My wife and I took what was for us an unusual trip outside the country. It was one of our best vacations ever, so I decided to record it here in more detail than is probably interesting to anyone but us.
We spent a few nights in London, a few nights in Hightown, and a few nights in Portmeirion. One general note about our trip is that the UK is friendly to vegetarians now. A little over ten years ago I was there and got by ok, but didn't see one menu with vegetarian items specified. This time we found that almost every menu has multiple "V"s on it to denote that it is a vegetarian choice. Also we noticed a fair number of places were clear about what was glutten-free.
Currency
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| Our first note |
I had
read before the trip that it is best to use normal ATMs (not currency exchange ATMs) or your credit card to get the best exchange rate. We had extra time in the US before boarding our plane though and knowing that we would be arriving late at night in the UK we decided it would be best to have a few pounds on us (yes we made a few weight jokes here and there).
The currency exchange in the airport offered an exchange rate of 1.8 at a time when the going rate was around 1.6. On top of that there were fees, so when all was said and done we exchange US for UK currency at 2.1!
Later we used normal ATMs or our credit card and received around 1.6. Partly this is because we have a
great bank, but it sounds like this is the normal experience. A couple ATMs offered me an exchange rate of 1.7 or to gamble and take my bank's rate. I always choose my bank's rate and it was always better.
Flight
We booked with
Lufthansa and learned the hard way that they are a Star Alliance partner. We got to the airport early, but the Lufthansa counter was closed. We waited a half-hour and finally someone cleaning the floors told us the counter wouldn't be open for a long time. We called Lufthansa and they informed us that our flight was being carried by United Airlines. I showed my eTicket to a Lufthansa employee when we were in London and he told me something was wrong with the system because it should have printed that the flight was carried by United Airlines, but it didn't. We made our flight, because luckily I'm terrified of missing flights and we were at the airport so early.
The flight over was fine though and the United staff were really friendly and we're considering booking directly with them the next time.
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Us BFFs shared a drink with
each other on the flight. |
London
Day One
We flew into Heathrow, took the tube out to our hotel, rested up and hit the streets the next day. Our favorite place to go in London happened to be one of the first places we went, but they do not allow photography inside so I don't have any pictures, but we highly recommend you visit the
Soane Museum. The museum is in the original home of Sir John Soane and is packed full of things he collected. There are many narrow passageways, an ingenious way of fitting triple the number of paintings as could normally fit in one room, and some invented and real legends. This museum is one of our favorite museums ever, behind our top two favorites,
The Museum of Jurassic Technology in LA and
Musee Patamecanique in Bristol, RI.
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Our first of many British teas. We kept
returning to the same shop each morning. |
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| Covenant Garden - one of our favorite areas to wander around in London. We had lunch at a pub there which felt a little like more of a tourist pub than an authentic one. The next day we found a much better pub. |
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One of the many paper wonders at Benjamin
Pollock's Toy Shop in Covenant Garden. |
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One of the many paper wonders at Benjamin
Pollock's Toy Shop in Covenant Garden. |
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We wandered into Somerset House (interior
stair case shown) and had a wonderful lemon
cake and saw a show on tattoo art. |
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We saw a great show called "Poetry and Dream" at the Tate
Modern. It was largely centered around surrealist painters. |
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We walked by Shakespeare's Globe
Theatre, but didn't catch a show.
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We walked a lot along the South bank.
It's a great place for a stroll in the evening. |
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| I loved this guy's smile when I took the picture. He was actually pretty good and I did give him some money, but I'm not sure if I was tempted because of his ability or the irony of him setting up next to the only "no busking" sign in the whole street. |
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| One of many book benches, "Books about Town" we saw along the South bank. |
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We ate at "Bill's" and of course
I had to try his/my beer. |
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We bought a couple ferry tickets and realized
we wanted to stroll rather than sit and wait for a
ferry. Low and behold there was some ticky-
tack on the ticket machine, so we ticky-tacked
the tickets on to it. | |
Somehow I thought this was "London Bridge" and not
"Tower Bridge" which led to a much long walk along
the Thames than anticipated. Why does the boring
bridge have a song named after it and not the
beautiful one? That said, the walk was much
enjoyed, so no big deal really and it ended with
a ride on a red double-decker bus back home :) |
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We stayed at QBic which is an unusual hotel. People like this guy show up for dinner.
