Wales to England
Bath
Day 130 - 131
We're back in England!!!
And i tell ya, don't we know it. It's so expensive! This is one place, we won't be coming back to i tell ya.
Anyway, we're here in Bath for the next couple of days.
I'll write more later, internet time has run out.
Love to you all!
xx
Tuesday, 10 July 2007
MID WALES
Mid Wales
SNOWDONIA
Machynlleth
Maenllwdd B&B
Day 129
HAPPY BIRTHDAY SHEL!!! You're now the same age as me!!!! How many years have we been saying that??? Um...27 years..whoa!!!! You are an OLD friend!!!!! hehe Love ya xxx
****************
Sorry about the headings! For some reason this blog won't let me put any titles in so i'll have to put them in later! Last time it was all in Japanese! I tell ya...i do miss my own computer!
****************
We left Llandudno and headed to Betws-y-Coed by train. Of course there were delays.....nothing new in Wales. That's one thing for sure, NO train is on time..there are always delays, from what we gather and have experienced!)
Travelling along there were so many lakes...and so much GREEN. Green rolling hills, and mountainous fields, sheep, cows, GREEN.
So different to what we have in Aus that's for sure. The farmers, as we found out after meeting one of the locals here in Machynlleth, are crying because there's TOO much water! It's water logging their fields...
He was a funny welsh guy too....a rugged farmer type with an eye that didn't quite look at you..it crookedly wandered to the side...haha..drunk? Anyway, we met him in the Machynlleth (pronounced macKinlith!) pub while we were waiting for our roast dinners....and he turned out to be a farmer who lets people stay on his farm in exchange for work. He asked if we wanted to stay there!
But as we were only there for one night we had say no! But, sorry kids, we dobbed you all in..and said when and if you were ever in Wales, it'd be a good thing for you to do..and he was happy! hehe
ON the way to Machynlleth we stopped at a place called Porthmadog and had a cup of tea at the Station Cafe....quaint again. Plates from all over the world on the wall. THere was one from Perth too! ANd of course, it made our day. How silly hey...anything familiar like that just makes your day. WHich reminds me, I thought they ate marmite here???? NONE. I thought at least Marmite might be a good substitute for vegemite..but nup. None about....so i'm dying for some vegemite!!!!!!
Back to mid Wales..
The reason why we came to this town was to see the CAT. Centre for Alternative Technology. We took so long travelling to get there that we thought we'd miss out on seeing it..but the guy at the B&B we stayed at (Maenllwdd) offered us a lift in his car...(his son's ferrari was sitting there and looked new, 3 days old the father said, but we didn't get to go in that..arrrgh!) so we did get there to CAT.
VERY INTERESTING.
IT's a town that is all about sustainability..and living as greenies really and so we looked around and saw what they were doing. It was started by a bunch of young idealists in the seventies, in a state quarry. Apparently they were inspired by the notion of building a community to test the emerging technologies....and it's very successfully run now..
We glad we made it...
And the walk home was great too. 4 miles cos the bus wasn't running!!!!
PS Was good later to see Federer won at Wimbleton!!!
SNOWDONIA
Machynlleth
Maenllwdd B&B
Day 129
HAPPY BIRTHDAY SHEL!!! You're now the same age as me!!!! How many years have we been saying that??? Um...27 years..whoa!!!! You are an OLD friend!!!!! hehe Love ya xxx
****************
Sorry about the headings! For some reason this blog won't let me put any titles in so i'll have to put them in later! Last time it was all in Japanese! I tell ya...i do miss my own computer!
****************
We left Llandudno and headed to Betws-y-Coed by train. Of course there were delays.....nothing new in Wales. That's one thing for sure, NO train is on time..there are always delays, from what we gather and have experienced!)
Travelling along there were so many lakes...and so much GREEN. Green rolling hills, and mountainous fields, sheep, cows, GREEN.
So different to what we have in Aus that's for sure. The farmers, as we found out after meeting one of the locals here in Machynlleth, are crying because there's TOO much water! It's water logging their fields...
