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A Celebration—Capital Cities, Cornwall Coasts, Cymru Castles—and More!

A Celebration—Capital Cities, Cornwall Coasts, Cymru Castles—and More!

Old Jul 4th, 2018, 09:19 AM
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Following along as we head to London in April. I am so glad to see that a number of things we want to do were on your itinerary!

I understand your motivation on travel. It seems likes as soon as my dad retired he had something going on all the time and he passed away at only 77 years old (and he had always been in good health and active his whole life). We were already trying to travel as much as we can before that happened but I don't want to wait until we retire. I want to go now while we can and I can still get around! Tomorrow isn't guaranteed for any of us.

It sounds like you had a great trip!
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Old Jul 4th, 2018, 09:28 AM
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Day 18—Thursday—Driving through Snowdonia to Ruthin Castle

Ahh, a beautiful day! We availed ourselves of the lovely light shining on the gardens and castle front to take photos before checking out about 9.

Today’s route would be through some of Snowdonia National Park. I had not been very specific in planning, since our route would depend on the weather and how we were feeling and whether or not we booked a train ride. Now we plotted a route to Llanberis (even though not taking a train from there) and then on through the Park through Betws-y-Coed. We got gas and some picnic lunch food at a Shell station near Caernarfon. We just drove on enjoying the amazing views. We made a couple brief stops. At Rhyd Ddu station, we used the facilities and stretched our legs. When we got to Llanberis, there didn’t seem any obvious place or reason to stop, as we didn’t need gas or food, so we went on but stopped a bit outside of town to take some pics of the quarry and lake. I’m running out of adjectives, but it was a beautiful day—blue sky, clear air, green and gray rising peaks, sparkling blue lakes.

And then we had the most serendipitous moment of the whole trip. After the descent from Pen-y-Pass, on the A4086 near Capel Curig, we spotted a small parking area next to a little lake, Llynnau Mymbyr. Looked like a pretty spot, maybe for a picnic. There were big rocks to sit on, a shimmering lake to admire, and—oh, there’s Mt. Snowdon! We hadn’t make it to its top, but from this vantage point, we had a perfect view of it. It was great. We ate and took lots of pics and enjoyed the moments in the sun. Gorgeous.

We headed on to Betws-y-Coed where we planned to visit the visitor center. The GPS directions didn’t exactly match the reality. We ended up taking a wrong turn, while looking for a parking lot (which we passed—it’s right across from the station), but we ended up on the other side of the tracks in an on-street free parking spot near an old church, so we stopped there.

We made our way back over the tracks and to the village green in front of the Park Visitor Centre where we looked at the maps and displays (and figured out where we’d been on our picnic); I got a couple last souvenirs—slate candle holder and, after resisting lots of them, one of those Welsh “Love Spoons’—not a big fancy one but a nice Christmas-ornament-size that says “Happy Anniversary.”

We enjoyed some people-watching in the charming, bustling area at the station before heading back to the car. The small old church, St. Michael’s Old Church, and its overgrown cemetery were open, so we had a look. This is the oldest existing building in Betws-y-Coed, dating from the 14th Century with some giant yew trees even older. Nearby over the River Conwy is a pretty pedestrian bridge—another photo op this still-beautiful day!

We continued out of the Park and on to our stop for the night—Ruthin Castle (Ruthin Castle Hotel). We got there about 4; our room (on the ground floor so no stairs) was pretty small but comfortable enough for one night. This is actually an old castle that has been turned into a hotel, unlike Glandyfi and Deudraeth which were manor homes built in the 19th c. to look like castles. It was a bit rough about the edges but had some fine and lovely parts, too—e.g., the carpets seemed a bit worn and many windows were cobwebby, but the furniture and walls were grand and lovely. (They also offer all sorts of amenities, for a price—flower petals, spa treatments, etc. In fact, they “offer” a turn-down service which you have to deny. It was a bit off-putting for M, as were the squawking of the three peacocks until dark and then from dawn.) It has a history dating back to 13th C Welsh rulers, once belonged to Henry VIII, suffered as part of the Civil War complexity, and was abandoned for a while but entered private ownership in the early 19th c. In the early 1900’s the wife of the owner became involved with the Prince of Wales, and lots of Edwardian Society folks visited. It became a clinic from 1923 to 1950 and was converted to a hotel in the 1960’s; Prince Charles stayed here on his way to his investiture at Caernarfon. I took a walk around the grounds and enjoyed the gardens and old stone towers, walkways, and foundations of the Medieval castle still visible.

