Claire and Taylor's European Odyssey

Our next adventure began with a four hour train ride from Totnes to Cardiff, in the southern part of Wales. We were met there by Claire's second cousin, aka Aunty Jilly. We went to her place and hung out for the evening, chatted, had lots of tea and watched the Welsh news. The main story is one about a bull that lives at a religeous temple and that has TB. The question is do you put him down...or not??? Big news.
The next day we went into Cardiff Bay and toured the new Millenium Centre and saw live opera singers on a small stage inside. Then we took a seabus over to the Cardiff Barrage and had a very lively commentary on the surrounding Bay from a very friendly Welshman. You see Cardiff is coastal and so the water in the bay would retreat and leave a largely unattractive mud flat. Since they wanted to develop the Bay they decided to install a Barrage to get rid of the tide "problem." I must admit the Barrage was pretty cool. We managed to watch a few boats go through whereby the boat enters a lock, the water is drained and it sails out the other side into the open ocean. There is even a fish ladder for the fishies.

That night we went to see "Pan's Labyrinth" at the local arts centre. It was actually surprising good - we had a nice chat about it afterwards, in true art buff fashion, over beer and wine.

The next day we took a day trip on the bus out to Mumbles, which is where Catherine Zeta-Jones owns a house (!) It is also supposed to be a lovely peice of Welsh coastline, to the West of Cardiff by about an hour. We had lunch over the water when we got there, and as we did so the fog rolled in, so the lovely coastline was barely visible. Oh well. We still walked around and out onto the beach and ventured through some parkland with apparently fabulous viewpoints....we'll take there word for it...Right when we were ready to head back to Cardiff, low and behold, the fog lifted. Sods law I tell ya. It was a great day though. An adventure you might say. We had a nice evening chatting with Jill again, definitely another fabulous host. It was awesome to catch up with her and see old photos of Claire's dad in the sixties!!! Haha.

The next day, our last day in Cardiff, was sunny!!! We finally discovered that nice weather does exist on this island!! We headed down to the local gallery where we saw a display of some of DaVinci's drawings. Pretty cool stuff. Then we headed off to the Carduff Castle where we walked around the grounds and enjoyed the sunshine. Taylor actually got very burnt - though that is not really surprising! Next we browsed Oxford St for a bit (shopping central), and home to relax for the evening and prep for our next adventure.

The next day (Friday 18th) we headed off on a train to Snowdonia which took us to a station in Bangor (N. Wales), from which we had to navigate our way through town to find a bus that runs like twice a day to nearby Bethesda, only to discover that there was no busses out to our hostel at Idwall Cottage that day. It just so happened though that some lovely lady, a traveller in her own day, gave us a lift right to the door of our hostel. She definintely did her random act of kindness for the day! Sigh we made it backpacks and all. The wind was fierce, but it wasn't raining, so we decided to stick it out and camp in the hostel grounds. It was a little chilly, but we survived just fine. Idwall Cottage is a lovely little hostel nestled at the foot of a 984m mountain in the rolling Welsh hills that are completely void of trees...not kidding! It's a very beautiful and rugged area. The hostel has recently been renovated to be super "Green" which made for a fabulous stay. We met several other hikers and learned a few things about places to go, etc.

Our first day there we hiked up behind the hostel to Llyn Idwall (a lake), then up a steep hill all the way to the top of Devil's Kitchen (yes, we ate chocolate in the devil's kitchen), then up to the summit at just under 1000m. Stunning 360 views, and we even had sunshine! The wind was still pretty intense though. We hiked down a different route, passing mountain sheep strolling on 90 degree slopes. Nutcases. Overall our first day of hiking was successful - no rain, no blisters, no sore muscles...we were ready for day two and the highest mountain in Wales.

