bath (walking). We are somewhere between 20 and 30 minutes' walk fro the city center. It was raining, interspersed with raining harder, the whole time we were there. Our family had been asked if we brought the good weather with us (it was cloudy one other day, the say we went up the mountain), so I'm guessing it has been unseasonably sunny. I didn't mind the rain too much but it makes it more difficult to walk around. We did a bit of sightseeing (externally, didn't go into anything), found an art supply place and a wool shop, and then ate at a place called "Sally Lunn's," "The oldest house in Bath." You can buy the "famous Sally Lunn buns" in the restaurant's museum.... which makes me a bit alarmed. The museum was closed by the time we were finished with a traditionally British meal (chicken and sauce on trenchers was mine) so we were unable to determine whether the bread in the museum is antique or not. ;) We'll find out today.
Finally, bedraggled and damp, we walked back to the boat and hung all our wet things to dry. Larry started up the engine (we were a couple hours short on charging anyway) and turned on the heat, which goes through little radiators on the walls all along one side of the boat. We discovered that the vents in the ceiling tend to leak; there were small drip puddles on the rug and also (unfortunately) on Martha and Larry's duvet.
We settled in and watched a movie (The Court Jester, with Danny Kaye, Angela Lansbury, and Glynis Johns, c 1954) on my Kindle, and then went to bed about 10.
And I'm done with yesterday - ta-da! This morning we're having breakfast and will head out into the city. The clouds are clearing off so I think it's going to be a nice day.
ta-ra
wendy
I think I got us up to Sunday night. It is now Wednesday morning and so I'll try to get caught up all the way before we get our day in Bath started.
Monday morning we got up early - the kids didn't even complain - got our stuff packed, rechecked the sweet little house for leftover stuff, and left. There was a moment of panic when I couldn't find the car key but it was superficially packed - I didn't have to open every bag to find it - and another once we walked around the block to the little parking lot when Giselle discovered that her mp3 player was not where she usually puts it. Easily enough fixed - we swung the car around and drove by the place for a last check. It wasn't in the house so she knew she packed it - somewhere. We got in the car and drove to the rental place, which is kind of an overstatement - it's a former gas station turned car wash with no parking, no real drop off, and signs everywhere that say "no parking." I managed to find a spot not blocking any gates or driveways, we said goodbye to the car and walked 1/2 block to the train station, where we caught the 7:25 to Cardiff Central. We actually got off one station before that. It was so cool to hear the station names being announced both in Welsh and English.
We were on the train for about 2 hours before we reached our stop, then trudged to the information kiosk and found where the train to Bristol was, then connected to Bath from there. We got to Bath around 12:30 and walked around a bit. In order to get out of the train station, one has to run one's ticket through an electronic turnstile; we have rail passes and they wouldn't fit, so we asked the nice employee by the exit what to do. He very solicitously let us out, and told us where to find a grocery store. We were right near the bus station, and wandered a bit, before we realized that we didn't ALL have to drag our luggage to the grocery store, so I left Genevieve and Thad with the bags on a bench in the square, and Giselle and I scouted. The store was another block away - no problem. We decided to get lunch, as we had eaten so early, and settled on a burger place. I got a kids' meal which came with a grilled corn on the cob option and a shake, so I was happy.
While we waited for our food, I trotted over to the grocery store and picked up some supplies for the boat, which we had arranged with my mother-in-law and her husband to do, because where the boat company is has no good grocery store. Then we took a taxi after lunch to the marina. I was SO glad not to have to drive anymore; riding with the taxi driver, who presumably knows what he's doing, was bad enough. (He drove safely; it's just the narrow streets with maybe 1.5 lanes between hedges and stone walls that get to me.) The kids here are not out of school yet; I think they have another week. Apparently the school day is about 6 hours - Genevieve was envious that they get to "sleep in," but I reminded her that they go to school through July, and she decided she likes her school hours/vacations better.
We met Martha and Larry at the Bath Dundas Marina just before 2, but the boat wasn't ready yet, so we walked around by the canal, used the bathroom, etc. Then we had a tutorial by a man named Gareth, who had been commandeered to do it for us (I think they were VERY busy). He said he hadn't done it in a year but it seemed to go fine. We had watched a youtube video at home about how to run the boats that I think was released by the narrow boat company, so a lot of it was familiar already. Larry, Martha's husband, is captain (obviously), and he made me "assistant skipper," probably because I was standing there when Gareth asked who was second in command, and Larry pointed to me.
We got a much later start than we had thought - more like 5 than 3. Gareth took out the boat from the marina, which was fine with me, as there were boats on either side for about 1/2 mi or more (I couldn't really tell) and it was tricky. Then Gareth left and walked back (there is a tow path on one side of the canal all the way along) and Larry took over. He and Martha had piloted a narrow boat in Wales with some of their other kids and grandkids last week, so they knew what they were doing as well, which was nice. After having had to be in control for 4 days of driving, it was nice to let someone else take over.
