Neyland, Pembrokeshire, Wales: 19 July 2016
Day 19

Headed to Dale to go for a sail but the wind had picked up and they weren't letting any boats go out.  That was probably ok with Justin as he had already voiced some apprehension knowing that he couldn't depend on Mimi and me for any assistance in the crew department.

We headed toward the long beach we visited yesterday (Pebble Beach), but when I saw the sign for Marloes Beach, I suggested we head there instead.  We had heard about this beach from another local earlier...another award winning beach.  It was perfect and perhaps my favorite Welsh beach to date.  We had to park and then walk down to the shore.  The rocks jutted out making multiple coves that allowed for privacy and seclusion rather than a long, long uninterrupted beach.  We played on the shore a bit then Gemma and Justin went to swim.  Or rather, Justin took Gemma out.  She was miserable.  She is not a water-hound.  When they came back we all  started walking down the beach.  At some point I told Justin I was turning around because the tide was coming in.  He and Gemma kept going out and of course, I started to fret.  All back together we headed back up the hill to get back to the car.  A quick stop at the house before dinner so Justin could get his meds before dinner at the Horse and Jockey.  I had a lamb shank that was to die for; Mimi had a steak and Justin had sea bass.  Mimi and I had chips and not surprisingly, we all had peas.  Everything they say about food in Britain is true.
Today was a fabulous day.  Very warm with great sunshine.  It was a perfect day for the beach.

Neyland, Pembrokeshire, Wales: 18 July 2016
Day 18

Justin really doesn't feel well.  We went to the pharmacist this morning to get something to help.  He is pressing through but I know he feels puny.  We headed off westward toward St David's Cathedral today.  The roads are ubber narrow and the fences along the sides are covered with bushes.  I call them "haystacks" and even though there are wire fences under all the brush, they are a lot more forgiving than the stone walls I remember in Ireland. Today we drove through lots of haystacks.  I was driving and doing ok until in the middle of one of these haystacks, I met an oncoming tour bus.  I pulled over as far as I could, but the driver said there was no way he could make it.  Remember I am driving Lorayne's car and it has left hand drive.  I backed up a good two hundred yards in the haystack before we came to a space wide enough for us both to pass.  Good thing I am ok in reverse.
 
St David is the patron saint of Wales.  Situated in the most westerly part of Wales, the cathedral was built in the 9th century.  (How do they know that?  Really?  How do they know?).  The story goes that William the conqueror visited St David's to pray in 1081 and then in the 1100s the Pope decreed that two visits to St David equaled one visit to Rome... Thus the pilgrimage site was firmly established.  Mimi and I roamed a bit through both the ruins of the Bishops palace as well as through the refurbished church and the small town on this beautiful sunny afternoon.  

Inside the basilica at St David's

 I've read that a basilica can be so named because either the construction is such that the hulking has two naves and I've read that it is a basilica because the pope visited.  Both appear to be true according to Wikipedia.  In St David's , I learned that a cathedral is so named because it is the seat of the bishop.  So far, I haven't read anything to make me question that so I am going with it.
After getting the check mark in the church box for the day, we headed to the beach.  Pebble Beach, on the shore of the Celtic Sea, is a very long, sloping sandy beach.  Mimi and Justin and I walked and walked.  Gemma is ok with the beach, but she doesn't really like the water.  She ran and ran and was quite a happy pooch.  We were all very eager to soak in the sunshine.
Back to Dale for dinner at The Griffin Inn.  Mimi was especially pleased with her fish option given her gluten-free requirements.  We enjoyed the beautiful weather even more by sitting outside on the upper deck.
 

 

Neyland, Pembrokeshire, Wales: 17July 2016
Day 17

Mimi, our friend from Kaiserslautern, arrived today.  She'll be here for about four days.  Like Justin and me, Mimi is also at a juncture in life where everything is changing.  She has resigned from her faculty/staff/advisor position in Clinical Social Work with Salisbury University/University of Maryland and will now be traveling-adjunct faculty.  For Mimi, this means she shows up on weekends every couple of months to teach and in the meantime, she can live anywhere.  With her ailing mom in London, she'll have the UK as a springboard for her exciting and robust travel plans.
After I picked up Mimi from the train station in nearby Milford Haven, we went home to get Justin and then headed for a drive and then a walk along the Coastal Path at Barafundle Beach.  Our AirBnb host, Ian, indicated this area was "almost like a resort."  We weren't sure what that meant and we didn't see it when we got there but there was no question that the area was beautiful.  Gemma also enjoyed the outing.  She got some time off lead and while she usually stays close by, she took the opportunity to take off after some birds.  She went way too far for my comfort level and stayed gone way too long.  Doesn't she know she is a little princess dog and is supposed to be sitting on a silk pillow?