There are two dining options in the hotel; we chose the more casual Library Bar, where food is served as you sit in leather chairs or sofas in an oak-paneled library. Nice atmosphere. Our starter selection came quickly, but our meals—salad for me, chicken with veggies for M—took what seemed like an hour. At least it was a comfy wait and we weren’t going anywhere else!

Day 19—Chester on the Way to Manchester

This would be our last day of sightseeing. While we were tired and ready to see home and family, we also were sad for the adventure to end. And we had another cool but sunny day with clear skies to enjoy. Before we left our room, M checked on our flights for Saturday; AA confirmed that he and I were both upgraded from Manchester; he was also upgraded on the next two flights while I was still first on upgrade waiting list. So, yay! The flight from Manchester to Philly was the one most important to get upgraded on.

M comments: There was a little more drama than TBW portrays above. What really happened was that I received an email about our booking and noticed that the MAN-PHL leg class code had changed from W to Y. I realized this meant that the equipment had changed again as it had on the DFW-LHR leg and the new equipment did not have PE. In checking the seat assignments, we also noticed we had been placed in different rows in the main cabin. So I got back on the phone with AA again to ask where my refund was and why had I not been notified. They claimed they had called, but I had no missed call or text message from them. After about 15 min on the phone, the rep came back and said my PE refund had been issued and we were both upgraded to business class in adjacent seats. I take it from this experience that AA was really not that keen on selling, or at least delivering on, Premium Economy cabin seating.

After breakfast in the restaurant dining area, we left about 10 and were in Chester before 11. The GPS directions took us to the parking lot I’d chosen, which ended up being a multi-level garage, with those very narrow lanes and sharp turns, but we found a spot and set off for a look around this city. Chester was showing itself off at its best this day, with the bright blue sky as the perfect background to the picturesque Medieval walls, towers, and half-timbered black and white storefronts.

Our first stop was just around the corner, sorta—the TI where we bought a city map which served us well. The main site for us was right across the street—the cathedral—and I asked where would be the closest place from there to access the city walls after seeing the cathedral, which would be the Eastgate, the lady said. So off we went.

Exeter Cathedral is lovely; inside they were preparing for upcoming performances of Mystery Plays, so a bit of it was closed off, but we still enjoyed our look around. We ate in the café in the large and lovely Refectory Café, waiting a few minutes until they began serving hot meals at noon—lamb stew, prepared by a chef that had worked in Dallas. Tasty.

The next major “thing” was to walk on the city wall, at least a section of it. I knew M wanted to be in Manchester before 4 if possible to get the car returned before rush hour, so I wasn’t sure how long we’d have to see Chester. But he said we could do the whole almost 2-mile wall, as it would take under an hour, and so we did. It is a great walk; we’ve liked the walls at places like Lincoln and Rothenberg, but these went (except for a tiny break) all the way around. They are in good shape, often shaded, and a great place to get good views into and out from the city. We entered and exited at the Eastgate Clock steps. We went by the old castle on its motte, the racetrack, and the bridge over the River Dee. As we neared the end of our circuit, we looked down on some of the Roman remains right outside wall—some parts of a bath with a mosaic and the amphitheater from when this was Deva. Nice to be able to view them since we didn’t have time for a close look.

Then we strolled around the Rows, the 13th c double-level rows of shops along the four main streets leading from the Chester Cross. I didn’t actually shop; most shops seemed to be clothing chains or restaurants or art or antiques, but it was fun to walk around a bit and even find what is said to be England’s oldest store front, The Three Arches. It was time for a rest before we hit the road one last time, so we got some yummy gelato at Gino’s and left before 3.

Then it was only about an hour drive on mostly M-highways, so we figured we’d be at the Hilton about 4, he’d drop me and stuff, get gas at some point, go turn the car in, and get back some way. But the GPS directions lagged a bit behind reality, we missed the little sign for the entrance to the hotel, and we ended up in horrible, creeping traffic with no clear way to make some u-turn correction. (Heard from shuttle driver later that, yeah, something was up and the traffic was unusually awful about the time we were in it.) We ended up being at the rental return area before we could figure out how to get back to the hotel, so we just did that together, never mind about filling the tank! We had to wait about 15 minutes or so for a bus to T3 from where we called the hotel shuttle, which then took us to the Hilton. Whew. It was not a relaxing way to end the day, but we were in our comfy room safe and sound (with the car completely fine, too, so whew again!).

