Holiday plans - Wales, I'm coming!

[wiseheart]

Or so I hope. We went to the tourist office with Mum today to pay the first half of our package holidays. Well, almost half of the price, which means we'll be broke for the next, oh, six months or so, but what a way to go!

In any case, it'll be an 11-day-trip by bus right at the beginning of August, and aside from such places as Dover, Canterbury, Oxford, Stratford, and of course, London, it will take us to Wales as well. I'll post the programme later, but let's just say that many of the places, both in England and Wales, ring very familiar, due to the Cadfael books. Shrewbury itself isn't in it, but Stonehenge is, so the whole thing is made of the win.

The only place I could live without is Liverpool (I'm so not interested in the Beatles), but every package holiday contains one programme that I would rather forget, so it's not such a big deal. Now, let's hope that Mum will stay as strong and healthy as she is now, and that nothing happens to me, either, and it will be an unforgettable trip.

On a different note, I've got new, shiny Merlin iconsssesss, yesss, Precious, I doesss!

Comments

[solanpolarn.livejournal.com]

With a family full of Liverpudlians I feel I have to point out that there is much more to Liverpool than The Beatles. I am rather biased of course, but I think it is a lovely city with a lot of things to see and do. One of my favourite things is going on a trip on the Mersey ferries: it gives you a lovely view of The Waterfront. Then there are the two very different cathedrals -- the red sandstone Anglican one and the modern spaceship-shaped Catholic one -- The Albert Dock with its Maritime Museum (and Beatles Experience, admittedly but you don't have to go there) and lots of big parks -- lovely cast iron and glass Palm House in Sefton Park with a Peter Pan statue outside for example. And if all of that didn't endear you to Liverpool, how about this: It used to be the capital of Wales! :-)

[wiseheart.livejournal.com]

Wait a minute, I thought you were from Sweden? Or am I mixing up my online friends with each other. A shame, it really is!

And Liverpool used to be the capital of Wales? *is baffled* That's completely new for me! I assume it was called differently back then?

We'll only be there for a couple of hours, but the programme says something about the Beatles, which Mum and I have already decided to pass. Perhaps we can stroll in the neighbourhood and see some nice things, then.

[espresso-addict.livejournal.com]

The Albert Dock area is very pleasant. We went to an exhibition at the Tate Liverpool there, but there are lots of cafés. And the (Catholic) cathedral's one of the better-known UK buildings dating from the late 20th C.

You must post your itinerary closer to the time -- we're not that far from north Wales/Liverpool here, and could come to, say, lunch with you if that would be fun?

[wiseheart.livejournal.com]

Will do - as soon as I've figured out what exact date "Day Two" or "Day Four" mean. *g*

We'll get around a lot, not staying in the same place more than, oh, a few hours, but we'll take a mobile phone with us and I'll PM you the number in time.

[espresso-addict.livejournal.com]

Looking forward to it :)

[wiseheart.livejournal.com]

Me, too. I really hope we can organize something, despite the fact that we'll sleep in a different city in almost every night.

[wiseheart.livejournal.com]

I've re-checked the programme: we'll go to the Albert Dock indeed, and stay in some hotel in a Liverpool suburb for two nights. We might get together, after all. :)

[espresso-addict.livejournal.com]

Liverpool we can definitely get to, though I don't know the city well enough to suggest venues for meeting up.

[wiseheart.livejournal.com]

Hmmm... if nothing else, there's always the hotel in the evening, right? We'll see. It would be nice to meet again, though. Mum would be delightet to see you in person, too.

[espresso-addict.livejournal.com]

I'd love to meet her :)

[solanpolarn.livejournal.com]

I am from Sweden, but my Mum is from Liverpool. Actually, technically she was born in Lancashire, but if they had lived on the other side of the street she would have been born in Liverpool so we (her children) generally simplify things and say she is from Liverpool. Besides they have officially changed the borders now so the place she was born is in 'Merseyside'. My father comes from a very small family -- only child and only two cousins -- while my Mum has a brother and a sister and more cousins than I can generally remember, so the majority of my family is actually British.

I am not sure how official the 'capital of Wales' bit was but there is and was a large Welsh population in Liverpool and indeed the first Welsh language publication was published in Liverpool. I do hope you enjoy your visit to Liverpool; if the weather is nice going for a stroll should indeed be very pleasant.

As espresso_addict writes you must post your itinerary closer to the time. I haven't planned my summer yet, but I am likely to be in London if you have some time to meet up though I understand that you may be very busy and/or tired.

