Wales, not Whales, July 31-Aug 8

Meditations on Castles and Driving on the Left 

We took the train north from London to Chester, about a 2 hour ride (trains are so great, oh US how I wished you had more trains!).  Our plan was to enjoy a bit of the countryside, have some slow down time after London, and see some castles (Katie's curriculum includes Medieval Europe, so these castles are right in line with Common Core social studies objective 6.5 (or something). 

So easy! Train station is right near the rental car place, we popped over, got the car and got on our way to our airbnb place in Holywell, about a 20 minute drive away. The small town center has a parking lot, we bought our parking ticket, found the apt key box, got into our nice little 2-bedroom place and just robustly congratulated ourselves on another great travel day! Then, we realized we were a bit light on our possessions (no, Grandma and Grandpa, we did not leave a kid in London).  We did leave our violin on the train... oh noooo, I exclaimed inwardly and outwardly, I lugged that thing all this way only to leave it on the train.  I dutifully filled out a handy online "lost item" report on the train company's website.  

Let's pause for this trip blooper..  I am a connoisseur of bloopers.  I consider them...not the high points of trips... but for sure the memorable trip-moments (whether you want to remember them or not!).  We had a near trip blooper in London: Our last night, we were packing up and Luke was trying to gather his things and stepped onto the bottom shelf of the wardrobe to reach his toiletries, not knowing that piece of furniture was incredibly light and not sturdy - He stepped, the wardrobe tipped towards his head (he was in front of a metal bed frame) and luckily, Scott's catlike reflexes engaged and he was able to catch the wardrobe before it crushed Luke and we had to call Allianz med-evac insurance and explain the danger conditions in our hotel room.  That was a near blooper.  Forgetting an instrument.. that is a full blown blooper.  I was sure we would get that violin back, though - I have strong faith in European train systems.  Each day we were in Wales, I checked the train's website to see if my item had been found; and every day for 7 days, "no item matching your description has been located. Please try again tomorrow." Sigh, my faith in the systems was beaten down a little bit every single day. 

Ok! But I skipped over a big deal.  Driving on the left (with 3 kids in the car, noise is a real distraction kids! Mommy cannot think when you are all TALKING at once!)..  We decided earlier that I would do most of the driving; I have more city driving comfort and Scott is a (slightly) better navigator than I am.  Oh, the brain-exhaustion of left-side driving and the left-handed manual shifting!  And going around so many roundabouts, clockwise direction; each degree around the circle, I am sure a car would be coming straight for me going the correct way around the circle!  And then... after a few days.. The left side of the road starts to look sort of.. correct. And then you start to notice all these nice things about cars that are made with all kinds of great safety features (that Detroit or.. Huntsville.. or wherever American cars are made now!) won't let us have in America, like automatic windshield wipers, a little beeping that happens when you get too close to the lane-boundary.. And boy, people in Wales drive so nicely on the freeway, everyone stays in the slow lane except when they are actively passing and merging onto the freeway is not like a car-cage-match but just a reasonable maneuver... Don't get me wrong, I do not want to drive on the left for much longer (I sighed my relief when we turned in the rental car a week later) but I will be ready to drive again in Ireland! 

Train to Chester from London, nice traveling!

Getting into our wrong-side car for the week...Not nervous...

L: Schoolwork and paid work underway (with laundry drying in the background)!
R: A totally safe and sensible use of an outlet

Now!  What did we do in Wales?? 

 

First, we had a great apt, small, but with a kitchen and washing machine, 4 kitchen chairs, and enough space for all of us to work on computers at once. We cooked dinner each night, which I think makes us all a bit happier (and of course, we had a freezer for ice cream bars, oh the joy of a freezer).  

