Mar 2008

Day One
On Thursday morning we left Cardiff and began our road trip around Wales. This post covers three days so apologies if it gets long and boring . Our little hire car is a Citroen C3 named Stewart. Here's Japh and Stewart bonding at our first stop after leaving Cardiff - a medieval town called Pembroke.

Pembroke has an amazing castle right by the river. Here is Emi standing on the castle wall:

The best feature of the castle is a massive stone age cavern called the Wogan Cavern that is underneath the castle in the cliff face. This is Japh in the cavern. We did get a photo of him pretending to be a caveman but it wasn't much different to how he usually looks.

We left Pembroke and Fuzlet directed us up the coast:

We came across an incredible beach with a massive stone/pebble dune, framed by cliffs:

Then headed up to St Davids to stay the night. We explored the cathedral there:

Day Two
The next day we headed up the coast:

Fuzlet had a break from navigating and Em took over:

While looking on the map Em noticed a tourist attraction called King Arthur's Labrynth in Snowdonia national park. We were driving that way in the afternoon so decided to stop in, and hoped it wasn't some crappy indoor plastic round table with crackly audio commentary.

Luckily, it was awesome. We had to put hard hats on:

And then we were led into an underground tunnel with a stream. We got in a boat and were taken along the stream, through a waterfall, and then hopped out to walk through twisting underground tunnels and caves. Legends to do with King Arthur were told through the trip, and waterfalls spontaneously flowed down the rock to illustrate floods. There were even dragons!

Outside the caves there was a Bard's maze, where old tales were told at different points. Pools, waterfalls and wood carvings were all through the maze. Here's Em with a tree face:

An arts village was based at the attraction, and the whole thing was situated at the base of a mountain where a big waterfall was tumbling down the side. We got a photo of one of the narrow bits with a cool mossy tree as we drove out:

We spent the rest of the day driving to Portmeirion, which brings me to...

Day Three
We woke up early and went into Portmeirion, which is one of Em's favourite places in Wales. It's a village built on the coast that was used to film the tv show Prisoner.
The whole village has a magical feel, with pools and golden statues, and amazing gardens. Unfortunately it was raining and windy so we didn't stay long. Here's Emi in front of the large central pool:

And here's a little bird that didn't seem to care that Emi was pointing a camera in its face (Fuzlet was hiding at the time):

We left Portmeirion and drove through the northern part of Snowdonia. We found a copper mine that we could do a self-guided tour of. We decided it was a good idea to be underground because it was raining/snowy/misty everywhere. Here's Japh in the cave:

And here is a cool cavey bit:

Fuzlet felt relieved when we finally left:

We drove through the mountains of Snowdonia past incredible scenery - moss was everywhere, climbing over twisting trees beside waterfalls and streams. Every mountain we passed had waterfalls - in some parts, we were passing a waterfall every 30 seconds. The photos were all taken out of car windows in the rain so don't do it justice:

We had some scary moments; Japh was driving on very narrow, elevated roads, with maniacal drivers:

And on the way to Chester, we nearly broke down because we couldn't find petrol.

But we got there safely in the end! We're posting this from Stratford upon Avon and will do another post soon about our trip through England. If you got right to the end of this post you're a champion, and we like you the best

...begins the Cardiff section of the Western Europe Lonely Planet (brilliant present thanks Will!). Cardiff is a bit of an unfortunate city, not very striking or exciting. But we did have a very good (and a bit geeky) reason for going there...

We stayed Tuesday and Wednesday night with a family I know who have 2 young sons, Owain (8) and Evan (4). We were woken around 6am on our first morning by these rascals. First they slid this note under the door:

It says: "When will you wake up? Now. Later. Tick any of those words then give it back to us in Evan's room ok". We didn't return the paper, so they came in and jumped on us and poked us in the head, saying 'wake up poo poo head'. I'm only used to Japh talking to me that way so it was a bit of a shock!

We entertained the boys for a while and had a discussion about how I was like a lion and Japh was like a mango (less active). Then Japh and I went on our geeky quest to hunt down the Torchwood HQ.

For those of us that know the show, here is a photo of us on the stone that lowers beneath the ground to the secret HQ (for those that don't know the show, anyone who stands on the stone becomes invisible):

Here is us at the Millenium Centre:

We also found a very cool merry-go-round on the bay, so here is me riding on a horse called Nerys:

And Japh on a horse called Huw (picked for no specific reason):

And lastly, Fuzlet:

We're a bit behind on our blog posts, we're actually now in Chester and will hopefully be doing a post soon about the last few days where we drove around Wales.

