So welcome to the first week of our trip to the UK! We arrived in London Thursday, September the 13th. Our flight was uneventful but I do have to say - I don't care for O'Hare airport in Chicago. For us tech junkies, there are almost no plugs in this airport. The only plugs we could find were on these chairs - a total of four chairs. Pfft. But my flight left 30 minutes late and arrived in Heathrow 30 minutes early! Yay tailwinds! Neither Victoria or I slept on the flight so, by the time we made it to Heathrow, we were already tired.
Our first adventure was into town to have lunch and get my cell phone sorted out. We had Indian food and it was good! It was my first time, so I was a bit apprehensive. Getting a cell phone sim card was not as easy, but we managed.
This was all down on Oxford Street. Our first real visit into the city. We were tired, a bit cranky, and in desperate need of sleep. We headed back to our hotel and we were asleep by 6:30pm. We awoke at 8:00am! You cannot imagine how exhausted we actually were. We started traveling by arriving at the airport in Dayton at noon the day before. Then four and a half hour layover in Chicago didn't help. LOL. We slept so soundly!
The next three days were spent in London doing the sightseeing thing. Big Ben, London Eye, Westminster, Camden Town, etc, etc. We didn't go in much - but with the time we had, just kinda did an overview. We talked to people we met - even the grumpy guy on the subway who did not appreciate it when I said "hi" after hitting his hand while sitting down next to him. Victoria reminded me not to talk to people again LOL! I suppose I don't listen well ;)
Tuesday, October 30, 2012
Friday, October 12, 2012
Portmeirion - A day in history
Wales. The United Kingdom. Britain. Scotland. Northern Ireland. No matter what you call home, the beauty here is amazing. I've been in the UK for 28 days now, and every day, I see new beauty in it. Every day, I discover something new about this place that I love. I've learned that I am stronger than I thought in some ways too.
These days, I'm in the middle of no where. I'm building fires to keep warm. I'm washing laundry and hanging it by the fire to dry. I'm chopping wood and I'm burning that wood to warm our water. The store isn't just around the corner so I am having to plan a bit better what we will do for the week.
Even our outings are a bit more planned. This week we went to Portmeirion.
Portmeirion is a cute place. It's in Gwynedd, North Wales. If you ever heard of the tv series "The Prisoner", it was filmed here. It was built starting in 1925 and was finished in 1975. It's the dream of Sir Clough Williams-Ellis, this town resembles an Italian villa. Quaint is a word I don't use often, but this would fit that bill. It's been compared to Portofino, Italy but Sir Clough Williams-Ellis repeatedly denied this. He did, however, draw from a love of the Italian village stating, "How should I not have fallen for Portofino? Indeed its image remained with me as an almost perfect example of the man-made adornment and use of an exquisite site."
When we arrived, a lot of the shops were still closed, so we set off to the Town Hall for a traditional Welsh breakfast which was very good. Way more food than we could eat though! Wasn't a bad deal - breakfast this big for around $8 and full of protein to keep us going all day. Don't buy bottled water here though - it was like $2.50 each! I didn't care for the sausage much - they could stand improvement on that one but I've never been a big sausage fan to begin with - so maybe I am a little biased on that one!
We then headed down to the beach. It was an amazingly beautiful day with the sun shining down on us, a cool breeze (but not too much!) and the view was stunning! The sand was soft and not a rock in sight, as we have found many on some of the beaches. The view of the water and of the town from this direction were both quite impressive! From there, we headed back to the town and explored a few more of the areas. They have their own pottery design and quite a few of the stores were dedicated to this cause. Definitely, a nice place to visit.
If you haven't heard of The Prisoner, you can view them on www.Youtube.com and search for it by name. Make sure you start at Episode 1 and not the Series Finale like I did - it won't make any sense if you watch it backward (speaking from experience here!).
I'm sure Portmeirion had even more features than what we saw but it was a lovely day out with no rain and a lovely town to explore. If you are in the area (and I hope you do visit Wales one day!), be sure to make this one of your stops. Thanks Steve for the heads up! ;) You will want to watch at least the first episode though so it makes more sense to you!
Here is a link to the rest of our Portmeirion pictures! http://s1145.photobucket.com/albums/o504/ItsTheWriter/MarianneUK/Wales/Portmeirion/
Till we meet again...
Love ~ Peace ~ Happiness
Marianne
These days, I'm in the middle of no where. I'm building fires to keep warm. I'm washing laundry and hanging it by the fire to dry. I'm chopping wood and I'm burning that wood to warm our water. The store isn't just around the corner so I am having to plan a bit better what we will do for the week.
Even our outings are a bit more planned. This week we went to Portmeirion.
Portmeirion is a cute place. It's in Gwynedd, North Wales. If you ever heard of the tv series "The Prisoner", it was filmed here. It was built starting in 1925 and was finished in 1975. It's the dream of Sir Clough Williams-Ellis, this town resembles an Italian villa. Quaint is a word I don't use often, but this would fit that bill. It's been compared to Portofino, Italy but Sir Clough Williams-Ellis repeatedly denied this. He did, however, draw from a love of the Italian village stating, "How should I not have fallen for Portofino? Indeed its image remained with me as an almost perfect example of the man-made adornment and use of an exquisite site."
When we arrived, a lot of the shops were still closed, so we set off to the Town Hall for a traditional Welsh breakfast which was very good. Way more food than we could eat though! Wasn't a bad deal - breakfast this big for around $8 and full of protein to keep us going all day. Don't buy bottled water here though - it was like $2.50 each! I didn't care for the sausage much - they could stand improvement on that one but I've never been a big sausage fan to begin with - so maybe I am a little biased on that one!
We then headed down to the beach. It was an amazingly beautiful day with the sun shining down on us, a cool breeze (but not too much!) and the view was stunning! The sand was soft and not a rock in sight, as we have found many on some of the beaches. The view of the water and of the town from this direction were both quite impressive! From there, we headed back to the town and explored a few more of the areas. They have their own pottery design and quite a few of the stores were dedicated to this cause. Definitely, a nice place to visit.
If you haven't heard of The Prisoner, you can view them on www.Youtube.com and search for it by name. Make sure you start at Episode 1 and not the Series Finale like I did - it won't make any sense if you watch it backward (speaking from experience here!).
I'm sure Portmeirion had even more features than what we saw but it was a lovely day out with no rain and a lovely town to explore. If you are in the area (and I hope you do visit Wales one day!), be sure to make this one of your stops. Thanks Steve for the heads up! ;) You will want to watch at least the first episode though so it makes more sense to you!
Here is a link to the rest of our Portmeirion pictures! http://s1145.photobucket.com/albums/o504/ItsTheWriter/MarianneUK/Wales/Portmeirion/
Till we meet again...
Love ~ Peace ~ Happiness
Marianne
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)