We went a few miles and then found a place to moor, and some people got out and wandered around, and some of us organized photos, repacked, chilled, wrote, whatever. The boat is tied up to permanent rings on the shore of the canal. Larry has a map showing where the turnaround points are, and the bridges and locks. We haven't done a lock yet, but there were two bridges, one swing (pivots laterally to open) and lift bridges, which have to be levered up to let the boat through. There are set procedures for opening them, and each boat has a key that unlocks the bridge (if needed), and foot traffic has the right of way over boat traffic. When we get to one, I'll take photos and post them on social media. :)
So that was Monday.
Tuesday morning we got up; Genevieve and I took a walk together and found some blackberries (just a handful of ripe ones) which we brought back, since both of us like to pick the but neither of us likes to eat them. Then we went with Giselle and Thad to a little waterfall which was down the path and across the train tracks (crossing those made Genevieve nervous). Back to the boat and underway; it was my turn to pilot. The boat is 62 feet long and when you steer, it pivots from the center, so it takes some getting used to. I let Larry take over for some very narrow bits when a couple of other boats were passing on the other side, but otherwise it was not too hard to get the basics.
We found out Monday that our 240V plugs didn't work, nor did our Wi-Fi on the boat, so we planned to head for the Bath marina to get that checked out. We can't go any farther than that because our boat is too long for the next turnaround and the company doesn't want us going on the river, where there's a current. When we got to the marina it was very crowded, so we had to turn around to find a spot to moor. That's where I stopped writing yesterday. Larry got out to go to the marina; the rest of us took a little longer to get ready, so we decided to go toward the city and find a grocery store (small dorm-fridge-sized fridge in this boat). We did that, and wandered around the outskirts of the city a bit. By the time we found Larry again, the company had been on the boat and said that it hadn't idled high enough the day before to charge the battery, but now it was reset and fine. The engine has to either be running (forward)or in high idle for at least 6 hours a day to charge the battery.
We returned to the boat with our groceries and stowed them, then got ready for an excursion into Bath (walking). We are somewhere between 20 and 30 minutes' walk fro the city center. It was raining, interspersed with raining harder, the whole time we were there. Our family had been asked if we brought the good weather with us (it was cloudy one other day, the say we went up the mountain), so I'm guessing it has been unseasonably sunny. I didn't mind the rain too much but it makes it more difficult to walk around. We did a bit of sightseeing (externally, didn't go into anything), found an art supply place and a wool shop, and then ate at a place called "Sally Lunn's," "The oldest house in Bath." You can buy the "famous Sally Lunn buns" in the restaurant's museum.... which makes me a bit alarmed. The museum was closed by the time we were finished with a traditionally British meal (chicken and sauce on trenchers was mine) so we were unable to determine whether the bread in the museum is antique or not. ;) We'll find out today.
Finally, bedraggled and damp, we walked back to the boat and hung all our wet things to dry. Larry started up the engine (we were a couple hours short on charging anyway) and turned on the heat, which goes through little radiators on the walls all along one side of the boat. We discovered that the vents in the ceiling tend to leak; there were small drip puddles on the rug and also (unfortunately) on Martha and Larry's duvet.
We settled in and watched a movie (The Court Jester, with Danny Kaye, Angela Lansbury, and Glynis Johns, c 1954) on my Kindle, and then went to bed about 10.
And I'm done with yesterday - ta-da! This morning we're having breakfast and will head out into the city. The clouds are clearing off so I think it's going to be a nice day.
ta-ra
wendy
Tuesday, July 11, 2017
Catch up
Hello, friends,
Note: I don't have a working spell checker and I'm writing on a tempermental Bluetooth keyboard, so please be forviging of typos and spelling errors.
Wow, now I'm three days behind. Vacation is so full and nighttime is for sleeping, not blogging. But now we are on the narrow boat, and I'm done with my driving stint for now (mainly because I now have consistent Wi-Fi, which is spotty on the canal).
I think I left off after Friday. Saturday (still in Wales), we drove a few miles to a nearby town, Llandudno, which I had heard was a big tourist town. Well, it's a bit town, anyway, seaside (right off a peninsula). It is a big town, with a large grocery store, shopping centre, clothing stores, etc. Obviously it's a place people live and shop, because the kitschy Welsh souvenir-type items were conspicuously absent. There were many hotels and eating places, double-decker bus tours (enclosed and open), and a huge pier with carnival-type kiddie rides, food, arcades, cotton candy (candy floss), etc. There was also an Alice in Wonderland-themed park, meaning grassy area with gazebo, etc, not a theme park. There was a smallish stone circle in the middle (small compared to, say, Stonehenge). I have no idea if it was real. I mean, the stones were real, but I have no idea if the circle itself was ancient or not - there was not much of a marker.