He was a funny welsh guy too....a rugged farmer type with an eye that didn't quite look at you..it crookedly wandered to the side...haha..drunk? Anyway, we met him in the Machynlleth (pronounced macKinlith!) pub while we were waiting for our roast dinners....and he turned out to be a farmer who lets people stay on his farm in exchange for work. He asked if we wanted to stay there!
But as we were only there for one night we had say no! But, sorry kids, we dobbed you all in..and said when and if you were ever in Wales, it'd be a good thing for you to do..and he was happy! hehe
ON the way to Machynlleth we stopped at a place called Porthmadog and had a cup of tea at the Station Cafe....quaint again. Plates from all over the world on the wall. THere was one from Perth too! ANd of course, it made our day. How silly hey...anything familiar like that just makes your day. WHich reminds me, I thought they ate marmite here???? NONE. I thought at least Marmite might be a good substitute for vegemite..but nup. None about....so i'm dying for some vegemite!!!!!!
Back to mid Wales..
The reason why we came to this town was to see the CAT. Centre for Alternative Technology. We took so long travelling to get there that we thought we'd miss out on seeing it..but the guy at the B&B we stayed at (Maenllwdd) offered us a lift in his car...(his son's ferrari was sitting there and looked new, 3 days old the father said, but we didn't get to go in that..arrrgh!) so we did get there to CAT.
VERY INTERESTING.
IT's a town that is all about sustainability..and living as greenies really and so we looked around and saw what they were doing. It was started by a bunch of young idealists in the seventies, in a state quarry. Apparently they were inspired by the notion of building a community to test the emerging technologies....and it's very successfully run now..
We glad we made it...
And the walk home was great too. 4 miles cos the bus wasn't running!!!!
PS Was good later to see Federer won at Wimbleton!!!
NORTHERN WALES
Northern Wales
Llandudno
Rosedene B&B
Day 127 - 128
Wales is a place we know is in the UK. We've both been there, we both wanted to go back because the previous times were SO many years ago..and we both didn't quite know what we were wanting to see there..
So we researched.
We wanted to see the Bronzed ages mines in the Great Orme, and we wanted to see the wonderful castles we'd heard about, that King Edward 1 built and rebuilt..and we both wanted to go to the Centre for Alternatative Technology in mid Wales.
Apart from that...we just wanted to go there to see why the Brits go there for their summer holidays..and have done so for centuries!
So off we headed.
We got a taxi in Dublin (oh my GAWD! Catching taxis are bliss after we've been walking, bussing or training everywhere!) SO EASY!!!) to the ferry terminal and ferried to Holyhead in North Wales. After that we caught a train to the Junction where we headed to Llandudno (where the copper mine was!).
And we found this town is a-b-s-o-l-u-t-l-y GORGEOUS!!!!! Talk about beautiful scenery...Wales is simply lovely! The pier..ohhhhh....it's just quaint and wonderful. We didn't find this out until we found our B&B and went for a walk..at first, after heading from the train station to the nearest B&B we thought it was just a cosy little town with a lot of retired people about. It did seem like that..and even in the windows were fashions that were..well, not quite Paris or London!! It looked old fashioned..
Even the restaurants and pubs were advertising really welsh hearty meals. Like faggots hahaha...and Black puddings........and welsh rarebit and other menus. I couldn't resist buying 2 little books from the Tourist Centre on Welsh dishes. They really did look like they served all the traditional dishes according to the blackboards on the outside of hte local pubs.
We ended up going to one as well..called The ALbert where we had a roast! (Again)
Oh yeah, there was this big weighing scale on the pier when we were down there going for a walk...and yes, we're BOTH 8kg's OVER our normal weights!
Is that bad or what???
Here we are, getting fitter, yet getting fatter as well!
One compensation is...our clothes, we think, weighed at least 3...crikey.