Snowdon is 1085m (3560ft) in altitude, a hill in Canadian terms, but still a fair hike. Claire had hiked in several times from coming to Snowdonia in her Spring breaks when she lived in England, but for Taylor everything was new. We started out in the morning at the bus stop waiting for the 9:30 bus....at 10 we gave up and started hitching (buses are a rare spectacle in these parts) and got a ride in no time to a town down the road, then another ride then one more and we finally made it to the start of Snowdon around 1045. You see Snowdon is in the next row of mountain over from Idwall, so we had to go around and up the neighboring valley. We were even luckier with the weather that day - gorgeous!!! Our hike was lovely up around several lakes and up and up and up some pretty steep slopes up to the summit. We just managed to snap a few photos when the mist rolled in, so then we sat and had our celebratory chocolate on top of the mountain. Sigh. The hike down was lovely because the sunshine was beating on our backs and we knew that we were almost done hiking, for now at least! We actually managed to get a bus back to the hostel and camped for our last night.

Goodbye to Wales, we are now in Edinburgh, heading to Fort William today, then over to Ireland for a few days, hopefully getting to France by June 1st. More as it happens. Thanks for reading!

OUR LOCATION

NOTES:I think it can be safely said that the blog updating will be slightly behind our travels. You can tell who has written the blogs, by Claire's impeccable spelling and grammer, and Taylor's ignorance of culture.

Train is definately an amazing way to travel. It was very simple and very comfortable. As soon as the main screen displays the platform number, it is a race to the train for the best seats. Being young and mobile, we managed to get double seats across from the luggage rack. The train ride was much quieter and the seats were quite roomy compared to the plane. It was nice to leave the city and enter the countryside of rolling green hills and narrow country lanes. Unfortunately, Taylor still wasn't feeling 100% so he rested a good part of the way.

We arrived in Totnes at 1600, where we were met by Sally. We were then whisked off to Buckyette through narrow country lanes, barely wide enough to fit one vehicle, with 8 foot hedges on either side. All local drivers are excellent at reversing. If you come across oncoming trafic, someone has to reverse until the road temporarily widens so you can fit two vehicles through. Most of the roads we have been driving on are not even wide enough to fit Dad's (Warren) F350.

The next day we slept in and walked to Totnes where Claire spent half of her childhood. We then had lunch at a nice delicatessen and walked up the main street of the town which is again only wide enough to fit a small car and is lined with small shops including the token butcher, baker and tea shops. After browsing the shops we met up with Sally and we drove down memory lane. We visted all the places where Claire grew up including her grade school, the local Waldorf school which was quite impressive.

We spent most of Wednesday indoors catching up on emails and started this blog because it was pooring rain all day. Sally arrived home after work with her son Nic who visited us in Canada in 2004. After a short visit we picked up Nic's girlfriend, Cari, and went to Start Point for a walk, where the last maned lighthouse in Britian is stationed. It is now available for let as a holiday house. The wind was fierce, but we persevered. After the walk we went to Slapton Sands for some fresh fish and chips.

Our next adventure was a river cruise down the River Dart. As we arrived at the boat it began to rain, which was only the beginning of a very wet day. The boat ride was very beautiful, full of lovely funny British commentary. We arrived at the end of the ride at Dartmouth. It then began to poor rain and we were soaked. We did manage to enjoy tea and traditional Cornish pasties before we boarded the boat back to Totnes, where the main concern was keeping warm.

An unexpected break in the rain caused an early morning on Friday. We went for a walk on Dartmoor National Park which is approximately the size of London.

Dartmouth was the next destination for the second time where he had an amazing traditional English breakfast of 2 eggs, 2 baccon, sausage, fried tomato and toast. Taylor thoroughly enjoyed any leftovers from Claire. Another break in the rain allowed us to walk this coastal town which is situated at the mouth of the River Dart. Hence the name. We walked to Dart castle where we encountered a few families of ducks. 14 baby ducks in total.

We spent most of Saturday with Nic and Cari, where Taylor was international Tech support, and Claire played with 'Oslo', Cari's bearded dragon. We all walked to Dartington and had ice cream while we watched some local tap dancers in the square. After another lovely dinner by Sally, she headed off to work while we played Craps with Sally's friends Erac and Viv. Since then, the roll of a dice has settled most of our daily decisions.

Sunday was a torrential down poor in the morning. Erac and Taylor looked up the weather forecast and it didn't look pretty. It was then decided that it was an indoor type of day, so we all headed off to Castle Drogo, which is Britain's youngest castle of approximately 100 years. Half the castle is still inhabited by the family, but the remaining half was remarkable. The stonework was amazing, stone arches throughout the house took 20 years to build. However, the castle sees over 2000mm of rain a year so there is a ongoing effort to repair water damage. The castle gardens were guarded by the queen of the castle. This cat would sit at the top of the gardens as every passerby gave her a pet. There was a quote in the gift shop with a picture of a cat that we thought was quite fitting, "You love me because I'm gorgous!"