We wandered and took photos - it was a beautiful day, sunny and probably 70 or 75 - and Giselle wanted ice cream and was getting a bit grumpy about it, so we had ice cream for lunch. I had clotted cream and honey flavor with a piece of Cadbury Flake (yum). We went back to the car (which was parked in a huge grocery store parking lot) and moved it, because it said there was a 3-hour time limit and I wasn't sure how strict they were about enforcing. We went back into town and into a few shops and an interesting gallery, but then jet lag caught up with us and we decided to go home. We did hit the grocery store for some dinner items - it was a lot like Meijer, or a Super Walmart, with clothing and tools and seasonal items in addition to a huge food selection. Cadbury chocolate is ridiculously inexpensive, so of course we're making it a staple. They have flavors here not available at home, so we're taking advantage and sampling several kinds. :)
In the afternoon, after driving home (egad, getting better but stil nerve-wracking), the family hung out at home and I went for a photo walk in town and on the old city walls (no charge to wander on the walls). I found out the charge and hours for the castle itself, and took a lot of photos, and went home. That night we cooked the mince we bought in the grocery store (that's ground beef, to you) and had that for dinner, then watched While You Were Sleeping. Giselle and Thad were playing British Monopoly, and Genevieve kintted an infinity scarf for the AirBnB owner, which we left on a stuffed (plush) sheep that stands on the itty-bitty hearth.
End of Saturday.
Sunday - leisurely breakfast - scrambled eggs, cheese, pancakes, and what they call "back bacon" which is really more like ham. The kind we had was realllllly salty. I found out later that what we call "bacon" is called "rashers" here. They put their butter in the fridge and leave the eggs on the counter, which I thought was interesting. A lot of people bring their dogs into stores here as well.
After breakfast, we walked over to Conwy castle (about 1/2 mile) and paid the admission fees to visit the castle proper. There was a demonstration called "Lord of the Wings" of prey birds, mostly owls but one falcon or hawk, never found out which. The birds were all rescued and most of them were unable to be returned to the wild. We got to pet them. There were several kinds - a barn owl, a screech owl, an Indian Scops owl (so cute and little), and a 16-week-old tawny owl named Archimedes still with some pinfeathers. So fluffy.....
There was also a weapons demonstration, mostly single- and two-handed broadswords. Genevieve did volunteer, with a 10-year-old lad, for "training," which involvd holding the weapon at arm's length infront of her while the man in charge counted to 5, then rotating it to horizontal (internal rotation at the shoulder, anatomically speaking) and counting, then back upright, then lateral rotation (palm up). Genevieve was able to hold her weapon with her arm straight without faltering, and brought it down slowly when the man said they were done. Then the lad and Genevieve were oufitted with padded bonnets, maille coifs, helmets, bucklers and swords. Then the man running the demo said, "Which one is better? Only one way to tell - ready, FIGHT!!!" He immediately said, "No, no, I'm kidding!" But Genevieve is so used to getting ready to bout that she partially went into an en garde stance. It was so cool.
Conwy Castle was also cool; it's just a shell (like Caernarfon), but had steps up the towers where you could see the city and the harbor. I have a panoramic function on my camera and played with it a lot at the tops of the towers. We'll see if the photos come out.
We walked into town and picked up some pastries (meat pies and such) from a bakery, and walked out to the harbor side to eat. There we saw but did not go into the "Smallest House in Britain." We wandered around a few shops, one of which sold sword replicas and mead, and which had a lovely Northern Inuit dog visiting. :)
After that we walked home, gathered a few things and then got in the car again (egad) and drove about 75 minutes to Chirk Castle, which is a livable castle, built by Thomas Myddleton in the 1600s. It was very fancy inside whith lots of period furniture, cornices, carvings, etc. I liked the stone shells of castles better, but it was worth seeing. The driving was mostly on the highway, so I felt pretty confident. It was Sunday evening and the traffic heading out of Conwy was pretty thick (plus there was a Bryan Adams concert in a nearby town - not sure if this was the cause of some of it) but we were going the other way, so that was nice. There was a bit of tricky driving when we got back into Conwy, with people hurtling toward me in the opposite direction on narrow winding streets with parked cars on my side of the road - I think I hit the folding side mirror on something, but there wasn't any damage. Whew. You can imagine that I was VERY glad to be done with driving the car. If I had to do it all the time, I'd probably get used to it - that day I felt pretty confident except for the last 5 minutes of the journey - but I don't think I'd ever enjoy it. Now I'm wondering if I'll remember how to drive on the right side of the road when I get home.
Sunday night we packed. I was very proud of the girls, who packed without being reminded (once we talked about what the plans were for the evening). I think there were leftovers for dinner; I don't really remember. Thad went out to climb the mountain near Conwy (a big hill, really) before bed, but I was tired from waking up at 5 (seagulls and other birds are REALLY noisy in the mornings) so I went to bed. It gets light around 4 and dark around 10:30.
Oops, mooring the boat now so time to go. To be continued.
cheers,
Wendy
Note: I don't have a working spell checker and I'm writing on a tempermental Bluetooth keyboard, so please be forviging of typos and spelling errors.
Wow, now I'm three days behind. Vacation is so full and nighttime is for sleeping, not blogging. But now we are on the narrow boat, and I'm done with my driving stint for now (mainly because I now have consistent Wi-Fi, which is spotty on the canal).
I think I left off after Friday. Saturday (still in Wales), we drove a few miles to a nearby town, Llandudno, which I had heard was a big tourist town. Well, it's a bit town, anyway, seaside (right off a peninsula). It is a big town, with a large grocery store, shopping centre, clothing stores, etc. Obviously it's a place people live and shop, because the kitschy Welsh souvenir-type items were conspicuously absent. There were many hotels and eating places, double-decker bus tours (enclosed and open), and a huge pier with carnival-type kiddie rides, food, arcades, cotton candy (candy floss), etc. There was also an Alice in Wonderland-themed park, meaning grassy area with gazebo, etc, not a theme park. There was a smallish stone circle in the middle (small compared to, say, Stonehenge). I have no idea if it was real. I mean, the stones were real, but I have no idea if the circle itself was ancient or not - there was not much of a marker.