I'm not going to go on about that again..but i tell ya, it's problem. Travelling and trying to maintain a healthy eating regime. If you could call it that...well ok, not a regime, but a healthy diet at least. Its VERY HARD to get veges. And when you're staying in B&B's which is the cheapest way to go, apart from hostels, there are no facilities so we have to eat out. And most of the time..the only supermarket food you can by is either fruit or bread. But what do you put on the bread??? You either have to have it plain, or buy a block of cheese or something....and veges. We both LOVE our veges but we either have to buy them and eat them raw or have them in restaurants and honesly this is no mean feat. They're usually full of cream or fried or baked. YOu can't seem to just get a LARGE plate of steamed veges. Which i'm dying for!
Salads are easier to have as an aside. Which seems to be just tomato and lettuce.
IT can be SO frustrating.
Even to the point i just am at a loss to be able to get veges in our diet at all.
And consequently, we really do have a very unbalanced diet. With lots of bread. And even though i love bread. YOu can only eat so much bread...and oh, eggs for breakfast. Where's the fruit. Aarrghhh...complain, whinge, sook. That's me. I usually love my soups and vegetable casseroles and lentils and rice and more veges so i'm almost ready to just LOSE MY HEAD¬!!!!
haha
OK. Just to warn you, yes, we're fatties now.
Ok, that's off my chest.
Wales...
Yes, we loved Llandudno....and managed to get up and see the copper mine by tram.
This copper mine is something we've read about. IT's a bronze age mine that was originally thought to be a roman civilisation but when the communiy decided to build a car park on top of the ruins..they got some archaeologists in to come and check out the stability of the ground...
And walah, they found a bronze age copper mine..4000 years old!! THis was in 1987 so for the last 20 years archaeologist have been examining and exploring the area. The mine is so far about 8km's long! They've blasted it out so tourists can go in and see all the tunnels. And the tunnels are so small. They say little kids of 5 and 6 must have worked these mines..
IT was very exciting to see it..
Another thing we did from Llandudno was to catch a bus to Conwy Castle...and to Caenarfon Castle. Two castles that Edward 1 built in the 13th Century. Conwy was an amazing town. IT has a fortified wall around the whole place. All intact too. We felt quite honoured to be there...and to look around the castle.
The castle itself is perched on a big rock jutting out onto the river.
We had a pot of tea a the Castle cafe after and this was special as it was built into the town's wall and from it we could see the estuary which led out onto the sea. QUite spectacular.
As was the Caenarfon Castle in Caenarfon. That had a castle with a mote all around it..all intact. The most amazing castles. ANd i thought Scotland had wonderful castles. NOT as wonderful as Northern Wales. I guess because they were British ones..they weren't destroyed!!!
There was a statue of Lord Carnarvon in the town and i realised Caenarfon was Welsh. And that's where our WA town was named after. As was Conwy...in English it's Conway Castle.
So beautiful is North Wales. IT's green, and mountainous. And the mountains now, in summer, are without the snow so they're green and have purple hether all over them...very magical. Lovely, lovely place...
And the people at the B&B were so lovely as well! They greeted us with, 'Would you like a pot of tea?'
Oh yesssssssssssssssssssssss
A POT OF TEA. How wonderful:-)
Llandudno
Rosedene B&B
Day 127 - 128
Wales is a place we know is in the UK. We've both been there, we both wanted to go back because the previous times were SO many years ago..and we both didn't quite know what we were wanting to see there..
So we researched.
We wanted to see the Bronzed ages mines in the Great Orme, and we wanted to see the wonderful castles we'd heard about, that King Edward 1 built and rebuilt..and we both wanted to go to the Centre for Alternatative Technology in mid Wales.
Apart from that...we just wanted to go there to see why the Brits go there for their summer holidays..and have done so for centuries!
So off we headed.
We got a taxi in Dublin (oh my GAWD! Catching taxis are bliss after we've been walking, bussing or training everywhere!) SO EASY!!!) to the ferry terminal and ferried to Holyhead in North Wales. After that we caught a train to the Junction where we headed to Llandudno (where the copper mine was!).
