Friday June 20
We awoke at 5:30 to make our train at 6:46. We all met up and headed to the security lodge. We asked them to call a cab. A few minutes later the can arrived.
The ride took about 15 minutes. Our cabbie was actually really nice. He was asking us where we were going and seeing. He also gave us some suggestions on where to go around Liverpool. He drove us past Liverpool's smallest house and the tunnels under Liverpool. I enjoyed the ride. We wasn't a crazy driver either. We made it to the station in good time.
We had to wait a few minutes for the train, but when it came we were able to board and get really good seats. We got a 4 person table. I life those. It makes everything so nice and roomy. This ride was 1.75 hours long. I read and tried to keep myself awake. Then we had I get off the train and board a different one. We had to wait a little longer for this one. I was fine with that. The second train was more crowded we had to sit 2 and 1. This was also about 1.5 hours. I tried to read. But then gravity for the best of my eyelids and I bobbed in and out of sleep. I awoke to Karli sleeping on my shoulder. Ha. We transferred trains again. This one was only 11 minutes long. Then we arrived in Bath.
We got off the train and looked for a tourist office so we could get a map of the city. We had to pay for maps, so we left and tried to navigate on our own.
It actually didn't go too bad. We first spied the river and then the steeple of Bath Abbey. I knew everything was centrally located around the abbey so we headed in that general direction. In 5 minutes we were in the heart of bath, surrounded by roman buildings and architecture. It was beautiful. It was a cute little town. We first went into the Roman Baths. This held many old roman bathing areas. There were several different pools. The main pool still held its full water and lead lining. It was 1.2 meters deep. Perfect for swimming. I absolutely would have jumpped into the hot spring, except it was considered "bad water" and we were told "not to touch it". Really telling me not to touch water is like telling me not to eat. It's just not done. Algae floated on the surface if the water, but it still looked more inviting than the lakes in Indiana. We spent about 1 hour exploring the baths.
Then we walked about the town and found some cute shops. Expensive, but cute. We spied an ice cream cart and joyfully skipped to it. We like our ice cream. Vanilla with the chocolate stick thing. Yummy! We still had a few things we wanted to see, like the circus and the Royal Crescent. Our navigation skills have greatly improved and we found the circus in no time. When we arrived, Lindsey asked where it was and when we were getting there. I pointed to the circle area around us and told her we were there. It was not that impressive. I thought it was going to be bigger or more important or something. We walked to the Royal Crescent next, again, a little let down. Not much to see. There was some construction and what looked like a wedding reception. We were really tired by this point, so we sat in the street.
Royal Crescent
Plutony bridge was next. I knew what streets we needed to be on. It was Bridge Street and then changed to Argyle Street once we crosses the bridge. I kept a look out. Then I saw it Argyle. Dang flabbit. How in the heck did we miss walking over a bridge. We started backtracking. That's when we saw a building sticking a little further out than the others in the row. It has the marking Pulteney Bridge and has stair steps walking down. We descended the swirly staircase and hit water. We looked back where we came and that's when we saw the bridge. It was not a bridge that you could view the water from. Buildings lined the edge of the bridge, virtually making it invisible. The bridge and water was pretty.
Pulteney Bridge
We hit a few more shops. Nothing that great. Then we decided it was time for food. We had been seeing these calzone looking things in the shop windows so we decided that we should try it. I got a chicken, cheese, and ch... Something. It meant spicy sausage. It was actually really good. Food finished, and shopping finished, we found our way back to the train station.
We got there in great time. We budged our way to the front of the line so we could get on fast and secure an awesome seat. Karli got on and went to sit down in a row. I screamed table table! And she rushed to grab it for us. Luckily we got it, because the train was pretty packed. A stranger sat next to Karli. The 1,5 hours went really fast. We approached the station ever so slowly, and were even at a stand still for a while. This ate up our 13 minutes we had to make it to our next train. We ran off the train and looked at a monitor. The train haven't left yet, but was due to in 1 minute. We bolted up the stairs, following the signs to platform 5B, except there was no 5B. We were sprinting up and down the corridor. We saw 5A and decided to try it. We basically trampled an old man as our flip flops quickly hit each step descending toward the platform. We arrived at the bottom, a train staring at us. We didn't know if it was our train or not. Then all the sudden, we hear that dreaded sound of the doors closing. I quickly asked a worker lady if that train was bound for Liverpool. She confirmed it. We started frantically pushing the open door button trying to get on. At last the door spring to life and let us in. It was absolutely crowded, but we had made it. Sitting in three different rows, but bound for glory... And Liverpool.