We wandered and took photos - it was a beautiful day, sunny and probably 70 or 75 - and Giselle wanted ice cream and was getting a bit grumpy about it, so we had ice cream for lunch. I had clotted cream and honey flavor with a piece of Cadbury Flake (yum). We went back to the car (which was parked in a huge grocery store parking lot) and moved it, because it said there was a 3-hour time limit and I wasn't sure how strict they were about enforcing. We went back into town and into a few shops and an interesting gallery, but then jet lag caught up with us and we decided to go home. We did hit the grocery store for some dinner items - it was a lot like Meijer, or a Super Walmart, with clothing and tools and seasonal items in addition to a huge food selection. Cadbury chocolate is ridiculously inexpensive, so of course we're making it a staple. They have flavors here not available at home, so we're taking advantage and sampling several kinds. :)
In the afternoon, after driving home (egad, getting better but stil nerve-wracking), the family hung out at home and I went for a photo walk in town and on the old city walls (no charge to wander on the walls). I found out the charge and hours for the castle itself, and took a lot of photos, and went home. That night we cooked the mince we bought in the grocery store (that's ground beef, to you) and had that for dinner, then watched While You Were Sleeping. Giselle and Thad were playing British Monopoly, and Genevieve kintted an infinity scarf for the AirBnB owner, which we left on a stuffed (plush) sheep that stands on the itty-bitty hearth.
End of Saturday.
Sunday - leisurely breakfast - scrambled eggs, cheese, pancakes, and what they call "back bacon" which is really more like ham. The kind we had was realllllly salty. I found out later that what we call "bacon" is called "rashers" here. They put their butter in the fridge and leave the eggs on the counter, which I thought was interesting. A lot of people bring their dogs into stores here as well.
After breakfast, we walked over to Conwy castle (about 1/2 mile) and paid the admission fees to visit the castle proper. There was a demonstration called "Lord of the Wings" of prey birds, mostly owls but one falcon or hawk, never found out which. The birds were all rescued and most of them were unable to be returned to the wild. We got to pet them. There were several kinds - a barn owl, a screech owl, an Indian Scops owl (so cute and little), and a 16-week-old tawny owl named Archimedes still with some pinfeathers. So fluffy.....
There was also a weapons demonstration, mostly single- and two-handed broadswords. Genevieve did volunteer, with a 10-year-old lad, for "training," which involvd holding the weapon at arm's length infront of her while the man in charge counted to 5, then rotating it to horizontal (internal rotation at the shoulder, anatomically speaking) and counting, then back upright, then lateral rotation (palm up). Genevieve was able to hold her weapon with her arm straight without faltering, and brought it down slowly when the man said they were done. Then the lad and Genevieve were oufitted with padded bonnets, maille coifs, helmets, bucklers and swords. Then the man running the demo said, "Which one is better? Only one way to tell - ready, FIGHT!!!" He immediately said, "No, no, I'm kidding!" But Genevieve is so used to getting ready to bout that she partially went into an en garde stance. It was so cool.
Conwy Castle was also cool; it's just a shell (like Caernarfon), but had steps up the towers where you could see the city and the harbor. I have a panoramic function on my camera and played with it a lot at the tops of the towers. We'll see if the photos come out.
We walked into town and picked up some pastries (meat pies and such) from a bakery, and walked out to the harbor side to eat. There we saw but did not go into the "Smallest House in Britain." We wandered around a few shops, one of which sold sword replicas and mead, and which had a lovely Northern Inuit dog visiting. :)
After that we walked home, gathered a few things and then got in the car again (egad) and drove about 75 minutes to Chirk Castle, which is a livable castle, built by Thomas Myddleton in the 1600s. It was very fancy inside whith lots of period furniture, cornices, carvings, etc. I liked the stone shells of castles better, but it was worth seeing. The driving was mostly on the highway, so I felt pretty confident. It was Sunday evening and the traffic heading out of Conwy was pretty thick (plus there was a Bryan Adams concert in a nearby town - not sure if this was the cause of some of it) but we were going the other way, so that was nice. There was a bit of tricky driving when we got back into Conwy, with people hurtling toward me in the opposite direction on narrow winding streets with parked cars on my side of the road - I think I hit the folding side mirror on something, but there wasn't any damage. Whew. You can imagine that I was VERY glad to be done with driving the car. If I had to do it all the time, I'd probably get used to it - that day I felt pretty confident except for the last 5 minutes of the journey - but I don't think I'd ever enjoy it. Now I'm wondering if I'll remember how to drive on the right side of the road when I get home.
Sunday night we packed. I was very proud of the girls, who packed without being reminded (once we talked about what the plans were for the evening). I think there were leftovers for dinner; I don't really remember. Thad went out to climb the mountain near Conwy (a big hill, really) before bed, but I was tired from waking up at 5 (seagulls and other birds are REALLY noisy in the mornings) so I went to bed. It gets light around 4 and dark around 10:30.