The hotel is rethinking things and have interesting ideas like no phones in the rooms
since most everyone has a cellphone now. Also the "do not disturb" sign is a little
stuffed animal you hang on the door knob. I felt a little guilty kicking the little guy
out of the room for the night. |
Day Two
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| Experiencing a "Sunday Roast" for a couple vegetarians requires a little googling and we found "The Coach and Horses" which houses the publicly advertised "secret tea room". We thought going to this veggie friendly pub was the only way to do it (and it may be the best) but we later discovered there are a couple other places in London that offer vegetarian Sunday Roasts. It seems some sort of loaf is always the veggie option. |
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We saw a lot of tempting ice cream, but didn't have any the whole trip.
However, I couldn't have resisted had someone driven up to us in this little car. |
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| We went to the V&A to see this show. I'm not sure if it was the intention, but there were metal bars from the ceiling to the floor on which many of the exhibits were hung, which gave the feeling of prison bars. (It's also trendy though to have that sort of mounting system, so it's hard to know whether it was the original intention.) |
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It was interesting to read about "Occupy Sandy"
from an outsider perspective. They said signs like
this one showed up all over the state, but to my
knowledge they were mostly around the shore area
and in other areas relief locations were publicized
vía social media with a lack of street signs. Either way
I agree with the V&A statement that it was an example
of how well organized efforts can be in the age of
social media and the internet. |
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Later at the festival it was interesting to see
another bike that was loaded with a sound
system. There are diagrams online for
building this one. Obviously though similar
in functionality, they broadcast
different messages. |
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| From the wonderful theatre related collection at the V&A. They have an original of Shakespeare's first folio (not pictured). |
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This is from an empty shop window along the street.
I like it how sometimes just putting two
objects together speaks volumes to those
who know and seems meaningless to others. |
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| We were curious about the authentic pub experience, but I'm not sure to what extent you can have it in the touristy areas in London. I read that pubs aren't en vogue with the youth as much so they've consolidated (we noticed many had the exact same menu). We enjoyed our meal and talking with the bartender, but it seemed just a touch commercial. |
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We ended the evening when we happened upon "The Scoop" on the South Bank. There was a production of Wagner's Ring Cycle. The rewrite was done with a bit of Shakespearian skill: easily accessible humor for the masses, but retaining the deeper layers for those familiar with the original (which I'm actually not so familiar myself -- only enough to catch that something was a reference to something). Anyway, the production quality was great especially considering it was free. There were a couple ravens that were a kind of puppet that actors in black cloaks flew around. They mastered the little ticks and gestures of birds very well. Best performance of a bird ever.
They also had an interesting system where they asked you to place a little dot on whether you would have paid for seeing the show or not. |
London to Hightown
Day Three
The Car
We picked up a rental car at Heathrow and I learned left side of the road driving along with left handed shifting. I didn't realize ahead of time that the stick shift would be on the other side. It only took a little while to become adjusted though (my first two cars were manual transmission). The driving habits that kept at me the whole trip though were reaching for the seat belt on the wrong side, looking for the middle rear view mirror on the wrong side, being sure to stay in the correct lane when turning, and the biggest adjustment was country roads that have literally enough space for two small cars. If a truck passes, then someone is putting their wheels off the side of the road a little.
Still I loved driving in the UK all in all. Partly because the UK drivers are the best I've ever shared the road with (granted I've never driven within London) and partly I enjoyed because of the car. We ended up with two levels of upgrades on our car (more on that later) and rented a
Citroen DS3. It was a six speed diesel that had an interesting "eco" feature. If you put the car in neutral and it was moving at less than a couple miles an hour then the engine switched off. As soon as you put in the clutch, the engine started up smoothly. This actually made stop and go traffic more peaceful as when you came to a rest it was all quiet and peaceful which made me ok with the fact that I had to stop. Not only eco, but also for me it was anti-roadrage (although I'm a fairly calm driver since I drive so rarely).
