OUR EPIC ROAD TRIP
Friday 29th June to Saturday 14th July 2018
Drive from London to The Mumbles went well. Pretty straight shot, stopped for lunch at services after Severn Bridge. “Papadom was really good” said Benjo. While at lunch we got an email saying that Benjo had been accepted to St. Phillips. All so happy.
Checked into AirBnB at 2 Clifton Gardens. Had to drive up an incredibly narrow tiny steep street to get to it and then parked at The George, down the hill. Lugged suitcases up steep steps and found a tiny crooked little 2-up 2-down cottage. First night we ate at The George - chicken jalfrezi and fish and chips and a pint of bitter. Down at the beach throwing rocks into Swansea bay.
Also went to the amazing Oystermouth castle. It was closed but we walked around and hung out at the base of the castle walls.
Terrible night’s sleep for Mum, Dad and Isaac then breakfast and down to Oystermouth Castle. This time we played football on the huge grass field in front of the castle. At 11 we toured it, including photos of the boys in the stocks. We walked the battlements. Everybody really impressed, which I was happy about. We imagined what it would be like to be a knight and pretended to squat in the ‘garderobes’ in the corner of each room. The way they used to clean the chimneys in these old castles was to tie branches around a small boy and send him up the chimney!
In the afternoon we went to the beach. The tide was out and the boys played happily in the not-too-cold water. We explored a couple of small caves and heard our voices echo. There were probably dragon claw marks! Delicious Mediterranean food for dinner.
Then on the Sunday we put Mum on the train and Chris arrived. It was torrential rain after being beautiful and sunny all weekend. Oh yes, and the Wales Airshow was at Mumbles. We saw the Red Arrows - the best we’ve ever seen - and the Eurofighter Typhoon flew over on Saturday and Sunday too. Isaac did not like the loud sound of the planes. There was also a Chinook. So in the pouring rain we picked up Chris and took him back to the Mumbles. That night we slept better as Isaac shared a room with me and would just pop up once in a while to check that I was still there.
Monday morning we took a leisurely drive to the ferry terminal at Fishguard.
Stopped for ice-lollies, crisps and hairy pig skin snacks for Chris! The story is that Chris wanted to try pork scratchings so I bought him a pack at the petrol station. He was eating his way through just fine and enjoying them. Until he pulled out a big chunk that had a bunch of thick piggy bristles on it. He turned an unusual colour, put the chunk back in the bag and said that he didn’t think he needed any more pig snacks. Epic way to cure somebody of a hankering.
Ferry to Rosslare, about four hours, was ok, except for quite a bit of whining. Jamwidges kept us alive. It was a lovely ferry. The Stena Europe. We ate horrible food. Once we arrived at Rosslare we drove north to Wicklow to a very functional suburban house that was at least relatively spacious compared to the fisherman’s cottage in The Mumbles.
In the morning we headed north toward Dublin. Stopped off at the town of Wicklow where we wandered around the cliffs and saw the few remaining ruins of the Black Castle, and went down to a tiny cove and beach. Then after drying off from a dip in the Irish Sea lunch at Wicklow Gaol (delicious) and on to AirBnB in Dublin.
Dublin AirBnB was across the road from a huge gothic church in a lovely suburb called Ranelagh. Great first night of sleep after I schlepped a mattress into my room and very comfortable spacious house. Unusual setup with an old fella called Eugene living in the back of the house with his barky little terrier called Petra but great overall. On the Wednesday we toured Kilmainham Gaol. Beautiful restoration with small crucifixes where leaders of the 1916 rebellion had been executed. Magnificent central cellblock with glass ceiling to let in light (aspirations of heaven and redemption) and defunct vents where steam used to come up from the kitchens (to mimic hell?).
This was the prison where one of the scenes from Paddington 2 was filmed! We saw the stone breaking yard where prisoners sentenced to hard labour worked and firing squads were held, as well as the old, terrible early prison wing and the courtroom.
Silence, Separation, Supervision were the three S’s of the Victorian prison system.
We learned that a million Irish died in the famine and 1 and a quarter million went to America. Ireland still hasn’t got the population up to the pre-famine level of eight million.
