DELAZONE!

DELAZONE!


It was our last day in UK. We awoke, bathed and instead of going out to breakfast, we settled for tea and biscuits in our room.

Around 9:00 we took our final stroll around the neighborhood, hit up the Waitrose, checked out the little stores and felt quite sad about having to go. Okay, I felt sad. Edie Baby was MORE than ready to go.



We were checked out and waiting in the lobby by 10:50. At 11:08, our car arrived to bring us to the airport. We were on Virgin Atlantic's Guest List. Which means we were brought to the airport, escorted through security and treated to the lounge. Good Times!

I got mom piled into the car- on the wrong side, of course. I forgot... well, you know. Anyway, we sped as much as possible through the streets of London to Heathrow where we saw this:

Super Awesome Groovy Thingy

I don't know about you, but I want one!

We pull up at the airport and go through a super secret entrance that has movable pylons blocking it. We curl around the private circular driveway and an escort was standing outside waiting for us.

She checked us in, printed our boarding passes and showed us the way through the private security line... and this is where things went terribly wrong...

British Airport Nazi

The TSA, or well the British version of that, patted down Momster WAY too hard. WAY too hard. She pretty much slapped her baddest ankle and so on and so forth. Mom was in tears and FUMING. We get into the airport proper. Mom was determined to get back her VAT (Value Added Tax) from buying her coat and blouse. I didn't even know you could do that, but evidently so. You can do it in NOLA too, as long as you aren't from there.

This required standing in one line, then another, then filling out a form, then putting the form into a special mailbox. The whole process took about 20 minutes. 

Despite that, Mom was still in pain and still fuming.

We made our way to the VA Lounge Elevator. There was a padded seat in it. In the elevator. That goes up one floor. ONE!

Padded Bench in the elevator

To be honest, I'm not sure how I feel about this. Is it the epitome of opulence, a gimmick, or just stupid lazy? Actually  I'm pretty sure it takes more energy to sit down and stand up again then to just stand, so I really don't know.

We check in at the stand and mom tells the lady about being rough handled at security. She immediately took mom into a super secret room to make a complaint. I found a place to sit.

We decided we'd go to the cafe area and grab some grub. Mom got Bacardi and DC.

Virgin Redhead
Our signature, The Redhead is a delicious blend of freshly muddled raspberries, berry liqueurs, shaken with
Bombay Sapphire Gin, finished with bubbly.

The guy came around and I ordered the above and to eat I had this:

Spinach Pie and Rocket Salad, Again with the Rockets!

Mom ordered a soup, and by that time I was tipsy and can't remember what it was but it looked like this:

Some type of soup.

After that, and about 3 more drinks, mom was feeling much better. Thank God. So, we ordered this:

‘Clubhouse’ burger
Grilled beef burger with marinated beef tomato, crispy red onion, gherkin, relish and chips

Which she enjoyed immensely  Things were starting to look up. Yay! I got the fruit. Not that it would do any bit of good now, but I was at the point where I really couldn't taste anything else.

Then we splurged on a dessert. Well, mom did. I don't remember eating any of it. But I could have. I think I was seeing double at this point. Yeah, it doesn't take much.

Something horribly delicious I'm sure.

Being the Ugly American I am, I wanted to give tips, cuz that's what we do. I had to go to the service desk and change a 10 spot. When asked why I wanted to change it, I explained that I wanted to tip. The lady got out the office lotto fund and changed one for me. How sweet is that? I guess it doesn't happen often.

Part of the fun of being in the clubhouse is that they have beauty services you can have done while you wait for your flight. Mom booked a facial for me. So I went and got it. It was a nice mini facial and everything smelled of roses. Of course I was bright red by the time I got out of there since I was exfoliated and being a red head, that's what happens.

Here are a few more pix of the clubhouse if you're interested.

 Our flight was announced, so we went back down the elevator and around to our gate. No one was waiting, so either they planned that we walked on or we waited too long to get to the gate. Whatever the case, we walked right on. A nice gentleman helped me put my bag in the overhead bin. Mom insisted on the aisle seat, so I squeezed into the window seat. And while I can't say I was comfortable, I did settle in for an 11 hour flight. I was given and sucked down my pre-flight beverage when... 



