Well I’ll have to keep this one a bit short as I’m very
tired. We’ve made it to London! I’ll get to that in a moment, first is our last
day in Wales.
For the last day, Irene took my mother and me up the
mountainside in Snowdonia to a living slate museum. We got to learn about Welsh
Slate (some of the best slate in the world), how they mined it, where they
mined it, and what they did with it after it was mined. It was a beautiful area
and the cliff full of giant slate slabs was incredible.
Afterwards, we went to Wales’ Ugly House. Its story was
rather unique. Apparently in Wales, a few century ago, if you could build a
house in 24 hours and have smoke coming out the chimney you could keep the land
you built it on. This house, which wasn’t really that ugly, was one of such
legend. If it is true, it’s impressive to look at the house and the huge stones
that were used to make it and know it was possible to make in 24 hours without
today’s modern advances in technology. There was a café in the house and a nice
garden out back, and a bee farm on the premises.
From here we continued on to some waterfalls, a town called
Betws Y Coed, and then toured a Welsh Woolen Mill. It was fun watching the
process of making sheep’s wool into all different kinds of products; from
gloves, to pillow covers, to boots, to scarves. Irene then dropped us off at
the station and made sure we made our train safely.
The train ride to London was very nice. On the first
connection we followed the beach with views of the sea on one side and with
Welsh countrysides and old castle ruins on the other. We had a tight connection
in Chester for our other train, but we made it with plenty of time to spare.
Once we got on our other train, I’ll admit I was a little crabby. For the first
time, my mother’s suitcase, which is the size of a small home (you seriously
could fit a family of 5 and all their belongings in this suitcase) wouldn’t fit
in any of the luggage areas. The train was too full and her case was too big!
So we (meaning me) had to carry her case down four car lengths until we finally
found a place where her bag sort of fit. I say ‘meaning me’ because I have to
haul her bag around because it is bigger than she is! Anyway, that is my bit of
complaints for the trip so far, so really no complaints!
Our train had a few complications, we were delayed on the
tracks in the middle of the English countryside for about 20 minutes (so at
least we had a great view!) and then we were charging full steam ahead into
London.
Once we made it into London, it was a bit tricky getting to
the hotel. My mother finally hailed a cab, we got in and a few minutes later we
were here! It’s a weird sort of feeling, getting to do something you’ve wanted
to do since you were a child. London is A LOT different than I’d pictured, and
it was very cloudy and dark, but we checked into the hotel and went exploring
anyway! (Funny side note: the lift at the hotel was broken when we arrived and
we, of course, are on the top (4th) floor, so guess who had to haul
that giant, elephant sized suitcase up the stairs… OK she got it halfway up,
but then it was too much so I brought it the rest of the way.) After we got
everything situated in our room, we went exploring. The streets of London are
gloriously and hopelessly confusing. I was able to find the main road that
would lead us to the British Museum. And I was able to find Paddington Station
and Hyde Park, and then able to make it back to the hotel, so it wasn’t all
bad! It just may take me a while to get my bearings in this city.
Tomorrow we
will use the tube as our main transportation, after that I believe it will be
on strike for the remainder of our stay. That may complicate things a bit,
because I’ll have to learn the bus schedules/routes, and then get us to the
airport hotel we have booked for the last night, with that giant suitcase, all
while using the bus! That’s something I’ll worry about when the time comes, for
now I’m just going to enjoy this city. Tomorrow we have tickets to Wicked and
we’re going to take the tube for the first time! Wish us luck! After that it
sounds as though we have a guided tour
of London on Sunday! Until then…
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