We hit a couple of parks and playgrounds in the afternoon and gave Chris the afternoon and evening off to go to a museum and a pub. Me and the boys went to dinner and walked the 1.5 miles home through charming little streets. We stopped off at a playground on the way, of course.
Thursday morning we needed to get up early to catch our 9am ferry on the P&O Norbank to Liverpool. I set my alarms for 5:55 and 6am but slept through them because I had my earplugs in. Weirdly, on the one morning we actually needed to get up early, Isaac slept too until Chris burst in at 6:37.
Then we hustled like maniacs and made it to the ferry terminal in time.
In general, the boys have dealt really well with the constant change and movement. Proud of them! Even the longer drives have been fine and they’re starting to see themselves as good travelers who can deal with journeys easily. They are and they can!
The AirBnB in Liverpool was a nice little flat in a converted Victorian in one of the rougher areas near Toxteth. We went and played football in the local (huge!) park to burn off some energy and then went to bed. Chris kindly slept in the living room since Benjo was indignant that he had not slept in a bedroom for the whole trip. Isaac shared a room with me. Weirdly a bunch of water appeared in Benjo’s bed and underpants and we had to improvise some bed linen out of weird velvety blankets.
Next morning we feasted on choccy croissants and took an open-top bus trip around Liverpool The driver said he couldn’t accept my online receipt so I had to pay in cash and then get a refund. Liverpool - especially around the Albert Docks - is a great-looking city. The redevelopment of the docks area is superb. After our tour we went to pick up Irene from Liverpool South Street and headed north to the Lake District.
After stopping for lunch at the crazy spaceship-looking service stop just south of Lancaster, we continued onto Center Parcs. Now that is a slick operation. It’s perfectly calibrated to every kind of family and every operation went smoothly. Checking into out cabin, and picking up our bikes was a breeze. I ended up towing Isaac on a ride-along behind my bike which was quite a bit of extra work but he did pedal some of the way. It’s an impressive operation. Benjo did an aerial safari activity which had all sorts of rope bridges and zip lines. He loved it and then we saw England demolish Sweden in the quarter-finals.
Chris, Isaac and I went off on the Sunday to do the Ullswater ‘Steamer’. Simply stunning perfection in the Lake District and their was some kind of sailing event so we saw hundreds of sailing boats on
the lake, looking like a huge flock of white-winged birds. We had a lovely lunch at a little place called Fellbites at Glenridding and then got back on the boat. Chris’ ploughman’s lunch was amazing.
On the Monday morning we left early and stopped for breakfast at a little care called Llama Karma Cafe then dropped Irene off at the station and headed off to Glasgow.
Glasgow! I had no idea it was such a beautiful cultured city. Another bus tour showing the highlights of central Glasgow. Fantastic architecture, history and culture. Then an amazing fancy Indian meal at Mother India. Jury’s Inn hotel was nice but Chris and Benjo had to share a room.
Loooong drive from Glasgow to Inverness and we stopped off for lunch at a weird little hotel/diner in the Cairngorms. Not good weird but I did have a haggis sandwich. The scenery through the national park was some of the most dramatic I have ever seen with fog-tipped hills and slow streams meandering through the valleys.
On the drive to Loch Ness I booked a boat tour of the loch for us. Little did I realize that it was on a powerboat! Great tour on a small boat with an excellent guide who stopped the boat at points of interest including the place where a Wellington bomber crash-landed in 1940 and also a drive past
Urquhart Castle. This castle is the best I think we’ve seen with just the right mix of destruction and remaining walls and buildings. They even have a trebuchet in the grounds. On the way back to the dock, the tour guide took the boat up to near max power and we hit about 40 knots. We all squealed with excitement.
Dinner at a lovely pub with an incredible whiskey selection. That night we had to move a mattress from Chris’ room into mine so that both boys could be with me and Chris could have some privacy. The hotel staff were pretty unhelpful so we ended up leaving the extra mattress in my room when we left on the Wednesday morning. Drumnadrochit was by far the worst hotel of our whole trip.
After breakfast on Wednesday morning at the Drumnadrochit post office/shop/tea room, we headed into Inverness to take the train to the far north. We parked in the shopping centre car park and had time for me to run off and buy a couple of matching Marmot rain jackets for the boys. We made our train with plenty of time to spare and luckily I had booked a pod of four seats that had a table. Chris and I entertained the boys for two full hours before resorting to iPads. Really stunning ride along lochs and the coast with tiny villages, lots of cows and sheep and the odd country house and castle.
