UK Road Trip, Country 7, Stops 16-21

Aug 2, Manchester, Stop 16

Once again, covid has foiled certain plans and itineraries for us. Since Brits have not been able to travel much due to restrictions and testing and quarantining and whatnot, they have largely decided to devote summer trips to within the UK. The result is that many places are booked. So, we switch things around a bit, find new places to stay, find new routes, and make a go of it. Turns out there is a lot to see. Especially when we look at a map and see AONB, or Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty. I swear, it’s really on their maps!!

***Dmitri: We had planned to spend a good amount of time in Northwest Wales, but it’s almost entirely booked. This is weird because most of the time I tell people I’m from Wales and they don’t know what or where that is. So, to see it be a sold-out destination is truly odd. Then again, we are living in the Covid End Times, so I guess anything goes. To pivot, we decide to drop a few days in Wales and add the Lake Country. I know zero about this area, but hey, it must have lakes...?***

We pack up and leave our quirky little London flat and head to Heathrow to pick up the rental car we will use for the next 12 days. We pay more and upgrade a bit to find a car that will comfortably seat all of us and will also hold all of our luggage without having to have backpacks on our laps. As we leave the airport car lot, Dmitri gets used to driving on the right side of the car on the left side of the road. We originally plan to head to Bletchley Park but someone (me!) hasn’t planned ahead and you can’t get tickets day of. Ooops. No matter. On we go to Manchester, where we have booked a generic hotel to split the drive up a bit. We find a very fun taco bar called Wolf at the Door.

Aug 3, Ambleside, Stop 17

Another reason for the Manchester stop is Mia’s laptop has glitched out and there’s an Apple store in Manchester. We have an appointment first thing. She and Dmitri head off to the Apple store and return with a new computer. And because it was bought in the UK it has keys for both euro and pound symbols. It also comes with a UK adaptor, so that’s handy.

Even though it’s not on our original itinerary, we drive to the Lake District. We stay at a hostel in Ambleside. We drop our bags and walk to the little town which is about 20 minutes away from where we are staying. We wander the shops and eat fish and chips for the first time since coming to England.

Our hotel is lakeside (Lake Windermere) and it’s so pretty in the afternoon sitting in our room overlooking the lake. The sunsets aren't too shabby either!

Side note. On the drive to Ambleside, we take a detour through the cute town of Windermere and it’s pretty funny that on the radio we hear Eminem’s Without Me and James Brown’s Sex Machine. Nothing personifies a cute little English village in the Lake District more than those two songs.

***Dmitri: Driving through central and northern England is gorgeous. Hedgerows, sheep, rolling hills, your various copses, dells and fells, you know.***

August 4

We are hitting the weather jackpot so far! We wake up in Ambleside to a sunny day in the 60s. Perfect for a long bike ride. Well, for the adults, that is. Dmitri and I find a place and we hire their last two bikes. It’s a combo easy cycle through the English countryside and jarring, bouncing mountain cycle with lots of ups and downs and changing of gears. Overall it’s gorgeous with lake views, hedgerows, and lots of greenery. It is somewhat ridiculous that we see a mother cow nursing her calf, lots of sheep, and people on a boat on the lake feeding a swan.

We stop for lunch in Hawkshead, which is another really cute little village. (Side note--If we stay in England much longer, I’ll need to to consult a thesaurus for more words like cute, charming, and picturesque.)

I would LOVE for US Post Offices to carry all these things!!!

We happen upon the Hawkshead Relish Co. My oh my! There are so many yummy jams to buy! We settle on Sour Cherry Prosecco and Raspberry Vanilla and plan to mail them home.

After the ride, we meet up with the kids at the local cafe and have these A-MAZ-ING scones. It’s a good thing we rode 16 plus miles.

***Mia: While the parents rode bikes around, Jack and I set out to find WiFi. I wanted to download some things for vlog editing, but the cafe we went to didn't have any WiFi. It did, however, have the best scones I've ever had in my entire life. ***(picture below)

Mia and I jump in the lake and it’s very refreshing. Mia has been late to the game enjoying this particular part of our trip.

Me: Mia, want to bring the Insta 360? Mia: No, I'm not going to be documenting a lot of the English countryside. Because I hate it.

Too funny!