[wiseheart.livejournal.com]

Never too tired to meet an online friend in person. I greatly enjoy that. I'll post the exact programme perhaps this weekend - must first figure out the days for myself. :)

Also, it seems that we'll be in London on August 20, and aside from Hampton Court, I've already seen the other stuff they're showing several times. I'm not particularly interested in the City, but we could meet and chat while the others stare at the Tower from the outside. ;)

Still too early for any detailed planning, but we just might come up with something. We'll stay in a hotel at Dartford while in London, it seems.

[solanpolarn.livejournal.com]

I have made a note in my calendar that you will be in London on the 20th of August. So far I have no other plans for that weekend, so meeting up looks like a distinct possibility! :-) Having a chat while the rest of your group stare at the Tower does indeed sound appealing. We could always go and have a look at the river; I am quite fond of The Thames.

Dartford is on the opposite side of London to Hammersmith where I live, which means it is quite some distance away what with London being rather a big city. As you say it is still too early for detailed planning, but public transport in London is actually quite good so even travelling across town is quite doable.

[ooxc.livejournal.com]

I've got family near Hampton Court, so if we can't organize something here, I might meet you there - their flat is only ten minutes by bus from Hampton Court. Dartford sounds quite a long way from London to me, but I suppose tourist coaches are quite fast!

[wiseheart.livejournal.com]

That could work. With Hampton Court, I mean. We'll have to phone each other when I'm over there already, as the exect times will probably be determined in the last minute.

[ooxc.livejournal.com]

Yes. I'll work out some phone numbers. My family member can't take messages, so it will have to be mobiles, in case I'm not in the flat when you phone. The trouble with August is that travelling is so expensive - I can't use my Welsh travel pass in England, and other discount travel often doesn't operate then
I'm a bit puzzled that you said "11 days at the beginning of August", but you also said "the 20th in London"/ Anyway, I've noted that as a possibility for for London/Hampton

[wiseheart.livejournal.com]

Well, unless they change things in the meantime, it will be August 11-22. I guess I thought August 11 was early in the months. ;)

If nothing else gets together, we will be able at least talk on the phone, right?

[ooxc.livejournal.com]

Right! That will be good. I suppose that I thought that early meant "in the first week".
This reminds me of a silly muddle in which i said "next Thursday" on a Tuesday. Someone thought that i meant " the day after tomorrow" and looked completely baffled when i said "But that's this Thursday."
it's the penalty i pay for being elderly as well as living in a bilingual country

[solanpolarn.livejournal.com]

The phrase "next Xday" or even "next weekend" always confuses me: I would generally use "this Xday" to mean the one coming up. However, if it is say Tuesday I would probably use "next Monday" to mean the one in six days time. Things are further complicated by the fact that I am never quite sure what other people mean by that phrase either.

[ooxc.livejournal.com]

Wheee! August isn't the best time for Wales - weather tends to be wetter than in spring and autumn - but the days are longer, and I've got a free bus pass - just say where and when!

[wiseheart.livejournal.com]

That would be fantastic! I'll PM you the hotels and a mobile number and stuff as soon as I get them, and we'll see if we can organize a get-together. I'd absolutely love that!

[ooxc.livejournal.com]

Excellent! i wonder if we might get to Pen Y Bryn together?

[wiseheart.livejournal.com]

I don't think we'll get quite that far north. Within Wales, the programme lists Chirk Castle, the Bridge of the River Dee, Llangollen, Swallow Falls, Caernarfon Castle, Conwy, Llandudno and Bodnant Garden - and all this in a mere two days! I don't know yet where we'll stay for the night of August 16, after we've been to Caernarfon, but apparently, they'll tell us before we start, so I might be able to PM you the address and the phone number of the hotel just in time.

Liverpool will be the only place where we spend two nights, on August 17 and 18, if I've counted it right. I'll be tell you for sure when they send us the final programme.

[ooxc.livejournal.com]

You 'll pass the foot of the Pen Y Bryn (bryn means hill) as you travel from Caernarfon to Conwy
Even by local bus service, it's only about an hour from Caernarfon to Pen Y Bryn on the Conwy/Llandudno route - but you'll have to watch very atttentivly to catch a glimpse of it from a speedy touring coach!
if you watch for the Abergwyngregyn church, Pen Y Bryn comes immediately into view, a little higher than the village - but difficult to see in August, because the trees round it will be very leafy.
(Beaumaris castle faces it - for obvious and deliberate reasons - but the trouble is that, if you watch for the castle, you'll miss the palace as you turn your head!)

