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
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