Lots of love to everyone!

We went to Glasgow for a day trip on Monday before leaving Scotland early Tuesday. Glasgow wasn't as beautiful as Edinburgh but it did have one shop that should be renamed "Japh's Paradise":

It also had a LOT of snow. It had snowed in Edinburgh several times, but not as heavily as this. Emi got covered in flakes and it looked like she'd been showered with confetti:

But Glasgow didn't just have lots of gadgets for Japh and snow for Em - there was also something that our sister Ambre would have really appreciated. When Em went into the public toilets she saw something on the wall that she had to try and (subtly) take a photo of... a GHD vending machine! You pay about a pound for 90 seconds use of the hair straightener:

As we were leaving the city we noticed one last thing - a massive self serve lolly shop with all sorts of lollies that we hadn't tried before. So we went a tiny bit crazy. Here's the evidence - note we even managed to find a Papa Smurf:

Fuzlet in particular appreciated the chocolate mice:

We're now in Cardiff and will be leaving tomorrow to drive around Wales and England for a week or so before arriving in London. Hopefully we'll get a chance to post soon about Cardiff.

Bye for now,
Em, Japh and Fuzlet

On Easter Sunday we wandered up through Old Town to Edinburgh Castle. We stopped at a tartan weaving mill and Japh found a booklet with the history of Clan Munro, his ancestors. Then we had fun standing in line for the castle for over an hour. I know that sounds sarcastic but it actually was fun, because it started to snow and Japh made up a new snow catching game. Here he is in the catching position:

And for all you Emi fans out there, here is a picture of her in front of the castle:

Once we got in, it was so freezing that we went and cowered in the war memorial and the throne room, where we saw the crown jewels. When we ventured out into the cold, Fuzlet was so freezing that he felt a bit like life wasn't worth living anymore, and he jumped into a cannon.

We rescued Fuzlet from certain death and left the castle. Japh noticed a whisky experience tour so we went inside to the whisky bar and he had a chat to the barman and tried an Ardberg. Fuzlet had a little bit to warm him up too.

After wandering around New Town we went back to the hotel and had a swim in the heated pool and spa. We got an early night which was rudely interrupted at around midnight by the hotel's fire alarm going off. We had to run down 3 flights of stairs and stand on the freezing street for about 20 minutes until we could head back to our rooms. We kind of wish there had been a fire so it was a bit warmer.

Off to Glasgow today, we're in a little Scottish bar waiting for our Scottish breakfasts (no haggis, but Japh is determined to try some).
Love Emi and Japh

On Saturday, we experienced an epic highlands tour that started at 7:45am and finished at 8:30pm. For once in our lives, the early start wasn't a problem for us, because we woke up at 5am thanks to jet lag. Yay for jet lag!

The first thing we saw on our tour was a highland cow named Hamish. He slobbered everywhere and reminded us a bit of Huw. This is Hamish being fed:

We watched the temperature as we got further North, and it dropped to 3 degrees - colder than a fridge. There were snow capped mountains everywhere. This is us at Glencoe:

Glencoe is the site of a massacre, which brings me to my next point - the Scots are just a bit mad. Instead of 'fatigue kills' signs, they have 'frustration causes accidents'. They have a very violent history. As well as Glencoe, we saw many sites that were associated with past wars.

We heard a lot about the history from our tour guide Forbes, an ex university lecturer. Forbes talked for nearly the entire tour. Japh thought he was awesome, and they had a big discussion about bracken and heather. Fascinating.

This is a picture of Forbes at Urquhart castle on the banks of Loch Ness:

We chose to leave the castle and go for a cruise on Loch Ness. We did see the monster but by mutual agreement decided not to take photos. Sadly it was too cold for Fuzlet to venture out - so cold, in fact, that it started to snow while we were on the boat. Japh naturally assumed this meant he should get a whisky.

Emi agreed to have a sip of the whisky because she was freezing and desperate. Here is a photo of Emi the iceblock in front of Ben Nevis, a huge snowy mountain:

On the way home we saw masses of deer and more snow. Emi got sleepy and snoozed for the last half hour. Next up is our post about our day wandering around Edinburgh on Easter Sunday. Happy Easter everyone! And thanks for the blog comments, keep them coming!
Love Emi and Japh