***Mia: I don't actually hate the English countryside btw.***

***Dmitri: After being on a bike very other day during the pandemic, this was the longest we’d been without a good ride, so it was particularly good to get out and sweat. Travel is not conducive to good eating and exercise without significant extra efforts and err, we have not been making that effort. One good long ride is like two scones, so there’s plenty of motivation.***

August 5, Conwy, Wales, Country 7 , Stop 18

Today is a new country for the kids! Wales. Home of Welsh cakes, castles, sheep, and a very cool flag. Also, birthplace of their father and grandfather!

We are up and out of the YHA early today. We have a bit of driving and a couple of castles to visit so up and at ‘em. We drive from Ambleside to Conwy and find out that the castle is closed for the next several days. No matter. We have a lovely breakfast and walk around the cute little town of Conwy.

***Dmitri: Conwy also features our first-ever fresh Welsh cakes in the wild. My mom made these a lot growing up, but since my adulthood and her passing they have been a rarity. There are store-bought ones in the UK and they’re not bad, but fresh off the griddle beats all.***

On we drive to Anglesey and a quick stop to Llanfairpwllgwyngyllgogerychwyrndrobwllllantysiliogogogoch. Yes, that’s a real place! Here are the photos to prove it:

***Jack: I still have no idea how to pronounce this name, I wonder how they put the city name on envelopes.***

Back in the car we go and we head to Caernarfon to see the castle there. Nope! You have to get tickets in advance and there is no more availability for today. We walk around the castle and look from the outside. Ok, we have some time. Let’s head to Harlech Castle. Good thing we call first, because they are booked today too!

Instead, we head to Betws-y-Coed ( I SWEAR I am not randomly hitting keys on the keypad) and have a late lunch in the car because it’s pouring rain and most of the places are only doing takeaway.

Oh well. It’s still beautiful and green and the drive to our hotel is lovely. The rain has stopped and the wifi is quick.

After having our hopes dashed, we decide to look online before heading for tomorrow’s activities. Good thing we do because the Welsh cultural fair has been canceled this year AND the trampoline park in an abandoned slate mine is BOOKED. Grrrrr. Covid strikes again. This is the other side to having the Acropolis to ourselves and being able to walk right into the Tower of London without having to wait in a queue. Places are closed, capacity is limited, and much of the UK is booked. Brits until very recently had all sorts of restrictions both entering and leaving the country so most of them booked road trips this year within the UK. Wales apparently is a hit destination. Tonight we may need to come up with some back up plans.

***Dmitri: Betws-y-Coed gives us more fresh Welsh cakes, and some flavor varieties I wasn’t aware of. It’s pissing with rain there, but this takes the edge off of it.

So...I booked a hotel in basically the middle of nowhere so we could attend this annual Welsh cultural festival to discover it’s not running. I’d even seen some “live” streams to confirm it was running first, only to later discover that they were from last year. I wish they’d, you know, removed the word “live” from the broadcasts. Ah, well.

I’m getting some serious left-hand driving practice as we’re making long drives in the middle of nowhere. Just us, the sheep, a lot of very, very windy roads, and the frequent scare of oncoming cars passing us at high speed in extraordinarily narrow streets.

The plus side is that when I’m not white knuckling it, the drive is beautiful. Wales and England specialize in tree canopies that arch over the road from both sides, making for long, deep-green tunnels. I never get sick of them. I think Mia has some video, which hopefully does it justice.***

August 6, Ystrad Meurig, Stop 19

We wake up and take a pretty walk nearby our hotel, before heading on to Aberystwyth. We walk around and it’s VERY windy, but gorgeous and sunny. It’s a wonderful stop and we are happy to be out of the car.

Aberystwyth is our next stop and it's a wild and windy place. We can't believe there are people on the beach swimming and surfing.

When we return to the car, we drive to Ystrad Meurig and the Red Lion Inn. We love the rooms here and dinner is delicious. We spend some time planning the next segments of our trip since we are pretty much doing most of this on the fly.

***Dmitri: The drive here was especially harrowing, as periodic signs announced that 40+ people have died on this road in the past 10 years. I’m thinking, err, improve the road? Close it? Put in some mirrors for the blind corners? Stop signs? We have the technology!