Oops, mooring the boat now so time to go. To be continued.
cheers,
Wendy
Saturday, July 8, 2017
Friday
Hello friends,
I didn't write anything yesterday because, well, I didn't. :) But that doesn't mean we didn't do anything. Actually, I think I needed last night to recover from the day. We went to bed around 9 local time Thursday (4 PM to my friends in Michigan) and I made everyone get up at 7. We slept really well - I think after the previous two days we could hardly have done otherwise. The beds in the house are really comfortable, which helps.
Anyway, I got everyone up at 7, and we had cereal from the convenience store (the little boxes of individual cereals), and got in the car around 8 AM. I was parked facing downhill on the side of the road next to the house, not very well, because I'm not great at parallel parking despite having learned to drive in the Boston environs (well, maybe because of it), and I would have had to parallel park going in reverse uphill with a stick shift. As it was we had to look in the manual to figure out how to get the 6-speed Peugeot into reverse at all - apparently there's a trick to it.
There seems to be a trick to everything around here. It took me several tries to lock the house door deadbolt with the key, and that was just after monkeying aound with it (you have to pull the door handle up all the way past neutral to engage the upper bolts, and THEN you can turn the key to lock the lower one). Sheesh. There does not seem to be a pilot light for the stove - luckily I had a book of matches in my first aid kit, so we've been lighting the burners with those. There is a washer/dryer combination with cryptic symbols on the front; so far I've not been able to run a drying cycle without running a washing cycle first. Yesterday it was cloudy and a bit rainy, and there is no place in the house to suspend my laundry line except underneath the railing on the stairs, which doesn't get a lot of air circulation, but it is what it is.
Anyway, we left for Llanberis, where we had tickets to catch the Snowdon Mountain Railway at 9. It's about 13 miles, or 35 minutes in the car, and I did not start out well. I drove better than the previous day (haven't burned out the tranny yet) but I still hit the curb several times, had trouble finding 3rd gear (downshifting into 1st when you want third is discouraging, to say the least), plus the roundabouts come up so suddenly that I think I cut a few people off, quite unintentionally. Then I took the wrong exit off the roundabout and ended up on a different highway, and had to go several miles on winding narrow unmarked roads with people hot on my tail before I found a place to turn around. My phone does not appear to have internet service - when I called the company last night, the very friendly and helpful customer service person, Meghan, helped me find out that basically North Wales' internet is "under construction," and is "blacked out." She stayed past closing to try to help me with it. We'll see how it works at our next location. The upshot of that is that if I didn't drive on a dowloaded route, the "rerouting" didn't work on the GPS and took me off the map, and the paper map we have is of the entire country, so not good for finding turnarounds.
We did make it (barely) to the 9 o'clock train - first we pulled into the Slate Museum site, and found out that the tran was another mile further down the road. Then I couldn't find parking, but dropped off the family and ordered them to go get the tickets. Found the less-well-marked lot across the road (almost in tears by this time from the stress of driving and getting lost), and made it to the train, last people on.
The train ride up the mountain was almost an hour, and was very pretty, except once we got into the clouds, which was also knd of pretty, but not very scenic. I think it was supposed to be bad weather all weekend, and I had to buy the tickets a month in advance, so it was what it was. We went to the summit anyway; they gave us 40 minutes to walk around and try not to get lost in the mist and fall off a cliff.... There were sheep everywhere, with very long tails and long fleeces - looked as if they needed to be shorn. The landscape (once we got back down) was rather impressive. We spoke to the other people in our compartment, and one couple was from England and told us to go a little farther west to Caernarfon Castle. So after we got back down the mountain, we did. We had better success with that, because the nice clerk at the gift shop for the Mountain Railway drew us a crude map of where the car park was, and golly, there it was.
We wandered around Caernarfon and then went to the castle, which is a National Heritage Site, and is where the Prince of Wales (Prince Charles) was - dang, I forget the word, starts with an "I" - well, crowned Prince of Wales, anyway, in 1969. The castle is a big, rambling shell on the coast. We stopped partway through and got lunch at a place on Hole in the Wall Street (where there is a big gap in the wall between the castle and the town). That's where I saw the knickerbocker glory ingredients, for anyone who is following on FaceBook. One more Harry Potter mystery solved.
We went back to the castle until our jet lag caught up with us, and then drove back home to Conwy, where I collapsed from the driving stress again. We had leftovers for dinner from Thursday night (Italian food) and watched a movie (Miss Congeniality) and went to bed.
Which I think I'm goign to do now. Today we went to Llandudno and I drove much better. More about that another time.
blessings
wendy
I didn't write anything yesterday because, well, I didn't. :) But that doesn't mean we didn't do anything. Actually, I think I needed last night to recover from the day. We went to bed around 9 local time Thursday (4 PM to my friends in Michigan) and I made everyone get up at 7. We slept really well - I think after the previous two days we could hardly have done otherwise. The beds in the house are really comfortable, which helps.