Off to Wales tomorrow to visit Claire's Aunty Jilly!

Taylor's thoughts of Southern England thus far:
I have finally gotten use to the crazy Brits driving on the wrong side of the road. It takes you a while to change that ingrained notion to look left as you cross the street. I enjoy the country, but have an issue with the hedges. As beautiful as they are, you cannot see anything as you drive. The countryside is gorgous, but you wouldn't know it until you reach your destination! As for the roads themselves, they are crazy to drive on. They are most definately not north-south, east-west like I am used to. I am deffinately impressed with the parellel parking in London though! Only a few inches from bumper to bumper.

Totnes is fantastic. Besides the awful weather, we had a wonderful time. Sally was an amazing host, and we enjoyed good food and good company the whole time. Tea was regular, and I managed to eat 3 scones with clotted cream which is apparently quite a feat! I even impressed all the Brits.

PS - Real pints of Beer are £2.25, and they fill it to the top! If you get any gap at the top from foam you complain and they top it up!

After planning this trip for over a year, we were stoked to board the plane and let the journey begin. At 2015 it all began.

Now let me tell you, Air Canada is not all it is cracked up to be (or is it?) Cheap tickets equals cheap service. Onboard the 1983 Spruce Goose, we tried to settle in seats obviously built for midgets. People were clearly smaller in 1983. Claire pre-ordered a "special" vegetarian meal, but out of two meals, the only edible portion was the ice cream, oh and a little rice. She was also served a vegetarian breakfast, which was completely different, despite neither of them containing any meat. The only highlight of the flight, was being offerend one free serving of booze, which in Claire's case was wine and did not taste significantly different from wine.

Besides the cardboard meals, recirculated air, and three hours of numb-legged sleep, we arrived safely in London at 1315 the following day. We were somewhat groggy, but excited to be in a new country. We navigated our way through Heathrow, aka a small city, to the underground where we took the Picadilly line to Hammersmith, then the 220 bus to Chris and Laura's in Fulham, London. Tea was waiting - Brits are so civilized. After showering, we felt somewhat human again and took a sunny walk along the Thames to Putney Bridge.

It is difficult to describe Chris and Laura other than to say that their hospitality is fantastic. We had an attic room with a view, internet, our own bathroom, and a tray of tea things so we could have tea in bed in the morning. Home cooked meals every night. Claire even apprenticed and learned to cook shortbread and crumble. Yum.

The first day we managed to tour London a bit. We took the 74 bus to Knightsbridge, where we went to Harrods. All senses were overwhelmed, this store has high-end EVERYTHING, and occupies five stories of an entire city block. Doors were opened for us. Put it this way, there was even an opera singer in one of the many escalator areas. We were afraid to touch anything, and got a few strange looks for wearing flip-flops in one of London's fanciest stores. This place has a dress code.

Next we went to Hyde Park, and stopped by Buckingham Palace for a spot of tea with the Queen. Then we walked through St. James Park, no we did not pass Go or collect 200 dollars.

Our last stop was Big Ben and the parliament buildings, where we did not see the funny looking watchmen with their big hats, but there was a securty guard holding two machine guns. By then it had turned cold, so we headed home for yet another, you guessed it, spot of tea.

That night we went to the Blue Anchor with Edward and Laura (Chris and Laura's son and his gf, confusing I know), where we had REAL pints and inhaled real smoke.

The next two days we spent lounging at Chris and Laura's since the jetlag caught up with Taylor and he was struck with various ailments from a sore throat to a stomach flu. Poor thing. He could hardly get out of bed. It was nice to slow down though and rejuvinate after the craziness of exams and moving. Meanwhile Claire and Laura (senior) bonded over tea and shortbread, and Taylor slept and talked football with Chris and Edward.

And so, we didn't see much of London, but thankfully, it is the only place we will visit twice. We will be back in July before our we head home.

Monday, we were kindly escorted to Paddington Station, where we boarded the Great Western Train service to Totnes.