Eight days a week...

With a final drive through what we could only call the "Jersey Shore" of Wales, we waved adieu to this beautiful and quirky country and drove back into England and into Liverpool. We got in late, but we were able to get beds in the YHA near the Albert Dock in Liverpool. After having some of the loudest hostel mates we set out the next morning to get our fill of all of the culture the city. We visited The Beatles Story (which was incredible, informative, and fun), got our dose of modern art culture at the Tate - a surprisingly not good modern art exhibition, if I may say so :(, and walked the docks to soak up some history.

With Beatles songs stuck in our heads and a teensy drizzle we headed off to Manchester for a couple of days of urban life. Upon our arrival in Manchester we discovered a city of ring roads that you couldn't turn off of. So after two bouts around and through the city we were able to park. We stayed in the first night, enjoying a quiet room and hostel mates as well as our Brains beer we had purchased in Wales. I must say that fizziness and warmth aside, the Brains were really not very enjoyable, but many a zombie joke was still had ;)

For our full day in Manchester we spent walking the city, visiting the Museum of Science and Industry, and getting laundry done!




Manchester was a really neat city, a thriving metropolis during the Industrial Revolution, these tall sandstone block buildings still stand throughout the city, sprinkled with modern and contemporary shopping complexes and flats. We went out Wednesday night and had a fantastic time getting drunk all on our own - apparently Wednesdays are dead nights in the bars here.

After Manchester we headed up to the Lake District to revel in beautiful countryside, the lands of Beatrix Potter, and Wendsleydale Cheese (which is just as yummy as Wallace and Gromit say it is). We stayed in a quaint and lovely hostel in Ambleside.




The North (a.k.a. SCOTLAND)!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

We drove up through Lockerbie and out to a small town called Newton Stewart. In the cemetery outside of town we went hunting for the tombstone of one of Taylore's ancestors from some time in the 1600s. We were prepared with a photograph of the church, a photo of the tombstone, and a picture of a hand drawn cemetery map. Unfortunately we didn't have those with us, so we missed on site confirmation, but the next time we had internet Taylore looked it up and confirmed that it was one of the headstones she had seen.

Our first night in Scotland was in Glasgow, where we were distracted from going out by watching the Scotland v. Czech Republic Football match on the tv in the bar in our hostel. The following morning we stopped in at the Glasgow Cathedral before heading North. The Cathedral is one of Taylore's favorites, and I can see why she wanted to go back to it. Its incredibly grand, with beautifully tiered arches in the nave, excellent sandstone block construction, and the shrine of St. Mungo in the underground portion of the Cathedral (not to be confused with the Crypt). The entirety of the front "basement" half of the Cathedral has a honeycomb like layout of smaller chapels that creates an intimacy and seclusion I have yet to see in any Cathedral I've visited or studies. The walls are not painted, the architecture and stained glass windows alone are the decoration, and I think it far surpasses the type of beauty found in painted and glazed Cathedral interiors that I have experienced before.

From Glasgow we headed around Loch Lomond (insert folk tale singing here...) and up towards Skye.

Castells, Castles, and Brains?!?

Late on Sunday afternoon we took off from Bristol and headed through Cardiff on our way into Wales. We stopped in Cardiff only for an hour and walked around - it's an absolutely lovely city (the capital of Wales)- with a lot of recent redevelopment - including a brand new stadium. We were too late to walk through Cardiff Castle (Welsh people are up to their necks in Castells - Castle in Welsh) but we did walk alongside it (below).










After leaving Cardiff we drove through Southern Wales and eventually (thank goodness for roundabouts and Taylore's superior navigation skills) found the place we had booked in Llanelli along the coast. The guy who ran the place wasn't in, and as it turned out we booked the wrong night, so I called him and we checked in over the phone.

The next morning we drove through the edge of Pembrokeshire, stopping in the towns of Fishguard and Cardigan. Fishguard was a great little town that was the site of a foiled invasion attempt by the French about two hundred years ago. The locals recently commemorated the event with the commissioning of a tapestry which is on display in the town hall. We stopped by and walked the length of the tapestry before going for a walk along the harbour.





On our walk down to this lovely little harbour I slipped down the jetty and fell on my bum - furthering my streak of falling on my ass in virtually every country I've been too.

We stopped in Cardigan for lunch in a lovely art gallery and cafe before heading to Caernarfon to visit the Castle of the Prince of Wales.





This Castle was built by Edward I and has since been the seat of the Prince of Wales (and more recently site of the Prince of Wales' investiture). The castle was amazing and we climbed up through turrets and walked along the castle walls.

We also picked up some Brains, the Welsh National beer so it would seem. We are pretty sure that Wales will be ground zero of the impending zombie apocalypse...





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Location:Wales

Hooligan Adventure P.1 - That one time we didn't set our alarm ...

Hello fellow interwebs folk! This is the first installment of Taylore's and my trip and it takes us through Bath & Bristol!

For a couple of reasons we wound up taking separate flights from LAX to LHR (but the same Metro ride - below).




I got in after a totally uneventful flight (Taylore's flight was just "like an SNL sketch") a few hours prior to Taylore and picked up our car - a bright blue Hyundai version of the Fit that's diesel (we've named it Blue Thunder)! After picking up Taylore our road trip began with a drive straight to Bath!
Bath was really fun and absolutely fascinating. We arrived on a rugby match night, so the place was hoppin' and from across the river we could see some of the match. Took some night photos, ate at an Italian restaurant, and headed to bed. Refreshed and seemingly on GMT and over jet lag we hit up the Roman baths (the main event after all) which were FANTASTIC! There is a new and excellent museum under street level that was really interesting. I even convinced Tay to drink the water even though she swore she never would again - this was a big deal, as I can never pull anything on her.
While in Bath we walked up to the Royal Crescent and nearby Circus - both buildings I studied many times in school - and I still managed to be impressed with them (they are built in very perfect arcs!). A quick stop at the Jane Austen Center rounded out our time in Bath.
Bristol is only 10 miles from Bath, but on Saturday afternoon it took us 2 hours to get into town. Our hostel was above a bowling alley (only 5 lanes - but super nifty) with a lounge/bar and vintage clothing shop! We spent Saturday afternoon walking along Bristol's floating harbor, Queen's square, a weak bridge (below), and near the Cathedral.



We finished off the afternoon with a stop in the movie theater near our hostel to watch Back to the Future on the big screen - which was awesome!
Being in Bristol, which is known for it's clubs, we had to go out. We wound up at this completely awesome dive club called The Syndicate Super Club. They won us over by advertising the "biggest confetti cannons in Bristol" - obviously we had to go. The crowd were mostly 18-22 year olds, everything was served in plastics which were promptly thrown on the dance floor when emptied, and the music was a mix of American and British top 40 from 2002-06 and 2010. All in all, pretty awesome and hilarious. Other than the fire alarm going off for no reason at the hostel at 2:30 am we slept like babies.

Literally...babies. We were woken up the next day at noon by the front desk because my friend Jo and her boyfriend Paul were waiting for us (oh and we were supposed to check out by 10)! Whoops!
A lovely afternoon was spent chatting, laughing, and eating at a shop called the Boston Tea Party with Jo and Paul!
From there we were off to Wales!

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Location:Bath & Bristol