Neyland, Pembrokeshire, Wales: 16 July 2016
Day 16

We awoke to a rainy, cold, gloomy weather today so it was ever so easy to stay in bed.  Our flat is in an old building that the owners are refurbishing a bit at a time.  They have a permanent tenant on the first floor and our flat on the third and fourth.  They are working on readying the second floor and then they will start to work on the second half of the building that seems to mirror this half.  They have their work cut out for them. 

Justin's cold is getting the better of him but he is trying to be a trouper.  I worked on paperwork while he tried to get better.  I am continuing my challenge with USPS to change our address.  Seems that in order to change your address from an APO/FPO address, you must have a .mil or a .gov email address and I have neither.  And, the only way to change your address is to do it online.  I started this process before we left Germany with no success.  The battle continues.  Dellene is handling our mail for now, but I know that is a huge burden.  There are several mail services that will notify you and then you get them to scan, forward or delete.  I think we will check into that after we get back to the states.
I also worked on getting this journal into a format where I can share.  I think I created a blog this morning but as yet, I haven't figured our how to share it... small steps.
We went to the local grocery store this afternoon and bought a rotisserie chicken and fresh green beans and broccoli for dinner.  The fresh fruit was oh, so tempting.  Cherries, apricots, strawberries and bananas all found their way home with us.  We watched "Teacher's Pet" this evening ...a Doris Day / Clark Gable b/w oldie.  I am totally taking advantage of this time ... and loving it!

Neyland, Pembrokeshire, Wales: 15 July 2016
Day 15

When I awoke this morning Justin greeted me with "it's Friday!"  While that is how I have started most Friday's for the last two years, today was totally different.  Mainly because I didn't already know the day but more importantly, because I didn't need to know the day. 
Justin's fighting a cold so it was a very slow day.  The weather is rather cold and nasty so it was fine and ok to hang.  I did manage to go down to the laundromat to do our laundry.  How long has it been since I have done that?  (Uncle Harold needs to know that one regular top-loading washer costs £3 and the dryer costs 20p for 3 minutes, 45 seconds.)  I had to go to the grocery store twice and to the pharmacy once to get the correct change... I will be better prepared next time.
We went to the Neyland Yacht Center next door for dinner.  We were the only people in the dining room.  I felt like the kids were from a culinary arts class and they were practicing their newly learned serving skills.  I must add however that I've never had a view like this from a classroom or from an O'Club.

With our Apple TV connected, we are settling in to the next season of Suits.  It is so nice not to have to be worried about too much at all.  Justin and I are contemplating setting up the Green Bay house.  I have been uncertain about not having a base and I certainly have angst about spending any significant amount of time with Jordan and Chris when we are in Green Bay.  I don't want to impose.  We are also talking about the possibility of asking Jordan and Chris to build a pole-barn at the cottage and store all our Green Bay treasures there rather than in a storage unit.  We learned that the containers are roughly 7'x7'x3.5'.  We have four containers going to Green Bay and seven headed to Texas.  Of course, we also have the treasures that have been in storage in Texas since forever.  Too many decisions.

Neyland, Pembrokeshire, Wales: 14 July 2016
Day 14

After a slow start (and I am really liking that part), we went for a drive toward the town of Dale.  We did take a walk along about two miles of the Welsh Coastal Path.  We found an isolated beach where I found a few pieces of beach glass.  We also met a kid along the way who works at the nearby environmental think/study tank.  He told us that the fortifications we were seeing were Napoleonic, so actually, they were rather new.  At our rate of two miles a day, and allowing for rain, Justin figures we might get it all done by the time he is about 150 years old.

Back in the town of Dale, we were tempted to stop for an early dinner at the award winning Griffin Inn.  Drinks on the roof first and then downstairs where Justin had a fabulous lobster carbonara and I chose a more traditional steak and stout pie.  It was easy to understand why this restaurant has been named the best in Wales for two years in a row.  Dinner started with a toasted goat cheese with a beet and onion chutney and was rounded out with a chocolate knickerbocker...a decadent ice cream fancy -- yummy!

