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I realize I have not yet finished Nick and Carolyn Go to Wales Part 11, or is it Part 12 (our adventures in the Brecon Beacons), but I will get back to that, I promise. I am more in the mood to do our just-finished now.
As everyone here knows, Nick and I met on the 23rd of March in London, at Heathrow, to begin our vacation. It was awesome. Of course. I got there first, took the train over to his terminal and waited for him to appear. No pictures of that, sorry! :) It was quite odd--I stood with dozens of men in suits and tie, holding up names, and here I was all ragged-out from my own trip with a too-big piece of luggage. I way overpacked. I was so bouncy, and tired, and excited, and finally Nick came out and I TACKLED him right there... Okay not really. LOL. We are always rather subdued in our greetings. Too many people around, you know.
We headed for the trains, needing to go to Paddington Station (which I didn't take pictures of, but like all train stations, has a charm to it that as a train-deprived American, I really like), only to discover that dipstick here forgot to print out the tickets to get there. Yes, we had to buy another set. ARGH.
So, when we got to Paddington station, we got cookies and Starbuck's...the beautiful thing about meeting with Nick after time apart is that it always is just an easy slide into that wonderful comfy feeling of finally being connected again with the other half of oneself. Pure heaven that, and what I miss SO DAMN MUCH here. Just being bodily with him, living life. It is so amazing to be with Nick physically, and not just in my ear, as you can imagine. For one thing, we don't talk as much, lol. Just BEING together...that is enough.
Time for our train came! After running to the loo, we hopped on the First Great Western (we DID have the info for those), and made our way to Cardiff. That train takes a couple of hours...not bad at all. I didn't pay attention to the outside at all. I have no idea what we talked about--didn't matter. Got to Cardiff's station, hauled our luggage out (why did I overpack? I brought too many heavy sweaters, whereas layering is best) snagged a cab (5 pounds) and voila, we were soon greeting Max, Stuart and Paul at Ty Rosa, once again!! SO good to see them again!
That first night we tossed our stuff into the room, same one as before, chatted with the guys for awhile, then headed for Mermaid Quay. No car yet so we walked. It is a fair piece away, but we didn't care. We were starved and the BGK Burgers were calling to us. Long walk--Mander knows that walk!--so we had fun attacking our burgers and just being together, oh yeah. What did we do after this? I don't remember! Went back? Nick, do you remember? Okay he says got some Pimms in a can (WHY isn't it available here, huh?) and it was raining. We got the Pimms and my first umbrella in the Tesco's there at Mermaid Quay.
When we were in Cardiff, we were either running around the City Centre, or at the Bay eating Pizza Express, BGK burgers (THEY ARE HUGE! WE ATE EVERY BITE!), drinking Starbucks, talking about Torchwood, of course, walking around, just hanging out. Nick had the Dalek he was knitting for me so he worked on that and I wrote on his Gwennie. Fell in love with Gwennie, German keyboard or not, and dammit, I am gonna get myself one, definitely.
We went shopping--bought some music, for ourselves to listen to in the car, and I bought the new Boyzone cd for![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
amproof, walked all over, dove into Boots for things here and there, bought Nick some boxers from H&M (no pictures, but they are funny--hello Captain America!). It rained alot--I bought an umbrella and the thing broke the first time I opened it. Bought another, better one, on driving around day #2.
We picked up the car the first morning there, a little black Mercedes. I have to say, really, I prefer the Skoda I drove last time. But at least getting on the road this time was easy-peasy. We had quite the walk to get there, taking a back pathway behind Ikea, and I had to dive into Land Rover to ask if the gentlemen there knew where Eurocar was (they did) but we were on wheels at last. After a bit of driving around, we decided to go ahead and rent another day--went back, and unbelievably, the price had dropped from 58 to 33 pounds a day, so we got three days cheaper than two, AND I got 18 pounds back when I turned it in!
I love driving in Wales. Seriously.
Here are some pictures from the four days we were there:
Nick and the Mercedes!
Cardiff Starbucks
Nick being thoughtful. Probably thinking about writing. How about that awesome hair? LOL.
the Bay!
View from in front of the tourist office. I am using that building on the piers in my ![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-community.gif)
reel_torchwood fic.
Close-up of some of the 1000 origami cranes.
Nick pretending not to look at the shrine. Amazing huh. Lots of it has deteriorated though--moldy papers, etc. Yuck. Guess Mermaid Quay intends to leave it there forever.