We arrived mid-afternoon at Thurso on the north coast of Scotland. Really wild looking coastline with a dark and brooding town of stone buildings.
Lovely old-fashioned hotel called the Muthu Royal, with a nice proper triple room for me and the boys. Wednesday was the evening of the World Cup semi against Croatia. England held our own for the first half and were ahead but then Croatia turned it on and won in extra time. Sadness ensued. In the afternoon we all took a cab down to the ‘castle’ which turned out to be a bit naff and looked like a bricked up ruin of a country house rather than a castle. The boys had fun throwing rocks into the ‘swamp’ and ‘sink-holes’ which were a stinking seaweedy mud flat because the tide was out.
On Thursday morning - Thursday in Thurso! - we went down to the windy beach, threw rocks and made friends with dogs. All this after a cooked breakfast in the communal dining room where the average age was probably around ninety. Grabbed a hot chocolate in the town, bought some home-made sandwiches to eat on the train and got to the station in time to do running races on the platform. Similar drill to the north-bound journey on the Far North Line. Cards, card games, astonishing card tricks including one where I miraculously digested the chosen card!
Back in Inverness, we completed the fastest ever drive in an estate car from town to Beauly where we got fish and chips and mushy peas ate them in front of the old, old priory “probably founded in 1230”. Then we checked into the Priory Hotel. Pretty solid hotel, lovely staff but they had no spare
family rooms so I ended up having to share a room with Benjo, aka Kicking Kevin. I had The Kicker in bed with me and Moaning Minnie on the other bed right next to me. The worst night’s sleep. We did get to experience the dubious pleasures of a highland bagpipes band and dancers...right outside our bedroom window!
Early breakfast on Friday morning of vegetarian cooked breakfast including potato ‘scones’ which I knew as farls from my childhood then a fast run of around four hours down to Edinburgh to meet Irene. She met up up with us at the AirBNB which was probably our best yet. Lovely townhouse near Old Town and in view of Holyrood House. Still can’t believe how damned beautiful and cultured Edinburgh is. It is truly stunning.
Irene and the boys took the train home from Edinburgh. I went to drop off the rental car then taxi’ed it over to the Skoda dealer to pick up our new car, henceforth to be known as the Grey Goose which I drove down to London, accompanied by my faithful, patient and dear companion Chris. We got home around 8:30, went for a walk around the neighborhood and a pint at the Windsor Arms. That was the end of our epic trip.
We felt old.
Drive from London to The Mumbles went well. Pretty straight shot, stopped for lunch at services after Severn Bridge. “Papadom was really good” said Benjo. While at lunch we got an email saying that Benjo had been accepted to St. Phillips. All so happy.
Checked into AirBnB at 2 Clifton Gardens. Had to drive up an incredibly narrow tiny steep street to get to it and then parked at The George, down the hill. Lugged suitcases up steep steps and found a tiny crooked little 2-up 2-down cottage. First night we ate at The George - chicken jalfrezi and fish and chips and a pint of bitter. Down at the beach throwing rocks into Swansea bay.Also went to the amazing Oystermouth castle. It was closed but we walked around and hung out at the base of the castle walls.
In the afternoon we went to the beach. The tide was out and the boys played happily in the not-too-cold water. We explored a couple of small caves and heard our voices echo. There were probably dragon claw marks! Delicious Mediterranean food for dinner.
Monday morning we took a leisurely drive to the ferry terminal at Fishguard.
Stopped for ice-lollies, crisps and hairy pig skin snacks for Chris! The story is that Chris wanted to try pork scratchings so I bought him a pack at the petrol station. He was eating his way through just fine and enjoying them. Until he pulled out a big chunk that had a bunch of thick piggy bristles on it. He turned an unusual colour, put the chunk back in the bag and said that he didn’t think he needed any more pig snacks. Epic way to cure somebody of a hankering.