And then...

And just for good measure...

Why God, Why? Have I not been if not the perfect daughter, a really, really good one? Why must I be tortured so? Why? Why? Whhhhyyyy???? I kid you not, there must have been at least six of the things in our cabin alone. What the hell? This was an 11 hour flight and did they shut up? Oh sure... 10 minutes before landing.

Anyway, back to the report. 
It was a day flight, so we got no wash bag, which was really disappointing. Anyway, amoungst the screeches, dinner was served. For God's sake, give the brats some brandy!

I think it was some type of chicken stuff.

I didn't gag, and neither did Momster, so the meal couldn't have been that bad. The brats continued to scream. I took solice in watching The Lone Ranger on the in-flight entertainment system. It was a cute movie. Totally didn't deserve all the bad press.

Amerula was served again, and again, I didn't mind it.

I must have dozed off at some point. Because mom said that they walked around serving some type of cheese roll thing. I missed that.

About 2 hours before landing it was tea time. This meant sandwiches and some type of  mousse stuff.

Now I just spent 10 whole days in the UK. I've had enough tea to yellow titanium dentures. So I ask you... WHY IS THIS TEA DISGUSTING?  I don't get it. VA is obviously sponsored by Amerula, they would have to be to be able to shell out so much of it. So why can't a mega-British institution like VA get decent tea?

Twinings? Tetly? Even the hated Tazo is better than this swill. I kinda want to write a letter to VA in the vein of this guy:

Best complaint letter EVER

We landed without instance in yes, complete silence. Always the case... Always.

We waited by the curb to be picked up watching some Chinese guy get a ticket for either speeding though the terminals, blocking lanes or whatever. Either way he ran from the Airport police. So he got got.

We finally got picked up and brought home. This was waiting for me:

And all was right with the world.

SUP, DIX

SUP, DIX



Day 10. Last day in Wales. Awww... 

We were late going down to breakfast because a Miss Marple mystery was on tv. Whut?

We got down the stairs and into the dining room around 8:30.
I ordered the fruit plate, mom ordered a bacon sandwich. The guy, 'Roger' audibly gagged when she asked for margarine. It was quite the chuckle.

Edie Baby's bacon samm

Anyway, Edie Baby changed her order to bacon sandwich with mustard on toast. She loved it. LOVED IT!

Fruit plate with yoghurt

We spent the morning wandering about the little castle town taking pictures and buying stupid trinkets. I bought a passport case that says UK on it. 

Passport cover

Mom bought a Welsh Dragon mug. I'll spare you the massive amounts of pix and only post a few.

Castle Tower

Castle Piece

Castle Wall 

Castle Town

We walked around and took a bunch of pics of the castle and the town inside the castle walls. We also bought chips 
and Diet Coke.

Church in Castle Town

We ran out of time playing tourist, so we had to get back to the B and B, settle the bill and get brought to the train station.

We took the Virgin Train all the way from Bangor to Euston Station. I'm pretty sure I dozed off at one point. 

From Euston Station, we took another cab to the hotel. Of course we were standing by the 'limited mobility' taxi rank. NO ONE stopped for us. NO ONE. I don't know if you need a train station dude with you or what, but NO ONE would stop. That sucked a whole lot. So, we had to hobble our way around to the other taxi rank. 

We checked back into the Bloomsbury Holiday Inn. As I said, we're nothing if not loyal. And in keeping with that loyalty, guess where we dined? You got it:

Yeah, woo!

And this is what we had:

Aubergine Burger!

I think it would have been a little better without the triple carb quality, but it was still very good.

Momster of course had this: 

Cheeseburger burned to a crisp.

With the obligatory:

Onion Rings and Fries

And the ever present: 

We had a little time before the sun went down so we wandered the neighborhood.

Here are a few pix:

Time for a hot shower and a good night's rest (HA!)

And thus endeth day 10.