Another look at the shrine. Crazy huh! Notes were literally from all over the world, which is kinda cool.
We took a long walk one night, around to the locks. They were scary. Talked to amand_r much of the way. Several pups out, and it was cold, and rain did start but we didn't care TOO much.
There is a serious lack of trash cans available in Cardiff. Plenty of places to put dog poop though! I wanted to throw away my cup, dammit!
The long walk back to the Quay. We were SOAKED by the time we got back. It was pretty creepy, but kinda cool. We went to Pizza Express afterward even though we were drenched. It was packed in there for some reason too. Next time we went, the next night (the pizza is good!) it was practically empty.
At Ty Rosa, Brian my elephant, posed nicely by whoever cleaned my room. Stuart? Paul hates doing the beds...
LOL next morning's pose. Silly Brian. Silly Stuart.
Dalek Blech joined us for breakfast! He got lots of attention as there were two other DW/TW peeps there that morning, and of course Stuart and Paul liked him lots too. Even though he is a dalek, Dalek Blech is a popular guy.
We drove to the beach, but the blah rain made it blah. Nick trudging back up the boat ramp.
For our driving adventure day #1, we decided to head for the western shore of Wales, to St. David's. Rain, blah, bad traffic, blah, but we finally got there after making a couple of stops along the way. We parked in a car park, which was by this amazing cathedral, St. David's Cathedral. There has been worship of some kind here for 1500 years. UNREAL. The stained glass is incredible!
This is the website if you are interested in reading more about it: cathedral
Next post...more driving adventures, the discovery of an amazing park when we were SUPPOSED to be going to Caerphilly Castle, and a train ride to London for more adventures there. WHEE!
One last pic, an old man and his two old Bearded Collies, at the car park at St. David's. The dogs were dad and son. Two bad they were walking past cars, and not down a picturesque road. Oh well!
As everyone here knows, Nick and I met on the 23rd of March in London, at Heathrow, to begin our vacation. It was awesome. Of course. I got there first, took the train over to his terminal and waited for him to appear. No pictures of that, sorry! :) It was quite odd--I stood with dozens of men in suits and tie, holding up names, and here I was all ragged-out from my own trip with a too-big piece of luggage. I way overpacked. I was so bouncy, and tired, and excited, and finally Nick came out and I TACKLED him right there... Okay not really. LOL. We are always rather subdued in our greetings. Too many people around, you know.
We headed for the trains, needing to go to Paddington Station (which I didn't take pictures of, but like all train stations, has a charm to it that as a train-deprived American, I really like), only to discover that dipstick here forgot to print out the tickets to get there. Yes, we had to buy another set. ARGH.
So, when we got to Paddington station, we got cookies and Starbuck's...the beautiful thing about meeting with Nick after time apart is that it always is just an easy slide into that wonderful comfy feeling of finally being connected again with the other half of oneself. Pure heaven that, and what I miss SO DAMN MUCH here. Just being bodily with him, living life. It is so amazing to be with Nick physically, and not just in my ear, as you can imagine. For one thing, we don't talk as much, lol. Just BEING together...that is enough.
Time for our train came! After running to the loo, we hopped on the First Great Western (we DID have the info for those), and made our way to Cardiff. That train takes a couple of hours...not bad at all. I didn't pay attention to the outside at all. I have no idea what we talked about--didn't matter. Got to Cardiff's station, hauled our luggage out (why did I overpack? I brought too many heavy sweaters, whereas layering is best) snagged a cab (5 pounds) and voila, we were soon greeting Max, Stuart and Paul at Ty Rosa, once again!! SO good to see them again!
That first night we tossed our stuff into the room, same one as before, chatted with the guys for awhile, then headed for Mermaid Quay. No car yet so we walked. It is a fair piece away, but we didn't care. We were starved and the BGK Burgers were calling to us. Long walk--Mander knows that walk!--so we had fun attacking our burgers and just being together, oh yeah. What did we do after this? I don't remember! Went back? Nick, do you remember? Okay he says got some Pimms in a can (WHY isn't it available here, huh?) and it was raining. We got the Pimms and my first umbrella in the Tesco's there at Mermaid Quay.
When we were in Cardiff, we were either running around the City Centre, or at the Bay eating Pizza Express, BGK burgers (THEY ARE HUGE! WE ATE EVERY BITE!), drinking Starbucks, talking about Torchwood, of course, walking around, just hanging out. Nick had the Dalek he was knitting for me so he worked on that and I wrote on his Gwennie. Fell in love with Gwennie, German keyboard or not, and dammit, I am gonna get myself one, definitely.