And we found this town is a-b-s-o-l-u-t-l-y GORGEOUS!!!!! Talk about beautiful scenery...Wales is simply lovely! The pier..ohhhhh....it's just quaint and wonderful. We didn't find this out until we found our B&B and went for a walk..at first, after heading from the train station to the nearest B&B we thought it was just a cosy little town with a lot of retired people about. It did seem like that..and even in the windows were fashions that were..well, not quite Paris or London!! It looked old fashioned..
Even the restaurants and pubs were advertising really welsh hearty meals. Like faggots hahaha...and Black puddings........and welsh rarebit and other menus. I couldn't resist buying 2 little books from the Tourist Centre on Welsh dishes. They really did look like they served all the traditional dishes according to the blackboards on the outside of hte local pubs.
We ended up going to one as well..called The ALbert where we had a roast! (Again)
Oh yeah, there was this big weighing scale on the pier when we were down there going for a walk...and yes, we're BOTH 8kg's OVER our normal weights!
Is that bad or what???
Here we are, getting fitter, yet getting fatter as well!
One compensation is...our clothes, we think, weighed at least 3...crikey.
I'm not going to go on about that again..but i tell ya, it's problem. Travelling and trying to maintain a healthy eating regime. If you could call it that...well ok, not a regime, but a healthy diet at least. Its VERY HARD to get veges. And when you're staying in B&B's which is the cheapest way to go, apart from hostels, there are no facilities so we have to eat out. And most of the time..the only supermarket food you can by is either fruit or bread. But what do you put on the bread??? You either have to have it plain, or buy a block of cheese or something....and veges. We both LOVE our veges but we either have to buy them and eat them raw or have them in restaurants and honesly this is no mean feat. They're usually full of cream or fried or baked. YOu can't seem to just get a LARGE plate of steamed veges. Which i'm dying for!
Salads are easier to have as an aside. Which seems to be just tomato and lettuce.
IT can be SO frustrating.
Even to the point i just am at a loss to be able to get veges in our diet at all.
And consequently, we really do have a very unbalanced diet. With lots of bread. And even though i love bread. YOu can only eat so much bread...and oh, eggs for breakfast. Where's the fruit. Aarrghhh...complain, whinge, sook. That's me. I usually love my soups and vegetable casseroles and lentils and rice and more veges so i'm almost ready to just LOSE MY HEAD¬!!!!
haha
OK. Just to warn you, yes, we're fatties now.
Ok, that's off my chest.
Wales...
Yes, we loved Llandudno....and managed to get up and see the copper mine by tram.
This copper mine is something we've read about. IT's a bronze age mine that was originally thought to be a roman civilisation but when the communiy decided to build a car park on top of the ruins..they got some archaeologists in to come and check out the stability of the ground...
And walah, they found a bronze age copper mine..4000 years old!! THis was in 1987 so for the last 20 years archaeologist have been examining and exploring the area. The mine is so far about 8km's long! They've blasted it out so tourists can go in and see all the tunnels. And the tunnels are so small. They say little kids of 5 and 6 must have worked these mines..
IT was very exciting to see it..
Another thing we did from Llandudno was to catch a bus to Conwy Castle...and to Caenarfon Castle. Two castles that Edward 1 built in the 13th Century. Conwy was an amazing town. IT has a fortified wall around the whole place. All intact too. We felt quite honoured to be there...and to look around the castle.
The castle itself is perched on a big rock jutting out onto the river.
We had a pot of tea a the Castle cafe after and this was special as it was built into the town's wall and from it we could see the estuary which led out onto the sea. QUite spectacular.
As was the Caenarfon Castle in Caenarfon. That had a castle with a mote all around it..all intact. The most amazing castles. ANd i thought Scotland had wonderful castles. NOT as wonderful as Northern Wales. I guess because they were British ones..they weren't destroyed!!!
There was a statue of Lord Carnarvon in the town and i realised Caenarfon was Welsh. And that's where our WA town was named after. As was Conwy...in English it's Conway Castle.