Bath was too easy, I could not say the same for Wales.
Saturday June 21
We slept in a little and headed to catch the bus at 8. The bus took 15 minutes to show up and it was a 20 minute ride. That ate up our time. By the time we walked to the station, we has 15 minutes to find and board our train.
We went to a monitor that had the train platforms. We didn't see our train or correct time. We were a little worried. Lindsey went and asked the ticket office where we would go to get the train. He told us down. Da heck! Down?! There is a down? She went back up and asked where down was. Luckily a girl was standing there and overheard Lindsey. She said that she would take us there. We followed her down the stairs, through the cooridoor, and to the platform for the metro. So now we are taking a metro to the train station. While waiting for our train to pull up, an announcement came on and said that the train would not go all the way to Chester, which is what we needed. The girl told us she was headed to Chester too. We followed her.
The ride was 40 minutes long to Hooten, the place we would change for Chester. We start getting off and are yelled at to get back on because everything was fixed. We finished the ride to Chester.
There, we scrambled toward the platform and was greeted with a delayed and cancelled train. We asked workers. They so as that we could chance it and stay at the station to see f a train came in, or take a bus to Ryel. We decided to stop in the cafe and get in line for the bus. We were last in line for the bus. We waited for 10 minutes before a bus even pulled up. It was nice that it pulled up at the end of the line, meaning we were first. The bus unloaded and we attempted to board. We were then told we couldn't board because they needed work from the top dogs before we could do anything. A worker was trying to calm the queue. The crowd was yelling at him and asking him questions. He didn't know the answer. He told us he had 0 busses to let us get on. He had some humor in this situation.
We were finally allowed to board the bus, and we were first. We went to the top and in the front row. Beat seats on the bus. We settled in for what we thought was a short ride. Lies! I was singing softly to myself for an hour! I burned through my arsenal of Disney, musicals, and other genres of songs. Getting mad and fed up, we finally arrived at Ryel. We followed the masses toward the platform and, yet again, met with a delay. It said the train would arrive at 12:31. It was 11:58. We had roughly 30 minutes. We pulled out our packed sandwiches and waited. At 12:23, the screen updated and said the train would come at 12:55. A worker came and talked to the crowd, the train hadn't even left Chester yet. He then proceeded to tell us to take a coach to Llandudno Junction.
We ran out if the station to whatever a coach was. We saw a bus with Llandudno on it, wrong bus. Then we saw the charter bus with a queue of people we recognized. Those were the other people who wanted to go to Llandudno. We were in the back of the line once again, but we made it on, with 7 seats left.
1 metro
1 train
2 busses
And still not there. We were just done with the whole thing. It was 1 and we were supposed to arrive at 11. Not cool Robert Frost! We got off the coach at Llandudno Junction, not where we wanted to be, but in Llandudno. Some old ladies weren't happy that we got dropped off there, so they made the driver drive to Llandudno.
Finally in Llandudno. We had no clue where to go. We walked around trying to find a map, but to no avail. We headed down the street. We eventually stumbled upon a tourism office. We asked where the ski resort was. They pointed us past the coast and up a mountain. They said it would be a .75-1 hour journey. We were ready.
We past the coast and garden area and then were faced with a steep hill. We knew this all too well. We took a deep breath and began our ascent. I was huffing and puffing my way to the top. By the time we reached the ticket booth, we were all pouring sweat and breathing heavy. We bought the ski tubes and toboggan rides. We had to wait 20 minutes for our tube time. We didn't mind. We had been waiting all day and we still needed to cool off a bit.
Our instructor came to us a few minutes late saying we were still waiting on 2 people. While waiting, we saw a guy completely wipe out in the toboggan. He took the curve too fast and felt off his sled, off the track, and onto the grassy area. We waited another 15 minutes, they never showed up. We got private tube time. We could see the hill in the distance. It was white. We weren't quite sure what it was made of. Ice? Whiteboard? Snow? It was 66 degrees. We doubted snow or ice. Once standing on the hill, we knew could tell all of our guesses were wrong. It was like spongy with water misters spritsing the sponge like material.