Second, we succeeded in our mission of seeing some castles!  A bit of background: Wales did not desire to have English overlords - In the late 1200s, King Edward I of England invades setting off the First War of Welch Independence.  The Prince of Welch (sound familiar? keep reading..) Llwelyn ap Gruffudd ("Llywelyn the Last") ruled from Gwynedd.  They battled for about a decade until Llwelyn was captured and killed. Edward knew that maintaining his military gains would be difficult and he went on a castle-building spree (AND he began the practice of English monarchs bestowing the "Prince of Wales" titles on their heirs by naming his son, Edward II Prince of Wales in 1301).  The caste building included finding the best spots in key villages, moving all the Welsh people out (because of course, the best spots are populated!), build a crazy fortification, move in a bunch of loyal English subjects, and kaboom, a pacified countryside!   The Welsh brought other revolts, up until around 1400, when Owain Glyndwr brought a serious challenge and evaded capture his whole life despite King Henry V's offers to of a pardon in exchange for surrender; Owain never did and is now part of Welsh legends because of it). By the mid 1500s,  Wales was incorporated into the English kingdom.   

We visited all 4 of Edward's major castles (which are unesco sites):  Harlech, Conwry, Beaumaris, and Caernarfon. High marks for these castles from the team because: You can climb the numerous towers, most sites have playgrounds onsite or nearby (so family friendly), one site had wooden sword play, another had archery, and ALL had murder holes (which of course are holes in the fortification through which defenders can shoot, hurl, and pour harmful substances),  Sadly, poor Edward ran out of money on the fourth castle (Beaumaris) - having spent almost five times England's total annual income on the castles and Beaumaris is only half complete (enjoy so many castle photos below).

Ah, it would be a challenge to find better Medieval castles than these.. 

Harlech

Conwy

Beaumaris

Caernarfon

 

     R: Look at these wee devils, looking down on me in the castle's jail-pit.
     L: Peering at the ferris wheel..

Alex lining up the target.

Katie preparing a strong shot.

In addition to a two side-trips, one to a Neolithic burial mound and the other to a petting farm (which, as an aside, would be such a GREAT idea for us to start, if we had more property in El Cerrito - This place was maybe a 10 acre farm with a small entrance fee, a small animal-food fee, a great cafe, home to a owl sanctuary and an event space - It was very well visited as it's near a prosperous town [with parents of little kids looking for activities!], just like El Cerrito.  Next career..??

Time for the Neolithic burial mound race to the bottom, Alex! Ready, set, GO!!

Katie's the queen of the...spiritual mound! 

Luke: Come here little llama! 

Alex has found some good-looking deer - really unique to see these spots on adult deer (for Californians at least).  

Anyhow, in addition to the petting zoo and mound, we made a trip from Wales up to Liverpool for our -- dah dadahduh -- fourth and fifth soccer stadium visits!  We all wanted to spare me driving in a big city, so we drove from Holywell to a ferry stop and took a short vessel ride to Liverpool - Ahh, it has a lovely waterfront, giant Beatles statues, a Ferris wheel to rival the London Eye (and it goes faster, so fun),  and a loooooong walk inland to Liverpool FC and Everton stadiums.  We love long walks.  55 minutes later, we arrived at the Liverpool stadium; wow, a very full gift shop and many fans milling about. 

While Katie bought her 4th team scarf, I learned about the Hillsborough disaster through a memorial outside the stadium (a terrible event at the Hillsborough stadium in South Yorkshire in 1989 when Liverpool met Nottingham Forest for an FA cup semi-final - As a gate opened before the match and thousands of people surged forward, 97 people on the Liverpool side were crushed to death and 750 were injured. The game was rescheduled and Liverpool won and eventually went on to win that year's FA cup. Seems there was a lot of finger-pointing and eventually the response that it was drunk fans gave way to it was faulty crowd control and stadium design.)  

We also visited Everton (many fewer fans; the stadium is a 7-minute walk from Liverpool's stadium but we could see the team's new stadium under construction along the waterfront; when they move the teams' fans won't be within shouting distance of each other!).  We made the long walk back with enough time to visit Liverpool's World Museum (they had a great Egypt exhibit) and we enjoyed a ~30 minute taped video interview from the museum with a British astronaut on the ISS; Luke is sort of wondering how one becomes an astronaut, anyway.  We had just enough time for a ferris wheel ride, a bite of pizza, and a run through the outside of the Prince Albert Docks (beautiful brick buildings along the water) before our ferry took off.