So why did we have multiple upgrades? We had booked for a Fiat 500. I've been curious about them since our car is similarly sized (Smart ForTwo). They had booked all of them though, so they offered a lowered rate to upgrade to the next level of car. So we thought we would be in a little Peugeot. The staff was really nice and let us check the car out in the lot since I was totally unfamiliar with the make. We came back, signed papers, went back to the spot, loaded the luggage in the car, and I noticed we were sitting in a Vauxhall instead of a Peugeot. Our agent's supervisor got all concerned at first because the system wasn't showing that the car was rented. We walked around the lot asking employees where the car was until finally someone figured out the car had been rented. I had a few glances at their software while this went on and it looks like it's from the 1980's. The user interface looks rather unfriendly so even if it was "humor error" I'm not sure I blame the humans.
Back at the rental booth a line had formed, so after apologizing for the mistake and assuring us that we would get the model car we wanted, a rental agent said we should go to the "preferred" rental center, which had no line. They filled out new paperwork and sent us to another Vauxhall. I went back and said that we had been offered a Peugeot. Turns out they had rented all of the model they'd offered so once again we got an upgrade and it was the lovely Citroen DS3. Though the whole episode took over an hour, it was worth it.
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The Citroen DS3. The background was a little dull so I had some
fun in Photoshop to make it clear there's nothing dull about it. |
The Drive
I had upgraded our GPS with UK maps because I didn't want to have to adjust to all the difference in the car and driving as well as a new GPS. I had addresses written down but didn't realize you need to specify the county since a lot of towns have the same name in different counties. Luckily I guessed right each time.
As I mentioned the UK drivers are great. They are used to having to yield (as they say, "give way") to others and typically drive defensively. Throughout the trip I was only cut off once and honestly it may have been my fault as I was navigating a round-about which I'll admit I didn't get right every time. Most of the drivers are curteous and it makes for much safer roads. There was a sign along the way about X amount of accidents in Y years on the road and how that was unacceptable. I did the math on it and realized it was just a handful. I think I probably
witness that many accidents on some roads in the US.
Along the way we had lunch at what seemed to us an authentic pub, The Fox and Hound in Adler (just off junction 10 M40 on the B340). We had plough man's which is a platter that includes a massive stick of amazing cheddar. Throughout the trip we had really good cheese throughout the trip and appreciated that sharp (as they say "aged") cheddar seemed to be the norm.
The Owl House
We tried out AirBNB for the first time and were so happy we did. We spent a lot of time reading through different places and their reviews, so it might be that you need to do your research. Either way though we found a beautiful peaceful place with a wonderful host that became a friend. We planned the trip as a bit of city mouse - country mouse extremes: from a hotel in London to a beach view from a BNB in North Wales.
I'll let the photos speak for themselves, but I'll say the
Owl House is truly a magical place. If you share our spirit for adventure and the interesting things in the world you should stay there. What was great was the host is an artist and well connected to the community, so most of the wonderful experiences we had in the next few days were due to her recommendations (and our "adventure day" attitude). We dined that night at The Pheasant, which is part pub and part upscale dining experience.
Owl House Friends
Somehow I don't have a single picture of the two dogs that were at the BNB, but we have pictures of some of the cats and almost all the chickens. Some of the cats were aloof, but these two were sweethearts. The chickens also were very friendly and always greeted us with much to say.
Liverpool
Day Four
Crosby
On the way back from Liverpool we stopped at the beach in Crosby to see one more art exhibit for the night. Crosby Coastal Park has Anotny Gormley's "Another Place" which are 100 cast iron figures planted in the beach.
Little Crosby and Liverpool
Day Five
Little Crosby
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