We put our purses down and all grabbed a tube. Lindsey went first. He gave her instructions and shoved her down. She screamed. We all went through the easy, fast, and super fast spins. When he got to me, he said "Ah yes jeans" then proceeded to roll up the cuffs of my pants. He grabbed onto the cuffs of my pants and that is how he flung me down the hill. He said he gets more leverage that way. The super fast spin made us all extremely dizzy. We then had to tow our tubes to a flat area and wait for everyone before we could climb the hill. I think I got whiplash, but it was worth it. Then we had races. We had to lay on our backs, head first peddling ourselves down the hill. That took up 4 turns. Next, Karli and I went together. I held onto her rope and was told to pull and push her. He demonstrated while we were sitting there and he broke the rope. A new tube was issues and we were off. It was hard maneuvering Karli while trying to stay in mine. My arm was stretched and pulled, but it was awesome. We were spinning and bumping into each other. Our last spin down the slope, we were ties together. It was a great human chain. We had so much fun doing it. We got our money's worth. He said people normally only got 3 runs down the hill. We got 9! Whoot whoot!
We relaxed a little and then went to the taboggan area. We waited in line for an hour and then we were up. We mounted a piece of plastic with wheels and a stick to steer. We hooked on a chain that pulled us upward. The view was great. Then we were released steer our way down the windy metal path. I went a little slow the first time because I didn't know what I was doing. The second time around I went a lot faster. Flew around the curves. Careful not to fly off.
After our two runs were up, we decided we should climb the rest of the mountain to get a good view of the city. It was beautiful. We could see the coast and mountains and city. We could have stayed there for hours. But we had limited time and were getting hungry.
We approached te city only to find everything was closed. It was a Saturday night and all of the shops and cafés closed at 5. We were just 30 minutes late. We eventually found one store selling post cards. We bought some and got some take away fish and chips from a restaurant. We ate in the park.
We decided to head toward the train station to try to make sure we didn't end up like we did this morning. We arrived and found all of the doors were locked. Awesome. A taxi driver then told us to go around the side and enter that way. We got in and discovered our train was on time! Hurray!
We talked the entire ride to Chester. We found our second train in no time and had a lovely ride back to Liverpool.
Even though our morning was rough, we had a great afternoon and made it safely back to Liverpool. It was a good relaxing weekend. Bring on the busy week! Ta and Cheers!
We went to a monitor that had the train platforms. We didn't see our train or correct time. We were a little worried. Lindsey went and asked the ticket office where we would go to get the train. He told us down. Da heck! Down?! There is a down? She went back up and asked where down was. Luckily a girl was standing there and overheard Lindsey. She said that she would take us there. We followed her down the stairs, through the cooridoor, and to the platform for the metro. So now we are taking a metro to the train station. While waiting for our train to pull up, an announcement came on and said that the train would not go all the way to Chester, which is what we needed. The girl told us she was headed to Chester too. We followed her.
The ride was 40 minutes long to Hooten, the place we would change for Chester. We start getting off and are yelled at to get back on because everything was fixed. We finished the ride to Chester.
There, we scrambled toward the platform and was greeted with a delayed and cancelled train. We asked workers. They so as that we could chance it and stay at the station to see f a train came in, or take a bus to Ryel. We decided to stop in the cafe and get in line for the bus. We were last in line for the bus. We waited for 10 minutes before a bus even pulled up. It was nice that it pulled up at the end of the line, meaning we were first. The bus unloaded and we attempted to board. We were then told we couldn't board because they needed work from the top dogs before we could do anything. A worker was trying to calm the queue. The crowd was yelling at him and asking him questions. He didn't know the answer. He told us he had 0 busses to let us get on. He had some humor in this situation.
We were finally allowed to board the bus, and we were first. We went to the top and in the front row. Beat seats on the bus. We settled in for what we thought was a short ride. Lies! I was singing softly to myself for an hour! I burned through my arsenal of Disney, musicals, and other genres of songs. Getting mad and fed up, we finally arrived at Ryel. We followed the masses toward the platform and, yet again, met with a delay. It said the train would arrive at 12:31. It was 11:58. We had roughly 30 minutes. We pulled out our packed sandwiches and waited. At 12:23, the screen updated and said the train would come at 12:55. A worker came and talked to the crowd, the train hadn't even left Chester yet. He then proceeded to tell us to take a coach to Llandudno Junction.