Ferry to Rosslare, about four hours, was ok, except for quite a bit of whining. Jamwidges kept us alive. It was a lovely ferry. The Stena Europe. We ate horrible food. Once we arrived at Rosslare we drove north to Wicklow to a very functional suburban house that was at least relatively spacious compared to the fisherman’s cottage in The Mumbles.In the morning we headed north toward Dublin. Stopped off at the town of Wicklow where we wandered around the cliffs and saw the few remaining ruins of the Black Castle, and went down to a tiny cove and beach. Then after drying off from a dip in the Irish Sea lunch at Wicklow Gaol (delicious) and on to AirBnB in Dublin.
Dublin AirBnB was across the road from a huge gothic church in a lovely suburb called Ranelagh. Great first night of sleep after I schlepped a mattress into my room and very comfortable spacious house. Unusual setup with an old fella called Eugene living in the back of the house with his barky little terrier called Petra but great overall. On the Wednesday we toured Kilmainham Gaol. Beautiful restoration with small crucifixes where leaders of the 1916 rebellion had been executed. Magnificent central cellblock with glass ceiling to let in light (aspirations of heaven and redemption) and defunct vents where steam used to come up from the kitchens (to mimic hell?).
This was the prison where one of the scenes from Paddington 2 was filmed! We saw the stone breaking yard where prisoners sentenced to hard labour worked and firing squads were held, as well as the old, terrible early prison wing and the courtroom.Silence, Separation, Supervision were the three S’s of the Victorian prison system.
We learned that a million Irish died in the famine and 1 and a quarter million went to America. Ireland still hasn’t got the population up to the pre-famine level of eight million.
We hit a couple of parks and playgrounds in the afternoon and gave Chris the afternoon and evening off to go to a museum and a pub. Me and the boys went to dinner and walked the 1.5 miles home through charming little streets. We stopped off at a playground on the way, of course.
Thursday morning we needed to get up early to catch our 9am ferry on the P&O Norbank to Liverpool. I set my alarms for 5:55 and 6am but slept through them because I had my earplugs in. Weirdly, on the one morning we actually needed to get up early, Isaac slept too until Chris burst in at 6:37.Then we hustled like maniacs and made it to the ferry terminal in time.
In general, the boys have dealt really well with the constant change and movement. Proud of them! Even the longer drives have been fine and they’re starting to see themselves as good travelers who can deal with journeys easily. They are and they can!
The AirBnB in Liverpool was a nice little flat in a converted Victorian in one of the rougher areas near Toxteth. We went and played football in the local (huge!) park to burn off some energy and then went to bed. Chris kindly slept in the living room since Benjo was indignant that he had not slept in a bedroom for the whole trip. Isaac shared a room with me. Weirdly a bunch of water appeared in Benjo’s bed and underpants and we had to improvise some bed linen out of weird velvety blankets.
Next morning we feasted on choccy croissants and took an open-top bus trip around Liverpool The driver said he couldn’t accept my online receipt so I had to pay in cash and then get a refund. Liverpool - especially around the Albert Docks - is a great-looking city. The redevelopment of the docks area is superb. After our tour we went to pick up Irene from Liverpool South Street and headed north to the Lake District.
After stopping for lunch at the crazy spaceship-looking service stop just south of Lancaster, we continued onto Center Parcs. Now that is a slick operation. It’s perfectly calibrated to every kind of family and every operation went smoothly. Checking into out cabin, and picking up our bikes was a breeze. I ended up towing Isaac on a ride-along behind my bike which was quite a bit of extra work but he did pedal some of the way. It’s an impressive operation. Benjo did an aerial safari activity which had all sorts of rope bridges and zip lines. He loved it and then we saw England demolish Sweden in the quarter-finals.Chris, Isaac and I went off on the Sunday to do the Ullswater ‘Steamer’. Simply stunning perfection in the Lake District and their was some kind of sailing event so we saw hundreds of sailing boats on
the lake, looking like a huge flock of white-winged birds. We had a lovely lunch at a little place called Fellbites at Glenridding and then got back on the boat. Chris’ ploughman’s lunch was amazing.
On the Monday morning we left early and stopped for breakfast at a little care called Llama Karma Cafe then dropped Irene off at the station and headed off to Glasgow.
