Sad to leave so much unseen..

Lily will return to see Nessie one day.. ~~~~:O <---- Nessie by Holly
Our return train was packed with English people returning home and we only had floor space for 1.5 hours. We all squashed together on top of our 1 suitcase. Every stop we came to I hoped would be ours. At the next station we rushed onto the wrong train! (Which didn't stop at Newark.) So we had to negotiate where to hop off. When we were back on the right train we all lay back and relaxed, apart from Harry playing with his Boink! ( A toy from the children s museum) :o) Mummy dragged our heavy suitcase to the other side of the station. I was relieved to see Auntie Val waiting for us in her car. :)

Ghostly Underground Passages

We started the day viewing the castle from where J.K. Rowling wrote Harry Potter... I can understand where some of the ideas came from; we had a coffee in the famous Elephant House cafe. Then we went on a city Sightseeing Bus Tour. Holly, Lily and Harry enjoyed "The horrible histories" on the audio! We walked The Royal Mile and were entertained by Actors and Clowns performing in The Fringe. We shivered our way to Mary Kings Underground Passages.
The tour was very ghostly like i think i felt one drift past me!!! (Lily)
I was spooked in the ghost story. I thought I caught a glimpse of Mary King! ( Holly)
Harry felt sick and faint and Mum had to tale him up to revive him with can of coke!
We were keen to get back to modern day for dinner and so far no sign of having caught The plague!

Alarm set.....TO GO

Our time clocks still slightly out getting up at 7am wasn't easy! Boarding a train with 1 huge suitcase and 3 kiwi kids wasn't easy either...........but we claimed our seats that I have a vague memory of booking in the early hours of the morning in New Zealand many months ago...My Boss had suggested a long train ride so Edinburgh seemed far far away and Scotland full of mystery, I thought I might find something from my family clan MacLean!

Arrival in Edinburgh Waverly train station was like arriving on another planet. the kids looking for a wizard so finding my distant relative was priority. I remembered taxis! Holly, Lily and Harry had their first black cab ride ever (first taxi ride even!) . Arrival at our destination, our host was waiting with delicious kedgeree in a very elegant dining room. This was a great prep for our evening at the castle watching the Military Tattoo.

WOW what an amazing experience to watch this amazing performance live. Thousands of people huddled together in the icy rain bursts watching bands from all over the world. The commentator asked the audience where we were from.. when he called out New Zealand we stood up and cheered, causing quite a bit of interest around us, I think we were the only ones in 2000+. The Kiwi performers featured a lot, with some talented Highland Dancing and The New Zealand Army, described as 'one of the World's most exciting military bands.' We were very proud.

We ended our evening in Pizza Express at 11pm!

Lunch in Binbrook

Today we went for lunch with family in Binbrook. They had lots of pets, 2 dogs (1 puppy), a chinchilla, a parrot and fish and enormous televisions! The birthday cake was yum! Mummy went for along walk later in Swinderby and we packed our bags for Edinburgh.

Another rain Strategy

Shop!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Newark and Lincoln. Amazing op shops here! But Holly and Lily liked Debenhams. The cobbled streets were full of history and Lincoln Cathedral majestic.

Visiting the favourite haunts of Family through the Ages

We got a few surprises seeing old schools and houses belonging to our family, Mummy remembered leaning on farm gate watching the cows with her Grandad. Holly remembers her Great Grandma shortly after she arrived in N.Z and was interested to see where she used to live in rural England. Lily was fascinated by the tiny school her Grandma used to go to and Harry thought the Conker Tree was great.

Across England to the rural North East

Today we drove to a small village, Swinderby in Lincolnshire. We were able to get another fix of M & S on the way. They now have food outlets of this yummy food in all motorway service stations and their sandwiches are worth driving for!!
Arriving at my Aunties was lovely, she has remembered all the things I like! But within an hour we were down The Plough for a pint....trouble is I can't remember how to drink from such large glasses.

Srategies to cope Never Ending Rain

Spend the time with fantastic friends.

Today we enjoyed some time around The Guy Fawkes House, our friends home whilst it rained and rained.

And caught up on emails with the connection made to the house again. When the sun appeared at 3pm we went on a trip to visit Barrington house one of my friends accommodation houses and then to Ledbury and saw black and white house on stilts. Then we had fun in the wind on The Malvern Hills, which is the oldest rocks in Britain.

An outdoor Pool in England!

Yep we were in it playing volley ball. It was hot in the water at 30'. We visited a friends beautiful estate and lost the dog but there was green curry and wine on tap. Even the flat tyre was dealt with quickly and calmly. Another delightful evening in The Guy Fawkes kitchen.

Woods, chickens and bats

Enjoyed a walk through the blackberries today, watched chickens hatch and bats flying and lots more socializing. Have just about caught up on the huge amount of wet smelly washing from Wales! Even more cars around and lots of noise. But lots of fun here with fabulous friends.