We went shopping--bought some music, for ourselves to listen to in the car, and I bought the new Boyzone cd for
amproof, walked all over, dove into Boots for things here and there, bought Nick some boxers from H&M (no pictures, but they are funny--hello Captain America!). It rained alot--I bought an umbrella and the thing broke the first time I opened it. Bought another, better one, on driving around day #2. We picked up the car the first morning there, a little black Mercedes. I have to say, really, I prefer the Skoda I drove last time. But at least getting on the road this time was easy-peasy. We had quite the walk to get there, taking a back pathway behind Ikea, and I had to dive into Land Rover to ask if the gentlemen there knew where Eurocar was (they did) but we were on wheels at last. After a bit of driving around, we decided to go ahead and rent another day--went back, and unbelievably, the price had dropped from 58 to 33 pounds a day, so we got three days cheaper than two, AND I got 18 pounds back when I turned it in!
I love driving in Wales. Seriously.
Here are some pictures from the four days we were there:
reel_torchwood fic.amand_r much of the way. Several pups out, and it was cold, and rain did start but we didn't care TOO much.This is the website if you are interested in reading more about it: cathedral
Next post...more driving adventures, the discovery of an amazing park when we were SUPPOSED to be going to Caerphilly Castle, and a train ride to London for more adventures there. WHEE!
One last pic, an old man and his two old Bearded Collies, at the car park at St. David's. The dogs were dad and son. Two bad they were walking past cars, and not down a picturesque road. Oh well!
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![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
(no subject)
Date: 2010-04-04 08:55 pm (UTC)Starbucks. <33333 It saves lives.
(no subject)
Date: 2010-04-04 09:01 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2010-04-04 09:12 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2010-04-04 09:17 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2010-04-04 09:43 pm (UTC)DALEK BLECH NEEDS CAFFEINE.
OH HAI DID YOU HAVE LAVERBREAD?
(no subject)
Date: 2010-04-04 10:11 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2010-04-04 10:12 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2010-04-04 10:21 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2010-04-04 10:23 pm (UTC)The Cathedral and ruins were amazing. The tombstones--
there was one for a young woman named Mary, and they quite obviously paved a road right over her!
I came home to gorgeous weather. Sitting here in shorts and t-shirt--unreal. The long winter is over for us finally.
(no subject)
Date: 2010-04-04 10:24 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2010-04-04 10:29 pm (UTC)We had snow last week so it's hard to picture t-shirt and shorts weather. I hate the sun so I'm actually glad that Ireland never gets very hot.
Hope you enjoyed Easter.
(no subject)
Date: 2010-04-04 10:31 pm (UTC)I am also very envious that you apparently have beautiful weather over there. :)
(no subject)
Date: 2010-04-04 10:47 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2010-04-04 10:52 pm (UTC)IT IS GORGEOUS I GARDENED!
(no subject)
Date: 2010-04-04 11:33 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2010-04-04 11:34 pm (UTC)YES I HAD THE LAVERBREAD FOR YOU MANDER! (I ate one bite)
(no subject)
Date: 2010-04-04 11:37 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2010-04-04 11:44 pm (UTC)It is funny--told Nick this, but that breakfast tasted saltier to me than it did in July. Not sure why? Because I've been using salt alternatives so much? I felt a little icky afterwards!
Talked to the guys about laverbread. They buy it from the fish market, where it is made fresh daily.
(no subject)
Date: 2010-04-04 11:45 pm (UTC)Castles! Cathedrals! Woot! When I was in the UK I stopped at like every single one. That I saw. :P
(no subject)
Date: 2010-04-04 11:47 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2010-04-04 11:47 pm (UTC)Traveling is my dream-life. I spent my first 42 years of life going nowhere. Nick gave me the reason to jump on that plane the first time and I haven't stopped since. My kids too--they just got back from Italy, my daughter's third trip to Europe, my son's second (and daughter paid for two of her trips herself, won the third--good discipline for her to save instead of spend spend spend on JUNK!).
(no subject)
Date: 2010-04-04 11:49 pm (UTC)Most of the flisters I have now missed all the previous trips, but I am organizing everything on flickr. Once done I'll toss the link on here in case anyone wants to see.
(no subject)
Date: 2010-04-04 11:51 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2010-04-04 11:52 pm (UTC)lovin' the travel posts!!
(no subject)
Date: 2010-04-05 12:01 am (UTC)