Approaching the Liverpool Harbor from just across the River Mersey, from the southwest.  This cruise-picture is for you, my Port friends!

No Mom, I could not possibly open my eyes for your photo.

Fab Four, meet the other Fab Four, the lady on the left appears to be sporting a new Flock of Seagulls hairstyle.

For our San Francisco friends, I had to snap this photo-of-a-photo of an old public bath & swimming pool.. Look familiar to an old San Francisco photo?? 

I found the story of the Liverpool fans who lost their lives before a 1989 match moving. 

Luke is loving the Liverpool ferris wheel.

Alex also loved it.. when it was over and his feet were back on the ground!

Here is the part of the blog where I should describe how cute Holywell is; where I recount a nice anecdote of wandering along the small streets.... To be fair, the main street was very quaint (though the stores had spotty hours); our apt was on a picturesque mew; and there was a great park a few blocks away, along car-free pathways.  

The park should have been a highlight... so here is how the park went sour: On our first visit, I noticed that most of the school-aged kids were on their own at the park and thought we would just have the kids run off to the park each evening while we cooked dinner.   We noticed that the skate park was frequented by 12-14 yr old looking boys on scooters; a few of them walked ahead of me while I was circling the park (getting my steps in) and they were cursing and vaping like mad (lots of kids vape here, not good).  Hmm, different strokes for different folks I thought and didn't wonder much more about it. 

My kids noticed that the scooter park-crew sort of eyeballed them a bunch, not in a curious, "who are these visitors way?" but in a way they found to mean that they should keep their distance from that skate ramp.  We saw them each day for 4 or 5 days. On what would be our last meeting, we arrived before them and were playing frisbee in the green near the skate ramp.  Again, not very nice stares. They are little kids though, I thought, that is probably just the way their faces look!  So, as we left and had to walk past them, I sort of waved and said "Have a nice night" and one of them said "Shut it!" or "Shove off!" (who knows with the accent).  Oh no, I thought, I am not going to let that go, so I stopped and said with my big smile, "Is that Welsh for you have a good one too?" and the kid sort of said the same thing, like "Why don't you shut it!" Again, I am not letting that go from a little kid even if he has a small crew with him, so I casually told Katie to take the boys home and I'd meet them there and I laughingly said "Wow, is that how youall talk to visitors enjoying your nice park?"  We traded a few remarks back and forth - it was the most bizarre exchange I'd had with a kid I didn't know - my normal exchange is with my kids or my kid's friends or their classmates on field trips, where, when I tell the kids something, they generally listen to me - This was sort of menacing, if the kid had been higher than my armpit (though he had the high ground on that ramp!) or if we had been in the US where kids might have guns. Anyhow, the exchange ended with the kid telling me to leave or else he'd shoot me with a.. wait for it.. jelly bean. Yes folks, a jelly bean, in some sort of hydraulic Pez dispenser, his friends told me, sort of warningly, It really hurts (they had clearly been victimized already).  We were at an impasse, he was not going to behave and I had to go make dinner. So I again wished him well and deliberately and casually turned my back and walked away.  After a few yards, I began to hear little "pings" fall next to me on the concrete. The little maggot was shooting jelly beans! Hahahhah, if I had thought of it then, I would have stopped, picked one up, waved it in the air and then ate it.. 

And so began and ended my war with the jelly bean scooter crew of Hollywell..  Hate to tell you this kids, but scooters are so lame on a skate ramp! 

Ahh, but I cannot end on that minor, unpleasant note..  Remember the lost violin from the beginning of the post.. Well.. 8 days after I left it on the train that arrived in Chester, we were back at Chester, for our train to the Irish ferry that would take us to London.  I wanted into an Information office with no hope but asked for a violin in a black case, and look what I got as my reward... I was completely overjoyed! And all of the kids have been practicing on it ever since (Luke is starting his "lessons" with Scott, which are punctuated with healthy doses of commentary from Katie and Alex.   Onward to Ireland! 

Ta da, the violin recovered after its 8 day journey without us all over England!