So beautiful is North Wales. IT's green, and mountainous. And the mountains now, in summer, are without the snow so they're green and have purple hether all over them...very magical. Lovely, lovely place...
And the people at the B&B were so lovely as well! They greeted us with, 'Would you like a pot of tea?'
Oh yesssssssssssssssssssssss
A POT OF TEA. How wonderful:-)
LAST NIGHT IN DUBLIN
Last night in Dublin, Ireland..
Day 126
After going to Dublin Castle and the National Library where there was an exhibition on WB Yeats (by the way the B stands for Butler and he is a Kilkenny boy so is there any relation...? And to Jilly? Something to ponder eh?) we decided to go to the Natural history museum..to see the BOG MAN but apparently the stairs crumbled and fell down and 13 people were injured! So it was closed!
So what to do? We had a pot of tea. How civilised hey...well, talking of tea, we're INTO teas.......................and love our silver pots of tea! AND i have to tell you..in England it's 'english breakfast tea' and in IReland it's 'Irish Breakfast Tea'!!! I wonder if it's Welsh tea in Wales! ANd talking of that...same with the 'full breakfasts'..in England it's the English full breakfast...in Scotland it's the full Scottish breakfast etc..so funny.
Anyway, where were we?
Oh ok..what we did on our last Irish day...
We went to the Arlington after our day of sightseeing...
And what a night!
If anyone is in Dublin...this is the place to go. We prebooked our table so we could see the traditional riverdancing show and music which is free. The charge is the dinner but you don't have to order the whole menu...as we didn't. We had the main..and enjoyed the show and it was brilliant!
The band were the Rafferty Boys..and not only did they play traditional irish music..they played a whole lot of oldies too..so we were jigging and jiving..it was wonderful!!!
Honestly....more time was definatly needed in Ireland...and especially because it would have been great to catch up with Annie's friend Pippa. To tell you the truth. It's actually hard to work out what to arrange! It's weird catching up with people we don't know and yet they know the people we do know so well!
In hindsite...we could have met her at the Arlington! I think she would have loved the show and it would have been a great night for all. That would have been perfect.
Later. We had our irish coffees and thought of Dublin in our dreams....
Day 126
After going to Dublin Castle and the National Library where there was an exhibition on WB Yeats (by the way the B stands for Butler and he is a Kilkenny boy so is there any relation...? And to Jilly? Something to ponder eh?) we decided to go to the Natural history museum..to see the BOG MAN but apparently the stairs crumbled and fell down and 13 people were injured! So it was closed!
So what to do? We had a pot of tea. How civilised hey...well, talking of tea, we're INTO teas.......................and love our silver pots of tea! AND i have to tell you..in England it's 'english breakfast tea' and in IReland it's 'Irish Breakfast Tea'!!! I wonder if it's Welsh tea in Wales! ANd talking of that...same with the 'full breakfasts'..in England it's the English full breakfast...in Scotland it's the full Scottish breakfast etc..so funny.
Anyway, where were we?
Oh ok..what we did on our last Irish day...
We went to the Arlington after our day of sightseeing...
And what a night!
If anyone is in Dublin...this is the place to go. We prebooked our table so we could see the traditional riverdancing show and music which is free. The charge is the dinner but you don't have to order the whole menu...as we didn't. We had the main..and enjoyed the show and it was brilliant!
The band were the Rafferty Boys..and not only did they play traditional irish music..they played a whole lot of oldies too..so we were jigging and jiving..it was wonderful!!!
Honestly....more time was definatly needed in Ireland...and especially because it would have been great to catch up with Annie's friend Pippa. To tell you the truth. It's actually hard to work out what to arrange! It's weird catching up with people we don't know and yet they know the people we do know so well!
In hindsite...we could have met her at the Arlington! I think she would have loved the show and it would have been a great night for all. That would have been perfect.
Later. We had our irish coffees and thought of Dublin in our dreams....
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