We got pizza and salad in the Hilton restaurant, repacked, and relaxed. We’d catch a 7:30-ish shuttle to get us to the airport for our 10:50 am flight to Philly.

And finally up soon: Trip home and some summary thoughts
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Old Jul 5th, 2018, 06:37 AM
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Day 20—Saturday--Flight Home (Barely Still on Saturday!)

I woke up at 3:45 and saw a text message; I checked it in case one of the children had sent it, but it was from AA saying our flight would be an hour late to depart, and I could call to re-book the other two flights if I wanted. Well, our connections weren’t that long originally, so I knew we’d need to rebook. M’s Concierge Key status would mean they’d automatically do that for him; since my record locator had changed, I would have to rebook separately, but I let M sleep. I did not sleep anymore. He got up before 6, found the situation, and got on the phone yet again with AA. By the time he was off, we were still together in Business on the first flight, and we’d both been rebooked on later flights but not seated together. I didn’t mind. But it was going to be a long day, not getting home now til 11:30 pm. Oh, well.

We got to the airport by 8:30, I think—to find that AA’s check-in system was down. Seemed some glitch, they said, on the US Dept. of Homeland Security’s side. A few minutes later an agent said it was affecting not just Manchester but LHR and others, and then that it wasn’t just AA but other airlines, too. Anyway, I was picturing being there until Sunday or Monday or…But the agents kept having different people try the kiosks; one did eventually spit out our boarding passes for both of us—but no baggage check stickers. A few minutes later a different agent told us to go to the head of the line as we actually only needed to check or baggage. Ok, that worked. On through security, which went fast, and to a lounge to try to relax for a while!

The lounge announced a boarding call at 10:10, which was probably correct for the original departure time of 10:50. However, we waited at the gate an hour before CK boarding was called and then sat in the plane 30 minutes before it pushed back. The flight did leave about an hour later than originally scheduled, and it did seem full, so I guess the system finally allowed everyone to check-in. It was an uneventful flight with some good food—the lamb main dish was excellent, the starter and sides were good, they served those little yummy “Pots-o-Chocolate” for dessert, and the snack meal of BBQ sandwich was pretty tasty. M slept a little; I dozed.

M comments: The equipment was a 767-300, one of only 24 of the 20-year-old models left in the fleet. I joked to TBW that its next stop after PHL would be the Arizona desert, but it wasn't that bad. The business class retrofit reviewed by the The Points Guy a couple of years ago did not include built-in seat entertainment, so Samsung Galaxy tablets are passed out in business class. Of the three we tried, all three had some issues that prevented them from working correctly.

Neither of us had ever entered the US via Philly; Passport Control went quickly (we do have Global Entry, but lines didn’t seem long anywhere), we got our luggage quickly, we headed to Customs—oh, you checked that you have food (chocolate candy)—You have to go through the line where people claimed to have agricultural items. What? Anyway, we had a couple extra stops we never have had before, but not too delayed. The flight to DFW was on time; M was in first class; I was in economy with noisy neighbors, so I arrived with frayed nerves. M in First had had a meal; I hadn’t but wasn’t very hungry so just had some nibbles in the AA Lounge where we had over 2 hours to wait. Our flight home was fine, our son picked us up, our luggage arrived safely, and we were home before midnight.

Some Summary Comments:

So we were gone 21 days, 19 nights, had our first Fodors Get Together, took about 6500 pics (well, only about 4500 when duplicates, “ugly face” shots, and blurry ones were tossed out), walked almost 100 miles according to an app on my phone, saw lots of gardens, visited over a dozen castles (of which we slept in three), walked on several sections of the coastal path network, roamed around in two cathedrals and an abbey ruins, and drove about 1200 miles.

Biggest positive surprises for me, sight-seeing/accommodation-wise: We loved Glandyfi Castle in Wales; can’t recommend it highly enough. And Portmeirion was a lot more fun to visit than I expected.

Biggest negative surprise: OK, I “knew” many roads would be narrow, but I had no idea how nerve-wracking that would be. Drivers, beware! (Not saying others should not try it; just saying to build in lots more time than it might look like you need and plan some un-winding time!)