Neun!

Neun!



The morning was cold and slightly damp. I didn't want to get out of bed at all. In fact Haggie and I got into a little tiff over the fact I was cold. She almost lost her face, because I nearly ripped it from her skull. 

We got past that little annoyance, packed our stuff and called for a shuttle to breakfast. 

Over the night, someone had moved into the room next to us. I could hear them moving around, and I'm pretty sure they heard Momster and me arguing. Oh well.

Our last meal at Portmeirion. Brings a tear to my eye.

Full Welsh Breakfast

I was in Wales after all, so I decided to be brave and try the Full Welsh Breakfast. Sausage, bacon, mushrooms, eggs, tomato, weird potato thing and... blood pudding.

NO I DIDN'T EAT THAT CUZ IT'S GROSS!

Everything else was good though.

We checked out (sniff) and got a ride to the end of the road to wait for the bus to take us to the train station.

I tried to have a conversation with this cow, but he ignored me. Maybe he only spoke Welsh.

Waiting for the bus

Welsh people are very friendly and very helpful. They rather remind me of NOLA people in that way. Anyway, we're on the bus and inquiring of the stop to reach the train station when we're asked, "Where are you going?" "Caernarfon to see the castle." The caused an uproar. It turns out that if we got on the bus the opposite way instead of taking the train, we would have saved ourselves about 3 hours. After much debate, we decided to take the train anyway since we already bought the tickets.

The bus dropped us off with strict instructions to go to the cafe and have a tea and cake while we waited for the train. We did that.

We sat outside of the cafe with our bags, tea and cake, and what do we see? Our bus, going in the opposite direction. Everyone on it waved at us! It was really cute.

Napoleon and tea

We had about and hour and a half to kill in Porthmadog. It was a really pretty little town. 

The owner of the cake shop pointed mom to a public restroom across the street. She went over there, I stayed with the bags. I met a sweet little doggie named Jody who showed me her teeth when I asked her. She said "erp" too. Made me miss my doggies badly.

Not actually Jodi's teeth

Edie Baby returned and announced the the public facilities were immaculately clean. She was really impressed. I didn't go so I didn't get a picture.

We climbed on the train and settled in for a nice ride. The older lady across the isle helped us get our stuff on, so of course there was instant report. We learned all about her 10 children and so on and so forth. I kept quiet and looked out the window. 

I was glad we took the train, cus we did this:  

Oh snap!

Aww yeah. A train through a Castle. Woot!  It was Conwy Castle, not the one we were going to. Oh well, guess that means I have to go back.

We traveled around, back through Llandudno Junction and finally to the Bangor Station in Caernarfon. 

The lady picked us up from the station and took us on a little tour of Anglesey. I couldn't see too very much, the rain was coming down rather nicely and I was too amused watching Mothra white knuckle the door handle as the lady was slamming on her breaks and taking the turns at a breakneck speed. T'was hilarious.

Along the way we stopped off at this post office of the town nest to Caernarfon:

That's the real name!

How would you like to write that on an address everyday?


We got to the B and B. Mom was a little daunted because our room was on the 2nd floor with 12 steps to get to. She decided to put up with it after she saw our room.

And the bathroom inside.

Sideways bathroom

The rain settled a little so we went out to check out the town and have dinner. We found a place called The Black Boy.

Now... I don't know what to say about this. In the US, the place would have been shut down about 60 years ago. But hey, it's Wales and Black Boy meant a chimney sweep, so whatever.

Yes, that's a black boy in the fireplace with a pic of George Wahington over it.
You tell me!

Other decorations in the Black Boy

Our dinner was tasty. I chose the veggie ragout, mom had the aubergine. Mmmmm yums. Mom also ate the Welsh Cheese. I don't know what beast donated the milk for the cheese, but deep inside I hope it was goat or sheep or horse.

Aubergine and salad

Veggie Ragout and corn bread

I don't remember the real names for these dishes, so I improvised.

After dinner, we hobbled our way back around the corner, up the 50,000 stairs and into bed.

End of Day 9.