Tally Ho England

We left Wet Wales on this day but the house of our next friends had been struck by lightening so we had no internet for 3 days! Instead we were entertained by hundreds of racing cars on The Steepest Hill climb in the World and lots of socializing in a big kitchen.
We are sleeping in rooms at roof level but in the cellars Guy Fawkes was hidden during the hunt for him, I haven't seen any sign of him!

We Survived Snowdon's Scary Weather

We were all prepared for our big expedition in Snowdonia. And it wasn't raining! The Sherpa bus took us to the start of some tracks up the mountain. After much discussion about the best route up Snowdon we chose The Miners's track. This would be interesting even if we didn't make it to the top. But we did after 3 hours of UP and lots of chocy! But the weather started to change whilst we ate our pasta snack rapidly....We thought it would be fun to catch the mountain train down but couldn't get seats so we took on the challenge and started down.. but the weather got worse.. fog, heavy rain, cold and we took the wrong turn. After about 2 hours of putting one foot in front of the other stuff I saw a sign pointing over the hill to where I thought we were going!! We had managed to traverse Snowdon and our car was on the other side. Luckily we met 2 women hiking and they gave us a ride. The photos will tell all!

Mountains to Sea....

We drove through the mountains of Snowdonia to visit the Caernarfon Castle on the coast. We went on an interesting, historical tour and listened to many stories. Thankfully he spoke English, unlike 70% of the people in this area. Harry stood on the spot where Prince Charles was made The Prince of Wales and maybe William one day. Holly and Lily tried a regal wave from the spot Lady Diana waved when her engagement to Charles was announced. Then we ate sugar mice wedged between the mountains and the Menai Streets. Our next destination was The Isle of Anglesey, we crossed the Menai Bridge and saw where Mum ran out of petrol when she drove her first car for the first time! Mum said Beaumaris, where she lived during some of her student days had changed a lot ( it had just won the 2010 best Seaside resort) But she was very happy to see the five star Ye Olde Bulls Head where she learned silver service still had the same delicious parfait on the menu. Unfortunately we couldn't afford to try it!! Continuing on a memory path we went to
llanfairpwllgwyngyllgogerychwyrndrobwllllantysiliogogogoch and took photos. We were so tired we didn't have time to retrace my steps in Bangor but we drove passed the Uni buildings and Mum exclaimed it looked just the same......but the supermarket had changed a lot!!

A Passion for this wild Place

Driving into these barren wild wet land stirred up all my old adventurous passion. I wished I had a good pair of boots and.............well it is great to come back . I wondered what the next few days would bring, what the children would think of their Mum when they realized I came to this place by choice to study at Uni . Last night we found a basic camp ground, in Betsw-y-coed, cheap but we are really too busy to care about comforts!
We decided that we needed to stretch our legs after our long car journey up here so we went for a walk through the woods to the well known Swallow Falls Waterfall; my Mum and Grandma would remember. The path was a little longer than we thought and we were grateful to be small because we had a barrier to negotiate to get through in the late evening! The sight was worth it though.

Smarty, Wizzy, Bumble and Dapple

We went trecking in the Brecon Beacons in the rain. It was fun for us all, I reminisced about pony trekking with the girl guides, Holly and Lily just enjoyed the time in the beautiful hills and Harry went from flatly refusing to get on a horse to wanting to take up horse riding as a hobby, but not instead of football!! Our horsey adventure was in the smallest town in Britain, LLlanwrtydd Wells but we still managed to find an internet cafe and update the blogs last couple of days to let you all know we are well but wet!! In the afternoon we drove to North Wales.

Exploring the Brecon Beacons

After a meandering drive in The Welsh hills we found our destination 'the Boat Side' a farm near Aberedw, (not a shop in sight!). The kids went paddling in a stream and caught fish. We slept in tents in a field and got woken up with a cooked breakfast, by some friends parents, it was lovely; but we didn't see any slow worms! We continue to hunt tomorrow...

Different dreams of what we would like to see at this venue!

Our Welsh hosts took us to tour the Millennium stadium in Cardiff
Holly said "I liked the way the roof came off!"
Lily " It was interesting to know how they can change the venue for different events e.g speedway racing to football, music concerts, boxing and rugby"
Harry " I wish I could see a football match here"
Fi " I would like to watch The All Blacks play from a box sipping champagne!"

In the afternoon we visited more family with more refreshments. Many "Hellos" and tearful "Goodbyes"

I met my match for shopping!

Lily skipped down Cardiff Queen Street and said "this is my dream come true!!"
My cousin Lou took us shopping in a the biggest centre in the U.K bar London. It was terrifying at first but we quickly adapted to our new environment!

More from the tired girls tom.

2000 years of history at Cardiff Castle

A group of family and friends went audio guiding around a tremendous real castle today. We had a ball! The big owl was cool too! In the late afternoon we were escorted around M & S by my cousin (couldn't have done it without her!) We have now ticked the new underwear box on our trip list!!!!