Anyway, I got everyone up at 7, and we had cereal from the convenience store (the little boxes of individual cereals), and got in the car around 8 AM. I was parked facing downhill on the side of the road next to the house, not very well, because I'm not great at parallel parking despite having learned to drive in the Boston environs (well, maybe because of it), and I would have had to parallel park going in reverse uphill with a stick shift. As it was we had to look in the manual to figure out how to get the 6-speed Peugeot into reverse at all - apparently there's a trick to it.
There seems to be a trick to everything around here. It took me several tries to lock the house door deadbolt with the key, and that was just after monkeying aound with it (you have to pull the door handle up all the way past neutral to engage the upper bolts, and THEN you can turn the key to lock the lower one). Sheesh. There does not seem to be a pilot light for the stove - luckily I had a book of matches in my first aid kit, so we've been lighting the burners with those. There is a washer/dryer combination with cryptic symbols on the front; so far I've not been able to run a drying cycle without running a washing cycle first. Yesterday it was cloudy and a bit rainy, and there is no place in the house to suspend my laundry line except underneath the railing on the stairs, which doesn't get a lot of air circulation, but it is what it is.
Anyway, we left for Llanberis, where we had tickets to catch the Snowdon Mountain Railway at 9. It's about 13 miles, or 35 minutes in the car, and I did not start out well. I drove better than the previous day (haven't burned out the tranny yet) but I still hit the curb several times, had trouble finding 3rd gear (downshifting into 1st when you want third is discouraging, to say the least), plus the roundabouts come up so suddenly that I think I cut a few people off, quite unintentionally. Then I took the wrong exit off the roundabout and ended up on a different highway, and had to go several miles on winding narrow unmarked roads with people hot on my tail before I found a place to turn around. My phone does not appear to have internet service - when I called the company last night, the very friendly and helpful customer service person, Meghan, helped me find out that basically North Wales' internet is "under construction," and is "blacked out." She stayed past closing to try to help me with it. We'll see how it works at our next location. The upshot of that is that if I didn't drive on a dowloaded route, the "rerouting" didn't work on the GPS and took me off the map, and the paper map we have is of the entire country, so not good for finding turnarounds.
We did make it (barely) to the 9 o'clock train - first we pulled into the Slate Museum site, and found out that the tran was another mile further down the road. Then I couldn't find parking, but dropped off the family and ordered them to go get the tickets. Found the less-well-marked lot across the road (almost in tears by this time from the stress of driving and getting lost), and made it to the train, last people on.
The train ride up the mountain was almost an hour, and was very pretty, except once we got into the clouds, which was also knd of pretty, but not very scenic. I think it was supposed to be bad weather all weekend, and I had to buy the tickets a month in advance, so it was what it was. We went to the summit anyway; they gave us 40 minutes to walk around and try not to get lost in the mist and fall off a cliff.... There were sheep everywhere, with very long tails and long fleeces - looked as if they needed to be shorn. The landscape (once we got back down) was rather impressive. We spoke to the other people in our compartment, and one couple was from England and told us to go a little farther west to Caernarfon Castle. So after we got back down the mountain, we did. We had better success with that, because the nice clerk at the gift shop for the Mountain Railway drew us a crude map of where the car park was, and golly, there it was.
We wandered around Caernarfon and then went to the castle, which is a National Heritage Site, and is where the Prince of Wales (Prince Charles) was - dang, I forget the word, starts with an "I" - well, crowned Prince of Wales, anyway, in 1969. The castle is a big, rambling shell on the coast. We stopped partway through and got lunch at a place on Hole in the Wall Street (where there is a big gap in the wall between the castle and the town). That's where I saw the knickerbocker glory ingredients, for anyone who is following on FaceBook. One more Harry Potter mystery solved.
We went back to the castle until our jet lag caught up with us, and then drove back home to Conwy, where I collapsed from the driving stress again. We had leftovers for dinner from Thursday night (Italian food) and watched a movie (Miss Congeniality) and went to bed.
Which I think I'm goign to do now. Today we went to Llandudno and I drove much better. More about that another time.
blessings
wendy
Thursday, July 6, 2017
Vacation, days one and two
Hello friends and family.
I have no idea if anyone is going to read this, but I need to write it, and I'm sure it wont' be as detailed as I like, but perhaps more detailed than you would like.
Anyway. Here we are, nearly 30 hours into our adventure, and we are finally here. Finally at our AirBnB place.
A brief synopsis of how we got here:
Left Michigan around 9:30 for IL. We hung out at our friends' place for a few hours, and then she was kind enough to drive us to O'Hare airport. We got there in plenty of time for our 6:20 flight to Heathrow, which amazingly enough left on time and got in early. Eight hours and 12 minutes from pulling away from the gate in Chicago, we arrived at Heathrow. The flight itself was tiring - the 5-hour time change will be taking its toll pretty soon - and I think I got maybe 90 minutes of sleep. I was very surprised that they served dinner - and a really good one, ravioli with tomato sauce and this quinoa barley salad with cinnamon and cranberries - wow. Wish I had the recipe. They also served a continental breakfast, not so great, but it was a gesture, at least. I sat on the right side of the plane with Giselle (she had the window) and Genevieve and Thad were across the aisle. I have a cool gizmo that allowed Thad and Genevieve to watch one movie, while Giselle and I watched another one. We also had some new neck pillows which were fairly good but nothing beats being able to lie down, which I will do in a couple of hours.
