Skip to main content

Day 9-Brackley-Llanberis, North Wales

Well, we lived through the hell hotel! You’ve never seen 4 people pack up and leave a hotel faster than the Family Koog left The Crown Hotel this morning. Bing, bang, boom…bags packed and loaded into the car. We left the place so fast it was like we robbed it! But of course we didn’t, who what want any of that crap?

A quick stop at Waitrose to grab breakfast foods and we were off to North Wales. The place where my heart and soul reside.

Now, I’ve driven from England to North Wales several times and was surprised when Mrs. Koog put the address of our cottage in Llanberis into Waze and we got a 4.5 hour eta. It was about 1 hour into the ride that she, out of no where mentions, “oh, we are going through all these back roads because I have it avoiding highways. B and I wanted to see the countryside so we asked to avoid highways from Brackley to Oxford and back yesterday.” I was unamused by this random piece of news. If I am in a car, chances are I am having motion sickness. This little tidbit of news explained the inordinate number of roundabouts on winding country roads we were driving through as well as the 4.5 hour duration when the drive is usually at least one hour less than that from where we were in England. Oh well, she is perfect in every other way so she had to have at least one flaw! I reset Waze and we were on our way to a highway without roundabouts!

I took a nap as did B and E while Mrs. Koog drove us to Llanberis. Are you wondering why I am not helping her drive? I will point you to my blog about my driving experience and the £8,000 worth of damage I did to the brand new Mazda I rented. My job is to nap in the front seat and now that I was not going to hurl, I would do just that!

Waking up just outside of North Wales, I could feel my excitement building. North Wales is home to me. Not sure why but It’s the only place I’ve ever felt completely at peace and comfortable. I feel like I belong here in North Wales. Seeing the “Welcome to Wales” sign gives me a lump in the throat because I am finally home again.

It took us 4.5 hours to reach out awesome rental home in Llanberis. This house is quite a change from the Murder Hotel. Clean, pleasant smelling and gorgeous with no ketchup/blood on any of the bedding this place is the polor opposite of The Crown Hotel and it’s cheaper to be here for 4 days than to be in that roach motel for 2!

B cooked us dinner. Linguini and meat sauce was on the menu tonight. It was really good! Mrs. K and walked to Llyn Padarn after dinner. So serene and wonderful. Saw the Lonely Tree and made friends with 5 ducks that posed for me for about 30 minutes. North Wales lets me exhale and I did just that this evening.

While the Mrs. and B played RumiKum, I edited photos from Cotswolds. I will share once the edits are complete. We watched the Spain/Portugal World Cup game (VIVA ESPANA!!!) and then headed to bed. Tomorrow we are heading to Dinorwic quarry and to Caernarfon Castle.

It’s good to be home.

Until tomorrow…

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

How not to drive in the UK. A cautionary tale…

When we were in the UK for a month in 2023, Mrs. Koog did all the driving. I will admit, she hit nothing and no one. She got us safely from London to Bath to North Wales to Liverpool and all over Scotland until we turned in our car in Edinburgh. And when we turned in that car, it was pristine. No dings, dents, scratches or bumps. As I have written in the past few entries my trip was magical and healing and all those things trips should be. With one exception, driving. I was nervous when I booked the trip that I would forget to stay to the left and cause an international incident on the M4. Apparently, staying to the left would not be the problem. No, my problem was staying too far to the left. For some reason, I completely lost my depth perception on the left (passenger side). This issue wasn’t a real problem on the motorway as there was a shoulder and every time I’d cross the line I was able to correct immediately. The drive from Heathrow to Conwy, Wales was uneventful until I go...

Paradise Crushed

Entering Heathrow on our way back to the US from the UK, I’ve started scheming and plotting to get back as soon as possible. Mrs. Koog firmly told me as we boarded our flight home we should pay for the trip we were still ON before buying tickets to return. Her thriftiness is endearing...sometimes. Anyway, fast forward 3 1/2 weeks…Thursday, Sept 14, 2023 to be exact. I had been pleading our return to the UK case since before we were wheels-up at LHR, and I felt like we had moved her toward a "yes." The little Koogs had just left for school and we were watching the Today Show as I checked my work email and sipped my tea. The return itinerary was limited to 3 weeks and was only Ireland (Northern and Republic of) and, of course, my beloved Wales. I was giddy as Mrs. Koog was joining me in finding places to stay around the Emerald Isle, even sending me the VRBO link to a lighthouse for rent on Arranmore Island, where her people are from in County Donegal. Our exchange ...

Photos from the trip

Here are the photo galleries from the trip. Please click on "Read More" to access clickable links. If there are issues with the links please post a comment and it will come directly to my email. I hope you enjoy looking at them as much as I enjoyed capturing them. Eryri: adobe.ly/41nT3xu Aqueduct: adobe.ly/4hGOzrQ London: adobe.ly/3DSCfXy