[wiseheart.livejournal.com]

Well, that's a shame, really. But we can't have everything, right? At least knowing that I'll be walking the same ground as Cadfael & Co will be wonderful. We're going to Lichfield, too, and to Chester, both of which are repeatedly mentioned in the Cadfael books. Alas, Shrewsbury isn't in it, but as I said above, you cannot have everything.

[ooxc.livejournal.com]

Is there any chance that your one night would be in Caernarfon or Llandudno? If so, even if there isn't time to catch a local bus service, I might be able to organize something, just for the three of us - find someone to drive us
Did Cadfael go to Aber ? i know that his author went to Pen Y Bryn - her work was hugely helpful in persuading the University to authenticate the house, when Katherine was fighting a lone battle

[wiseheart.livejournal.com]

Yes, Cadfael did go to Aber. He and Brother Mark spent a few days in Owain's court before continuing their way to Bangor, to visit the Bishop there.

We don't know yet where exactly the accommodations will be. The travel agency give us the addresses a week or so before the trip.

[rcfinch.livejournal.com]

Wonderful programme. I wish your mother lots of good health! Will the trip go to the book town Hay-on-Wye as well?

[wiseheart.livejournal.com]

I don't think so. Still, lots of cool stuff to see.

Mum's regular blood test came back all negative again, thank God. The poor thing had been shitting herself all week - no matter how many negative results she gets, the fear sits too deeply in her bones. But it seems that all is clear once again. She'll go to the professor tomorrow, the one who did the operation two years ago, to show him the results, then we'll have green lights, hopefully, for the next six months.

[rcfinch.livejournal.com]

I'll keep my fingers crossed!

[wiseheart.livejournal.com]

Thank you. :)

[artemis10002000]

That sounds wonderful! Congratulations!

[wiseheart.livejournal.com]

I've wanted to do this trip for years, but it always seemed too much, and also too close to the beginning of the new term. But since they apparently won't change it, we decided that what the hell, let's try it.

Even if we're gonna eat Kürbiskerne for the next year or so, as it's a bit expensive for our etat.

[artemis10002000]

Ja, das ist es wert! Träume muss man sich auch einfach mal erfüllen, man lebt schließlich nur einmalt und jetzt ist Deine Mama noch fit genug, um mitzureisen.

[stevie-carroll.livejournal.com]

Sounds like a busy trip. I can confirm that Liverpool has lots of non-Beatles attractions: I was there briefly last year which only served to remind me of all the bits I need to revisit properly.

[wiseheart.livejournal.com]

Yeah, well, you know what it's like with these package holidays: you get way too short glimpses from way too many places, and it's a very hasty affair. But otherwise, I could never afford to see even so much from these highly interesting places - besides, we survived the same in France four years ago, so I'm hopeful that we'll manage.

[ooxc.livejournal.com]

it's better to do that than not to go at all. i have wondeful memories of very short visits in the early 1960s to places that I've had no chance of visiting since - and I treasure them very much

[lissas-elves.livejournal.com]

Sounds good! I hope you'll have a wonderful time.

Btw, if you're mother is feeling as well as this summer in Vienna, then I'm sure she'll outdo all the others on the tour. :-)

[wiseheart.livejournal.com]

Let's hope so! Although I'll be happy if she can catch up with the rest. :)

[ooxc.livejournal.com]

Which book was that? I've never owned any of them - read them as library books - and I've either not read that one, or missed the reference to Aber. Perhaps I didn't know then that Pen Y Bryn was the palace. I'd been asking people here for years where it was, but I didn't hear about Kathryn until about 1991 or later, when the big row blew up - there was a dig there, but they refused to dig in the place that Kathryn wanted them to dig - and someone was putting pressure on her to sell some of the land - for caravans! (I have no objection to caravans as the only way that some people can afford to be here, but caravans on land belonging to a medieval palace - )

[wiseheart.livejournal.com]

It is "The Summer of the Danes". Cadfael and Mark meet Owain and his court unexpectedly while visiting the new Norman bishop and go with them to Aber, as they have to visit the other, the Welsh bishop of Bangor as well. That's when the Danes land near Abermenai, if memory serves me well, and the trouble begins.

[ooxc.livejournal.com]

Thank you!