On a more positive note, we’re getting to eat at some country pubs, which are cosy, friendly and usually come equipped with a dog. There are stereotypical old Welsh men and women playing games at the tables and looking askance at the tourists, speaking Welsh, which is like what German would sound like if it weren’t so melodic (this is sarcasm). Every one of these pubs is essentially the village gathering spot, and everyone knows everyone, except us, but it’s congenial.***

Aug 7, Crickhowell, Stop 20

We wake to the sound of rain on the roof. Wales is quite rainy. It’s lovely to listen to while in bed but may curtail the mountain biking we had hoped to do today. We are off to Brecon Beacons today. We stop at Caregg Cennen and are finally able to visit our first Welsh castle. It does not disappoint. It’s wild and dramatic and we have the place to ourselves for most of the visit. We are just kicking ourselves that we left the drone in the car!

***Jack: Aside for the cow poop everywhere this is one of the coolest places I've ever been!***

***Dmitri: It’s my third time visiting this castle, and I dig it. It’s craggy, windswept, at the top of a lonely hill with sheep and cows, and beaten down. It’s like Helm’s Deep after the battle and a few hundred more years of wear and tear. This makes it very grim, very dramatic and very real-seeming. You can walk the walls and think about what it would really be like to live there, watching for the English (or Welsh since it changed hands a few times) to come and attack.***

On to Swansea and Mumbles, where we point out to the kids where Granny Cherry used to live. Swansea is WILD and we cannot find a parking space anywhere so it’s mostly driving around and looking. On the way out of town, we stop at KFC and are being fail American tourists. We stop mostly because we are so hungry and they have a parking lot! And they are close to this pretty epic ice cream place we have heard about, Joe’s Ice Cream.

***Mia- I like vanilla ice cream as much as anyone, but I usually opt for a more interesting flavor. However, Joe's is known for their vanilla ice cream, so I had to get a scoop. It did not disappoint. Best plain vanilla ice cream I've had, no question.***

***Dmitri: Joe’s specialty is vanilla, which sounds absurd but no, it’s amazing. And it’d have to be to rave about a vanilla. Also the KFC was awesome, if disgusting. Not gonna lie, you sometimes have to break down and eat the American crap in between long stretches of local food. The local stuff is always the better path, but sometimes that path is hard, boring, complex and tastes weird. I used to feel a twinge of guilt over this kind of thing but no longer care. I’m not at the black socks and shorts on my front porch stage, but I begin to see the appeal to not GAF.***

On to Crickhowell and the Dragon Inn.

True story, Mia wanted to book the place because she liked the name of it. The entrance to the car park is ridiculously narrow and I do not even know how Dmitri managed to get the car up that hill. Once again, we find ourselves in a ridiculously charming Welsh village. It takes all of 8 minutes to walk around. We happen upon a pub called Treebeard’s. What? How cool is that!!!

For those of you who don’t know about Treebeard, please stop what you are doing right now and either read or watch The Lord of the Rings. I mean it!! For those in-the-know LOTR fans, you may continue with the blog. ;) We sit around and enjoy our beers and ciders and marvel at how many people bring their dogs to a pub. Actually, people bring their dogs EVERYWHERE in the UK.

***Dmitri: We meet a couple of interesting folks at Treebeard’s. First is Rupert Palser, a local who has made his fortune in England and come back to small-town Wales. He’s a character, a few sheets to the wind, and good company, telling us about the area and its people. We become FB buddies so you can look him up!

Next is the owner of Treebeard’s and his son, running the place. It’s a cosy little pub and we can tell that they know their beer (and cider) and appreciate both the local traditions as well as the booming microbrews and hipster drinks from around the world. Added to this, the place is festooned with Tolkien books and whatnot. Naturally, we buy the T-shirt, which Jack surprisingly wants and starts wearing. We’ve promised to send pics with the shirt to his FB page from some exotic locations. We also get a few coasters, which they’ve made out of actual tree cross-sections and then hot branded with their logo. Hopefully these will make it home and into regular circulation when we get back.***

Being typically Welsh, Robert/Rupert (DJ name/real name) tells us that it’s really too bad that we only have the one night in Crickhowell. Otherwise, he would have loved to have us over for dinner. And he means it! As it is, he calls the restaurant down the street and insists on making a reservation for us to eat there. It’s called the Bear Inn and wow. Delicious.

August 8, Cardiff, Stop 21

Off to Caerphilly Castle first thing today.