We ran out if the station to whatever a coach was. We saw a bus with Llandudno on it, wrong bus. Then we saw the charter bus with a queue of people we recognized. Those were the other people who wanted to go to Llandudno. We were in the back of the line once again, but we made it on, with 7 seats left.
1 metro
1 train
2 busses
And still not there. We were just done with the whole thing. It was 1 and we were supposed to arrive at 11. Not cool Robert Frost! We got off the coach at Llandudno Junction, not where we wanted to be, but in Llandudno. Some old ladies weren't happy that we got dropped off there, so they made the driver drive to Llandudno.
Finally in Llandudno. We had no clue where to go. We walked around trying to find a map, but to no avail. We headed down the street. We eventually stumbled upon a tourism office. We asked where the ski resort was. They pointed us past the coast and up a mountain. They said it would be a .75-1 hour journey. We were ready.
We past the coast and garden area and then were faced with a steep hill. We knew this all too well. We took a deep breath and began our ascent. I was huffing and puffing my way to the top. By the time we reached the ticket booth, we were all pouring sweat and breathing heavy. We bought the ski tubes and toboggan rides. We had to wait 20 minutes for our tube time. We didn't mind. We had been waiting all day and we still needed to cool off a bit.
Our instructor came to us a few minutes late saying we were still waiting on 2 people. While waiting, we saw a guy completely wipe out in the toboggan. He took the curve too fast and felt off his sled, off the track, and onto the grassy area. We waited another 15 minutes, they never showed up. We got private tube time. We could see the hill in the distance. It was white. We weren't quite sure what it was made of. Ice? Whiteboard? Snow? It was 66 degrees. We doubted snow or ice. Once standing on the hill, we knew could tell all of our guesses were wrong. It was like spongy with water misters spritsing the sponge like material.
We put our purses down and all grabbed a tube. Lindsey went first. He gave her instructions and shoved her down. She screamed. We all went through the easy, fast, and super fast spins. When he got to me, he said "Ah yes jeans" then proceeded to roll up the cuffs of my pants. He grabbed onto the cuffs of my pants and that is how he flung me down the hill. He said he gets more leverage that way. The super fast spin made us all extremely dizzy. We then had to tow our tubes to a flat area and wait for everyone before we could climb the hill. I think I got whiplash, but it was worth it. Then we had races. We had to lay on our backs, head first peddling ourselves down the hill. That took up 4 turns. Next, Karli and I went together. I held onto her rope and was told to pull and push her. He demonstrated while we were sitting there and he broke the rope. A new tube was issues and we were off. It was hard maneuvering Karli while trying to stay in mine. My arm was stretched and pulled, but it was awesome. We were spinning and bumping into each other. Our last spin down the slope, we were ties together. It was a great human chain. We had so much fun doing it. We got our money's worth. He said people normally only got 3 runs down the hill. We got 9! Whoot whoot!
We relaxed a little and then went to the taboggan area. We waited in line for an hour and then we were up. We mounted a piece of plastic with wheels and a stick to steer. We hooked on a chain that pulled us upward. The view was great. Then we were released steer our way down the windy metal path. I went a little slow the first time because I didn't know what I was doing. The second time around I went a lot faster. Flew around the curves. Careful not to fly off.
After our two runs were up, we decided we should climb the rest of the mountain to get a good view of the city. It was beautiful. We could see the coast and mountains and city. We could have stayed there for hours. But we had limited time and were getting hungry.
We approached te city only to find everything was closed. It was a Saturday night and all of the shops and cafés closed at 5. We were just 30 minutes late. We eventually found one store selling post cards. We bought some and got some take away fish and chips from a restaurant. We ate in the park.
We decided to head toward the train station to try to make sure we didn't end up like we did this morning. We arrived and found all of the doors were locked. Awesome. A taxi driver then told us to go around the side and enter that way. We got in and discovered our train was on time! Hurray!
We talked the entire ride to Chester. We found our second train in no time and had a lovely ride back to Liverpool.
Even though our morning was rough, we had a great afternoon and made it safely back to Liverpool. It was a good relaxing weekend. Bring on the busy week! Ta and Cheers!
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