Neyland, Pembrokeshire, Wales: 13 July 2016
Day 13

The most pressing thing I needed to do today was to walk Gemma and to connect the Apple TV.  Justin and I will be here for 16 nights so we have a chance to get settled and breathe.  We really haven't had any down time since Jim left in April.
We went for a walk and explored in our new environs.  We had fish and chips for a very late lunch or very early dinner... it is nice not to be confined to the clock!  For so long, if a bell rang, I either started doing something or stopped doing it.  Then, when I left the classroom, the work never stopped because one school year just flowed into the next.  When we arrived in Neyland, for the first time since 30 June, I thought about my work email.  It kinda jumped up and caught me by surprise.  I thought about how nice it had been to be away, but now I needed to get back to my email.  I think it is because I've been looking forward to being settled here for a few weeks and perhaps I was thinking that vacation was over.  Who knows, but thankfully, it passed pretty quickly.  Maybe now I really do get a chance to learn to breathe.  And this is the perfect place to do it.  Lots of places to walk -- The Welsh Coastal path is over 140 miles of hiking trails and out view from our flat overlooks the harbor and estuary.  Justin can't wait to go check out the boats!

Neyland, Pembrokeshire, Wales: 12 July 2016

Day 12
The southward drive today from Liverpool to Pembroke was slated to be only about four hours so we chose the "shortest route" on the GPS.  Lots of twisty, turns roads that we might have avoided had we been on the "fastest route" but our scenic route led us the King Arthur's Labyrinth". Not exactly a Disneyland experience, but perhaps too close.  An old slate mine has been turned into a dark-ages-like locale full of myth, legend and tale.  I found it interesting in that there is a bit of difference in the tales of King Arthur as told by the Welsh. Next, on to Excalibur?

Ian, Katy's partner, met us to welcome us to our AirBnB: our home for the next 16 nights or so.  Fresh flowers, coffee, milk and Welsh tea cakes were ready for us.  The flat is on the third and fourth floors of a quite old building.  The Neyland Yacht Club is next door and the view from the back of the flat is of Pembroke Dock on the opposite side of the estuary.  Justin and I chose this location to be close to the water.  Ian told us of several nearby restaurants and promised to bring by more information tomorrow.  Justin and I got most of our "stuff" upstairs before we headed out for a dinner of Indian food.
There was a time when we thought we'd be fine sleeping in a twin bed, but now, in a double bed, with Gemma too, there just isn't room for our arms.

Liverpool, England: 11 July 2016
Day 11
To quote Justin, we are "...off to see where the boys got their start."  We got tickets to go to The Beatles Story.  We arrived in Liverpool after about three and half hours drive.  We stopped along the way to get gas and have brunch.  Justin found a cover for his phone.  He's been carrying it around in a little travel bag of mine since we couldn't find a case yet.  One of the salespeople we talked to along the way shared that he had carried his new phone around in a sock for the first few weeks.

The Beatles Story was great.  We spent a bit under three hours looking at memorabilia from Hamburg, from the Cavern Club, the Ed Sullivan Show, and all points beyond.  The really did a good job of capturing the times as well as the story.

We had a funky little hotel room at the IBIS Styles Liverpool Center.  Everything in this city is Beatles.  I pity the poor soul who was born here but doesn't like Beatles music... but then, too bad for them.  We had dinner is a very traditional British Pub.  Both Justin and I opted for burgers rather than more traditional fare.

♫Ob-la-di, Ob-la-da...da-da-da-da, life goes on ♫ ... and isn't it grand! ♩

Motherwell, Scotland: 10 July 2016
Day 10
 

With a start to the day in the Scottish Highlands, we are ending our day just south of Glasgow.  We left our quaint hotel after a hearty Scottish breakfast (eggs, baked beans, grilled tomatoes, mushrooms, but no kippers for me) and headed to Culloden Battle field.  This was a sizeable museum with impressive multi-media displays.  They displayed the government views on the left side of the walls with the Jacobite views on the rights. 
I focused on the doomed Jacobites: over 1000 rebels died in The Rising while only about 300 Hanovarians met the same fate.   "Outlander" has served to heighten my awareness and my curiosity about this part of the world and this time in Scotland (1746).  

Our afternoon route  out of Scotland and back to England on The SOUTH served as a counterpoint to our journey from London to Edinburgh when we travelled on The NORTH. We travelled alongside Loch Ness and Loch Lomand.  I was driving when we spotted a castle a bit off-shore that was very reminiscent of the one used in Outlander.  Not the same one, but worthy of a photo-op nonetheless.  

Jim said for years that I wasn't worthy to go to Scotland.  Well guess what ... I am here now.