Biggest sighs of relief: First, for me, it was the weather. Yes, we did have drippy gray about five days, which interfered with photos a little, but it hardly ever “rained” on us. We didn’t need A/C and didn’t need more outerwear than we’d brought. Second, we had no transportation problems in London, which I guess is pretty rare for being there five days, using the Tube daily. (E.g., I’m writing this on a day when Victoria Station has been severely disrupted.)

Places/sites wouldn’t recommend: NONE! I’m glad we went to/toured/saw every place we went to. There were a very few “sure wish we’d had time” spots we didn’t make it to, but I would recommend all we did.

M comments: TBW, great job on planning this monumental, memory-making tour. To borrow another lyric: A million miles of vagabond sky / Clocked up above the clouds / I'm still your man for the roaming / For as long as there's roamin' allowed. Looking forward to our future roaming!

(TBW responds: Me, too, crumbs and all.)
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Old Jul 5th, 2018, 07:09 AM
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Thanks for the report. Glad you had such a good time. Looking forward to the UK in the fall (just need the magic pills to keep working...)
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Old Jul 5th, 2018, 08:45 AM
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I feel your pain with the airline "fun" and fruit basket turnover. It sounds like you made the best of it and also sounds like a great trip. We have never driven in Europe and I think that decision for us, so far, is the right one. We had friends who talked about the super narrow roads they encountered in Scotland and also Ireland. That would definitely create some stress for me (as if driving on the opposite side of the road from the US wouldn't already create some stress).
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Old Jul 5th, 2018, 09:24 AM
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thursdaysd--Sure hope you get to go; you will let us here hear at least a bit about your travels (with no travails!), I hope?

denisea--M said a couple times he really liked being in a certain place but didn't like having to "get there"! Most places on our trip this year could not have been visited (or not very easily) via public transport, but that doesn't work for every one.
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Old Jul 5th, 2018, 10:56 AM
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Enjoyed your report! We are chilling by Manchester airport now, after our 3 week trip to Wales, covering some of the same territory and even the same hotel in Portmeirion. I wanted to stay in Glandyfi, but they were booked for the night we would have been there. So it’s fun to already reflect on our trip by reading about yours.

We agree, driving was indeed nerve-wracking! In fact we returned our car ahead of schedule because it was too stressful. Driving on the left was fine, and we quickly learned roundabouts were our friends, but as you note the seriously narrow roads are not fun.

And we also agree, every site we saw had something to recommend. Glad you had a successful and safe trip.
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Old Jul 5th, 2018, 12:34 PM
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Nelson--Glad your time was also wonderful; hope your travels home are less-glitchy but just as safe as ours were. Hope you will share your details here sometime soon, too.
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Old Jul 5th, 2018, 02:48 PM
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Thank you very much for an enjoyable report. You helped shed light on parts of a country I don't know much about outside of its capital city and surrounding area.
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Old Jul 5th, 2018, 02:53 PM
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tripplanner001--Thanks for the thanks. I don't feel like a journey is complete until I've created a scrapbook (digital nowadays) with pics and text, so writing the trip reports for here is both a headstart on that and a way to, I hope, give back to this community which has helped us so much in our planning. I hope, if it appeals, you will have a chance to visit some more of the British Isles in the future. There's much to do and see, to put it...blandly!
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Old Jul 5th, 2018, 02:58 PM
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Indeed, TexasBookworm. I feel there is so much to see and the connections to the history and literature I've grew up with. Scotland's always been on my list but you added Wales and other parts of England to it.
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Old Aug 5th, 2018, 01:09 PM
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Portmeirion

So glad to read experiences at Portmeirion.
We were Prisoner fans, so I have it on my wish list.
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Old Aug 6th, 2018, 03:45 PM
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Kay2--Guess what DH got for his birthday this past weekend--The Prisoner on Blu-Ray! Ha! I had never watched many of the episodes; it's fun now to see them with the Village sites we walked in and on! Ha!
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Old Aug 16th, 2018, 03:27 AM
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Hi Texasbookworm--Just found your trip report and enjoyed it immensely. Congratulations on your 30th! We too love the UK. This year though DH wanted to try someplace new and I have a trip report in progress for Italy. A new place to love!

I hope your thumb is better. I can relate. We also traversed through cobblestone and I fell on concrete inside a gelato shop. That segment is soon to be posted.
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