Glasgow! I had no idea it was such a beautiful cultured city. Another bus tour showing the highlights of central Glasgow. Fantastic architecture, history and culture. Then an amazing fancy Indian meal at Mother India. Jury’s Inn hotel was nice but Chris and Benjo had to share a room.
Loooong drive from Glasgow to Inverness and we stopped off for lunch at a weird little hotel/diner in the Cairngorms. Not good weird but I did have a haggis sandwich. The scenery through the national park was some of the most dramatic I have ever seen with fog-tipped hills and slow streams meandering through the valleys.
On the drive to Loch Ness I booked a boat tour of the loch for us. Little did I realize that it was on a powerboat! Great tour on a small boat with an excellent guide who stopped the boat at points of interest including the place where a Wellington bomber crash-landed in 1940 and also a drive past Urquhart Castle. This castle is the best I think we’ve seen with just the right mix of destruction and remaining walls and buildings. They even have a trebuchet in the grounds. On the way back to the dock, the tour guide took the boat up to near max power and we hit about 40 knots. We all squealed with excitement.
Dinner at a lovely pub with an incredible whiskey selection. That night we had to move a mattress from Chris’ room into mine so that both boys could be with me and Chris could have some privacy. The hotel staff were pretty unhelpful so we ended up leaving the extra mattress in my room when we left on the Wednesday morning. Drumnadrochit was by far the worst hotel of our whole trip.
After breakfast on Wednesday morning at the Drumnadrochit post office/shop/tea room, we headed into Inverness to take the train to the far north. We parked in the shopping centre car park and had time for me to run off and buy a couple of matching Marmot rain jackets for the boys. We made our train with plenty of time to spare and luckily I had booked a pod of four seats that had a table. Chris and I entertained the boys for two full hours before resorting to iPads. Really stunning ride along lochs and the coast with tiny villages, lots of cows and sheep and the odd country house and castle.
We arrived mid-afternoon at Thurso on the north coast of Scotland. Really wild looking coastline with a dark and brooding town of stone buildings.
Lovely old-fashioned hotel called the Muthu Royal, with a nice proper triple room for me and the boys. Wednesday was the evening of the World Cup semi against Croatia. England held our own for the first half and were ahead but then Croatia turned it on and won in extra time. Sadness ensued. In the afternoon we all took a cab down to the ‘castle’ which turned out to be a bit naff and looked like a bricked up ruin of a country house rather than a castle. The boys had fun throwing rocks into the ‘swamp’ and ‘sink-holes’ which were a stinking seaweedy mud flat because the tide was out.
On Thursday morning - Thursday in Thurso! - we went down to the windy beach, threw rocks and made friends with dogs. All this after a cooked breakfast in the communal dining room where the average age was probably around ninety. Grabbed a hot chocolate in the town, bought some home-made sandwiches to eat on the train and got to the station in time to do running races on the platform. Similar drill to the north-bound journey on the Far North Line. Cards, card games, astonishing card tricks including one where I miraculously digested the chosen card!
Back in Inverness, we completed the fastest ever drive in an estate car from town to Beauly where we got fish and chips and mushy peas ate them in front of the old, old priory “probably founded in 1230”. Then we checked into the Priory Hotel. Pretty solid hotel, lovely staff but they had no sparefamily rooms so I ended up having to share a room with Benjo, aka Kicking Kevin. I had The Kicker in bed with me and Moaning Minnie on the other bed right next to me. The worst night’s sleep. We did get to experience the dubious pleasures of a highland bagpipes band and dancers...right outside our bedroom window!
Early breakfast on Friday morning of vegetarian cooked breakfast including potato ‘scones’ which I knew as farls from my childhood then a fast run of around four hours down to Edinburgh to meet Irene. She met up up with us at the AirBNB which was probably our best yet. Lovely townhouse near Old Town and in view of Holyrood House. Still can’t believe how damned beautiful and cultured Edinburgh is. It is truly stunning.Irene and the boys took the train home from Edinburgh. I went to drop off the rental car then taxi’ed it over to the Skoda dealer to pick up our new car, henceforth to be known as the Grey Goose which I drove down to London, accompanied by my faithful, patient and dear companion Chris. We got home around 8:30, went for a walk around the neighborhood and a pint at the Windsor Arms. That was the end of our epic trip.
We felt old.