One of the flight attendants (who did the announcements) had on a chain maille necklace, and she noticed the one I was wearing, so one of my trips back to use the loo, I chatted with her about it. She's from South Africa, and she took up ring weaving because her mother did it but had arthritis and couldn't continue. We traded contact information after the flight. I love making new friends.
We got off the plane, one of the last groups of people, and headed for UK border customs. I wish I had had a pedometer; it feels as if we walked miles in the terminal, stood in 1/2 mile of lines (about 40 minutes' worth, and we got there before a couple of other planes unloaded) and then miles of tunnels under the airport to get to the train.
We took the Heathrow Express - we have BritRail passes, which so far have come in really handy - to Paddington Station (its end stop) I was under the impression that we got the train to Wales there. By then it was already 11 AM London time 6 AM Michigan time) and I asked the man at the information kiosk and he told me it would take another 6 hours to get there, told me the times of the trains and the names of the stations so fast that I didn't catch it. I asked him again (politely) and he said, "I TOLD you, it leaves at 14:45." I objected, saying, "I'm sorry, but I've been up for 24 hours" He interrupted, saying "Well, I'VE been up for over 36, so that beats that." I was getting a little irked, and I was not at my best, but I said, "Then you would understand how it would be easy to forget things when you are so tired." I was also feeling alarmed that it would take so long to do what I had heard was a 3.5 hour trip, and we would miss our rental car window. I had also bought a new SIM chip for my phone (ha - and Google is asking me to verify sign-in with my phone, so I'm typing this on my tiny phone screen rather than my Kindle) and the service wasn't working, so I wasn't sure if I could contact the rental car company in time.
You'll be pleased to hear that I didn't totally lose my cool, although I can neither confirm nor deny the presence of some mild cussing under my breath. Instead I went across to the other information kiosk, where a much friendlier man told me, "Oh, for North Wales you need to leave from Euston. You can take the Underground - platform 16 - or maybe it would be better to take a taxi." He smiled kindly at me, too. I decided I had had enough of schlepping our luggage in tunnels under construction, and opted for a taxi. By this time it was nearing lunchtime, and our taxi driver apologized for the slow drive (though he didn't take anything off the fare). But we got to ride in one of those cool black taxis with the fold-down seats, and watch the motorcycles and bicyclists weave between lanes of traffic (that was positively nerve-wracking, especially with everyone driving on the left).
We made it to Euston Station and caught a train within 10 minutes that went to Chester (near Liverpool). We changed trains there for Llandudno Junction. With the exception of the gentleman who was snippy to me, everyone has been very kind and understanding. The Llandudno train was bound for Holyhead and unfortunately was quite packed. I ended up sitting next to a young lady whom I discovered taught English at a local university. She discovered that she had gotten on the wrong train, so we chatted for a stop and then she got off to go in the other direction. She was quite friendly.
By this time we were all fried, and the fact of 6 probably drunk Scandinavians in the car who conversed loudly and randomly burst into song (think "A Knight's Tale," when they all start singing "Gelderland!" to the tune of "Stars and Stripes Forever") did not help things.
We landed at the Junction and only had to walk a block to the rental car place. The men in there were also very nice, explaining things and so forth. Then they put me into a Peugot SUV diesel with a manual transmission (I knew that) and sent me off to drive on the left side of the road in some of the hilliest, narrowest roads I've ever seen, and I'm from New England. It was worse than driving on the North Shore of Massachusetts, and I had this BIG car, on unfamiliar streets, getting used to a manual again (left-shift). I missed the turn into the neighborhood where our rental house was, then had to park on the opposite side of the street facing downhill - I would have had to parallel park going in reverse up the hill with a manual transmission.... I was unequal to the task, and pulled in front of the line of parked cars instead. Ask me tomorrow.
Then I almost walked into the wrong house, couldn't figure out how to lock the door, and couldn't get the lock box closed. Tomorrow I'm going to park in a free parking lot behind a convenience store a block away. It's flat, for one thing, and not as narrow. If we're not carrying luggage, we'll walk.
Time to go get some food. We haven't eaten anything substantial for many hours. We're walking to town - it's only 1/2 mile, and I' not getting in that car again right now. Thank goodness I'm not driving in London.
I have to say, the kids were WONDERFUL. They were crabby and tired but didn't fight and hardly complained, just enough to give a "weather report" on how they were feeling. The more fun adventures start tomorrow. Time for dinner.
Blessings
Wendy
I have no idea if anyone is going to read this, but I need to write it, and I'm sure it wont' be as detailed as I like, but perhaps more detailed than you would like.
Anyway. Here we are, nearly 30 hours into our adventure, and we are finally here. Finally at our AirBnB place.
