Some wonderful scenery

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Off to Lake District
Happening night scene tonight?
Cold and overcast.

I’ve been awake since 5:30 this morning. Yup, I think I’m starting to feel better and back to only needing about 6.5 hours sleep instead of wanting to sleep in. Mind you I’ll probably start getting tired mid-morning. LOL Or perhaps I’m looking forward to our fully cooked breakfast! LOL

Mmm, now back on the bus and the hearty breakfast was simply delish! Scrambled eggs, bacon, sausage, tomato, hash browns, baked beans, toast, juice, coffee and tea! Phew! Yummy and we got to sit down and eat in the lovely dining room as well. Mind you, there was a creepy stuffed owl looking at me the whole time. Linda’s daughter Ellen was helping to serve breakfast and today is the second to last day of school term so Ellen was dressed in pirate gear. Phew! It’s not dress up at breakfast cuz I didn’t pack my eye patch, parrot and hook hand. Haha Sign that we’re in the boonies, Ellen’s 13 year old brother took the car and drove Ellen to school!

We stopped briefly to get gas and then have a wee walk to see a waterfall. Not very impressive but it was great to be able to stop and take some photos of the group (well minus Robert who wandered off.)

Continuing onto Snowdonian National Park to see Mt. Snowden the tallest mountain in Wales, we just passed “The Ugly House”. A house built with lots of stones. About three hundred years ago a law was passed if you could build a house, bake a loaf of bread and eat it within a day you’d be able to have that land your house stood on tax free. So this house is made up of a patchwork of stones. There’s even a sign on the road…”200m to the Ugly House” and outside the house is a sign stating “Ugly House!” I couldn’t get a picture because there was no where for us to stop. Besides it’s a pretty ugly house so why do I want a picture? LOL

We’re now in Snowden National Park and made a bit of a pit stop to look at Mt. Snowden the largest peak in Wales/England. Unfortunately it’s all behind cloud cover and extremely windy! Brrr…The mountains are all made of slate and Fergie tells us it reminds him of the Scottish Highlands…something to look forward to, that’s for sure, oh yes, slate is used as roofing tiles and snookers tables.

Just passed through the birth place of Dylan Thomas - Bethesdun (think I just spelled that wrong! I’ll have to look that one up later…)

Going over Merai Bridge which connects mainland Wales to the Island we’re going to. The current of the river is so strong that they built a house in the middle of the river so that the people rowing the boats could get their second wind to row to the other side. Apparently that’s how strong the currents are. The house is now a B&B. It would be pretty cool to stay there. Crossing the bridge to Llanfairpwllgwyngyllgogerychwyrndrobwllllantysiliogogogoch (translates to The Church of Mary in the Hollow of the White Haze near the fierce Whirlpool and the Church of Tysillo by the Red Cave.) What a mouthful! Not much to do here but stop in a shop to get a cool stamp in our passport - red and green! At first the shop was closed and we were all disappointed and jokingly cursing the lady running the shop for not being there but just as we were about to go , Dee noticed…the shop doors are open! So we all flocked to the shop to get our passports stamped.

We’ve arrived in Conwy, a walled City with an impressive castle. It reminds me of a sandcastle. There’s a suspension bridge that was built in the 1800’s at one side of the castle that was pretty cool. It costs £1.40 to go on the bridge and you pay at the toll way but Dee and I walked part way, took our pictures with the bridge and castle before the toll way booth and hightailed it out of there.  We didn’t shell out the £4 to go inside. I think I will shell out to see the Edinburgh Castle though since it is one of the biggest highlights of Edinburgh and I hear you can spend ½ day in there…especially if I’m going to shell out some big bucks to in there!

We’ve got two hours of motorway driving this afternoon until we get to Ambelside, our night stop. Fergie has just told us that he plans on making a pit stop in Liverpool since we’re making good time. He’ll tell us a few stories and take us to a statute of the Beatles so we can have our photo taken there. Cool!

Liverpool was built up from the slave trade, (cotton & tobacco) and the shipping companies (P&O, Whitestar etc.) After a while the shipping industry declined in Liverpool because everything moved to South Hampton. Port buildings are now fancy warehouse apartments and Liverpool is slowly becoming a “trendy” place to live again.

Here’s a fun fact. To travel first class on a ship to America it would be equivalent to £125, 000 in today’s money! Crazy!

We’re going under the W’sey Tunnel to get into Liverpool as opposed to taking the more expensive ferry. I’m not sure why you’d want to take the ferry since the toll for using the tunnel is only about £4.

Anyhoo, we were given an hour to wander the streets of Liverpool and we basically spent our time wandering down Matthew Street and saw the Cavern Pub where the Beatles used to play. I wanted to capture a bit of Beatlemania and get a bit of memorabilia but most things were pretty pricey so I ended up getting a couple of badges and pinned them onto my bag. We didn’t really have much time to check out any other historical sites of Liverpool but had a good wander around the streets.

Next stop: Ambelside. It’s a quaint little town on the Windermere (Saxon mere = lake). We were staying at a nice little hostel with free internet, a nice sitting room, a large self-catering kitchen but the rooms were a tad squishy - 8 bunks in a small room. I was feeling a bit lazy when we dropped off our stuff and just sat in the sitting room for a bit and of course went online too. We arranged to meet at 6:30 at the White Lion Hotel but as it always turns out we ended up walking around (and getting a bit disoriented at the same time) and ended up getting to the Pub around 7:10. Rob was already chowing down on a hugeass platter of meat, salad and fries. It was sort of a grotesque amount of food for one person to eat and he did! I don’t know where he packs it away because he is a pretty skinny guy. I ended up sharing curry with Dee and it was delish. So it was me, Dee, Scott, Dan, Rob and Fergie at the pub for dinner. The other four decided to do their own thing but I’m not sure where they ate but apparently they did a lot of walking about town and even walked over to the next town!

Back at the pub we just sat there drinking “extra cold” beer as per Rob’s request (and as per usual I had water…) and just talked bollocks. Fergie left after a while since he had to go call his daughter. He kept calling us Party Animals so we were determined to stay up later than 10PM. LOL At one point we all started to talk to an English couple from Lincolnshire. They were in Ambelside for a short vacation and had come by motorbike. They’ve been married for 23 years and look forward to going to Australia for their silver anniversary. “Will four weeks be enough to see Australia?” Guess they don’t know how large Australia is!

At one point we got onto the topic of movies and I realize I haven’t seen very many movies in my lifetime compared to these guys. Plus the “Blues Brothers” seems to be a popular choice in films…the best! My fave story was Scott telling us how his granny couldn’t understand the humour of “Groundhog’s Day”. “But it’s the same thing over and over…”

We ended up staying at the pub til closing and I actually didn’t crawl into bed until about midnight! What a bunch of Party Animals we are. LOL

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Photos

Round the breakfast table.
Starting with Julia in front with the long sleeved orange shirt and going clockwise it is...Anja, Fergie, Rob, Shanthi, Scott, Daniel, Bon, Dee and Wai-ting.

By the not so spectacular waterfall.
We didn't even try to get a shot of the waterfall in our picture!
Left to right: Shanthi, Scott, Anja, Wai-ting, Julia, Dee and Scott.

Snowdonian National Park
Mt. Snowden, the tallest mountain in Wales hidden behind the misty clouds.

Llanfairpwllgwyngyllgogerychwyrndrobwllllantysiliogogogoch
Now that's a mouthfull! It translates to The Church of Mary in the Hollow of the White Haze near the fierce Whirlpool and the Church of Tysillo by the Red Cave.

Suspension Bridge at Conwy Castle
That's me...not looking guilty for not paying the toll...