***Dmitri: This time we were able to book in advance! Caerphilly is the opposite of Carreg Cennan in almost every sense. It’s large, very well preserved, easy to access, well documented and in the middle of a whole city. It has an impressive double moat and cool interiors. Jack gets what I think is some good drone footage so hopefully the sense of the place will come through. ***

On the way to Cardiff, we stop by another Joe’s (ice cream place) to get Welsh cake ice cream and Nutella crunch ice cream to go. We look forward to two nights in an airbnb with a fridge and freezer. When we get to Cardiff, the directions are a bit dicey. First, we are to go to what is basically a convenience store and ask the people there for our key. Then we drive around and after driving here and there and everywhere in a circle around this one little area, we find a long term car park (which is at a mall!) and walk to our airbnb. As it turns out the directions were the worst part of the whole thing. The flat is lovely. It’s in a GREAT location. We wish we had more than just 2 nights in Cardiff.

***Dmitri: I had heard not great things about Cardiff, but I have to say I have been pleasantly surprised. We’re staying in a great flat in a super-central area. It’s so central that the drunks at 3am are more lively than I’d like, but we can leave the place and immediately enter a quaint shopping arcade that’s next to the big mall as well as the central pedestrian high street that leads to the castle. There are hundreds of restaurants, shops and local spots. It’s fantastic.***

Aug 9

The first part of the day we devote to travel planning and booking. After, we reward ourselves with a trip to Cardiff Castle. It’s truly amazing and the detail is incredible. It’s a beautiful day. Again. How lucky are we!

***Dmitri: I’d never been, and thoroughly enjoyed the castle. It’s more modern and very well preserved. I especially liked the manor inside, which has an incredible ornate library, in which every bookcase, corner, arch, recess and wall is covered with carvings. For example, one book section was covered with beaver carvings, another salamanders, etc. Also inside was this gold-covered architectural gem of a room all with funky angles, and in Middle Eastern motif. Someone spent a fortune on this super quirky room, and I love it.

This was our last stop in Wales, which I wanted to visit more on principle than because I thought it’d be a super-cool vacation spot. Having been born here, I’m a dual citizen, with two passports. But, I didn’t grow up in Wales and have very little actual connection. I’m very American, but sometimes want to have an identity that goes beyond California. Wales isn’t exactly exotic and ethnic, but it has its charms and I wanted the kids to see what passes for “The Old Country” for their genes, as well as where their grandfather grew up.

On that score, I think it was worth going. I think it would have been a bit better if it wasn’t all closed and booked up, but what we saw was beautiful, the food yummy, the people friendly and the sheep wooly.***

Aug 10

When we first planned our trip, the idea was to spend 4 nights in Bath. Currently Bath is booked so we decide to drive through on our way to Oxford, which is mostly, but not entirely booked. However, there is literally NO place to park in Bath so on we go. We drive around the town for long enough to get a sense that we want to come back some day and stay overnight when we can devote proper time to it.

***Dmitri: I discover later that I violated a bus lane in Bath and get hit with $100 in fees. The English have CCTV cameras everywhere. It’s a video surveillance state, and apparently they got me. I have/had no idea what I did, but I’m just grateful I haven’t hit anyone or anything in a couple weeks of very outside-my-comfort-zone driving.***

On the drive to Oxford, we stop at Stonehenge and it exceeds expectations. Dmitri had gone years and years ago but the kids and I have never been so we wanted to go. I gather it used to be a place where you basically pulled over on the side of the road and walked a little ways to get a peek but now it’s a whole thing. We park at the big complex that has food, bathrooms, exhibits, and a gift shop. We buy our tickets and Dmitri almost has a heart attack. I perhaps did not mention how much tickets were when we planned out this stop. But we are here now so we are committed. We are told we can either walk about 30 minutes or take a shuttle bus. Dmitri’s knees vote for the bus so we hop on for 5 minutes and it delivers us to a path up to Stonehenge. We have audio guides on an app on our phones and we walk around and listen to information and I am actually pretty impressed.

***Dmitri: I of course make sure the kids see the relevant Spinal Tap scene before we get to Stonehenge. I’d forgotten this gem of dialogue: “No one knows who they were . . . or what they were doing.”***

After Stonehenge, we drive the rest of the way to Oxford. We get take out Indian food and chill in our little flat next to a brook.

Every time we got in the car and drove for more than 15 minutes, Jack fell asleep. Sometimes, this was the view from the front seat:

Some fun signs we encountered on our journey through the English and Welsh countryside.

We also came across this in a store! After all these years of playing Uno and who knew there was a DOS??????

Also, don't forget to click the youtube icon at the top right corner of the page to see Mia's videos. It takes her a great deal longer to put together and edit all the footage we have so she may be a few stops behind me.