A brief synopsis of how we got here:
Left Michigan around 9:30 for IL. We hung out at our friends' place for a few hours, and then she was kind enough to drive us to O'Hare airport. We got there in plenty of time for our 6:20 flight to Heathrow, which amazingly enough left on time and got in early. Eight hours and 12 minutes from pulling away from the gate in Chicago, we arrived at Heathrow. The flight itself was tiring - the 5-hour time change will be taking its toll pretty soon - and I think I got maybe 90 minutes of sleep. I was very surprised that they served dinner - and a really good one, ravioli with tomato sauce and this quinoa barley salad with cinnamon and cranberries - wow. Wish I had the recipe. They also served a continental breakfast, not so great, but it was a gesture, at least. I sat on the right side of the plane with Giselle (she had the window) and Genevieve and Thad were across the aisle. I have a cool gizmo that allowed Thad and Genevieve to watch one movie, while Giselle and I watched another one. We also had some new neck pillows which were fairly good but nothing beats being able to lie down, which I will do in a couple of hours.
One of the flight attendants (who did the announcements) had on a chain maille necklace, and she noticed the one I was wearing, so one of my trips back to use the loo, I chatted with her about it. She's from South Africa, and she took up ring weaving because her mother did it but had arthritis and couldn't continue. We traded contact information after the flight. I love making new friends.
We got off the plane, one of the last groups of people, and headed for UK border customs. I wish I had had a pedometer; it feels as if we walked miles in the terminal, stood in 1/2 mile of lines (about 40 minutes' worth, and we got there before a couple of other planes unloaded) and then miles of tunnels under the airport to get to the train.
We took the Heathrow Express - we have BritRail passes, which so far have come in really handy - to Paddington Station (its end stop) I was under the impression that we got the train to Wales there. By then it was already 11 AM London time 6 AM Michigan time) and I asked the man at the information kiosk and he told me it would take another 6 hours to get there, told me the times of the trains and the names of the stations so fast that I didn't catch it. I asked him again (politely) and he said, "I TOLD you, it leaves at 14:45." I objected, saying, "I'm sorry, but I've been up for 24 hours" He interrupted, saying "Well, I'VE been up for over 36, so that beats that." I was getting a little irked, and I was not at my best, but I said, "Then you would understand how it would be easy to forget things when you are so tired." I was also feeling alarmed that it would take so long to do what I had heard was a 3.5 hour trip, and we would miss our rental car window. I had also bought a new SIM chip for my phone (ha - and Google is asking me to verify sign-in with my phone, so I'm typing this on my tiny phone screen rather than my Kindle) and the service wasn't working, so I wasn't sure if I could contact the rental car company in time.
You'll be pleased to hear that I didn't totally lose my cool, although I can neither confirm nor deny the presence of some mild cussing under my breath. Instead I went across to the other information kiosk, where a much friendlier man told me, "Oh, for North Wales you need to leave from Euston. You can take the Underground - platform 16 - or maybe it would be better to take a taxi." He smiled kindly at me, too. I decided I had had enough of schlepping our luggage in tunnels under construction, and opted for a taxi. By this time it was nearing lunchtime, and our taxi driver apologized for the slow drive (though he didn't take anything off the fare). But we got to ride in one of those cool black taxis with the fold-down seats, and watch the motorcycles and bicyclists weave between lanes of traffic (that was positively nerve-wracking, especially with everyone driving on the left).
We made it to Euston Station and caught a train within 10 minutes that went to Chester (near Liverpool). We changed trains there for Llandudno Junction. With the exception of the gentleman who was snippy to me, everyone has been very kind and understanding. The Llandudno train was bound for Holyhead and unfortunately was quite packed. I ended up sitting next to a young lady whom I discovered taught English at a local university. She discovered that she had gotten on the wrong train, so we chatted for a stop and then she got off to go in the other direction. She was quite friendly.
By this time we were all fried, and the fact of 6 probably drunk Scandinavians in the car who conversed loudly and randomly burst into song (think "A Knight's Tale," when they all start singing "Gelderland!" to the tune of "Stars and Stripes Forever") did not help things.
We landed at the Junction and only had to walk a block to the rental car place. The men in there were also very nice, explaining things and so forth. Then they put me into a Peugot SUV diesel with a manual transmission (I knew that) and sent me off to drive on the left side of the road in some of the hilliest, narrowest roads I've ever seen, and I'm from New England. It was worse than driving on the North Shore of Massachusetts, and I had this BIG car, on unfamiliar streets, getting used to a manual again (left-shift). I missed the turn into the neighborhood where our rental house was, then had to park on the opposite side of the street facing downhill - I would have had to parallel park going in reverse up the hill with a manual transmission.... I was unequal to the task, and pulled in front of the line of parked cars instead. Ask me tomorrow.
Then I almost walked into the wrong house, couldn't figure out how to lock the door, and couldn't get the lock box closed. Tomorrow I'm going to park in a free parking lot behind a convenience store a block away. It's flat, for one thing, and not as narrow. If we're not carrying luggage, we'll walk.
Time to go get some food. We haven't eaten anything substantial for many hours. We're walking to town - it's only 1/2 mile, and I' not getting in that car again right now. Thank goodness I'm not driving in London.
I have to say, the kids were WONDERFUL. They were crabby and tired but didn't fight and hardly complained, just enough to give a "weather report" on how they were feeling. The more fun adventures start tomorrow. Time for dinner.
Blessings
Wendy
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