Trip Home

Thought I had nothing let to say but just to make the story finish as it did I have to add this tiny post.

Travel is always an adventure. You can plan carefully and then stuff just happens. 

I am grateful to  Bill and Kathryn for their invitation, encouragement and help. I am thankful for my friend and travel agent Leigh Berghane who tended to so many details and the many change in our plans. Without the transportation help of Maritza Fernandez we would have had a much slower beginning and ending of the journey. Appreciate so much our friend, Ardis Rea checking periodically our villa to be sure it was all OK.  And to the many wheelchair pushers who without their help we would have never been able to manage this journey. 

Our journey home contained a travel experience I hope nobody ever has to experience. We got up in

Ellesmere at about 4:30AM Tuesday morning- that is 11:30PM the night before at home. With great help from Kathryn, Bruce and Christopher we got off the boat and into the marina to wait. The car from Book-a-Limo arrived right on time at 6:00AM and we headed to Heathrow- a 3 hour journey. Arrived at the airport about 9:30. Hussin, our driver, helped us find one wheelchair. We were  told to say to any wheelchair pusher or Delta staff we were traveling First Class and ask to be taken directly to the Upper Wing to be checked in. Nobody knew where that was. After being checked in at the regular desk, we were taken upstairs to a waiting spot. Not sure why or what for. Through this whole journey we have encountered more staff who were in their first day or week working at the various airports. I guess it is a sign of what is happening everywhere as we slowly move back to a normal time after COVID.  

Plus Heathrow does not allow staff to accept tips at all so those folks mainly spend their time talking with each other instead of really helping....or so it seemed to me. If they thought there was a little bit of cash coming if they paid attention and helped, they might just do that. 

We spotted the entry to the Delta Lounge and Jim pushed the wheelchair and me to that entrance. It too was very disorganized but we finally got someone to help us get past that security line and into the lounge. She offered for Jim to sit down and she wold come back and get him. 

In the lounge , to my surprise, we were given a breakfast menu and were served Eggs Benedict and a Bloody Mary. Life seemed to be taking on a ray of hope. 

We got to the plane and boarded and were all settled in when the Captain announced our departure would be delayed  because of a security issue. A security person immediately boarded the plane and escorted a young man off the plane. We were then told the man had jokingly made a comment about having a bomb on the plane. Because of his thoughtless comment the protocol called for the people and all luggage and crew to deplane while security could sweep the plane to check thoroughly for a bomb. 8 people and 2 dogs came by going into the plane. 

So we were almost 4 hours late departing Heathrow causing us to miss our connection in Detroit to

Tampa. Got our bags,  went through Customs and  to a Delta agent who rebooked us on a 7:00AM flight on Wednesday. They made some sort of mistake issuing a voucher for a hotel stay and it took about 45 minutes for them to figure how to correct that. Finally got to the Wingate Hotel and into a room about 9:00 PM- which was 2:00AM on Wednesday morning in the UK. Ate a bite of dinner and went to bed at about 11:00PM

Up by 2:00AM for me and just got dressed and read. Jim got up about 4: 15 and we headed to the lobby for the 5:30 shuttle- the desk clerk had said that would be plenty of time. There was only 1 First class seat on the flight and the agent the night before had assigned it to Jim so I was a middle seat in coach class but happy to be heading home. Shuttle dropped us off and a nice man, Randy, ask if we needed help. He had one wheelchair but would get another for Jim. He said if we checked our bags we would probably miss our flight so he pushed both chairs with the luggage underneath through all the stuff at security and through the big terminal to Gate 68. We gate-checked our luggage and he took us both down to the door. So, so grateful for him.

I sat between a very huge man and a tall woman for the flight. I could see Jim is First Class getting all that lovely breakfast as I munched on graham crackers. Still glad to be headed home.

Arrived in Tampa and off the plane at 9:30AM and a wonderful guy named Joses met us with two wheelchairs, quickly got our bags and got us to a bench outside at the less busy end of the airport.

Marvelous Maritza had rearranged her work schedule so she could pick us up without our having to wait. I texted her in the cell lot and she magically appeared, loaded our luggage and off we went. We got home by 10:30...and that is 3:30 PM London time. Whole journey took 36 hours. 

BUT the visit, the boat trip, the good food, the wonderful chats and the hearty laughs  were so terrific ti was worth this wild ending!!! Now let the recovery begin. 

Whitchurch and around

 Bruce and Kathryn began the day with nearly morning walk and retuned after picking an enormous amount of wonderful blackberries. 

Kathryn then made oatmeal with brown sugar, walnuts, cranberries and blackberries. 

We all got a good laugh about the words on the box of oatmeal. "If someyin tries to gie you porridge that isn't Scott's you've every right to do yer dinger." TRANSLATION is "If someone tried to give you porridge that isn't Scott's you have every right to express your displeasure." 

Definitely a breakfast to remember and blackberries to never forget.

The younger folks walked into the nearby town of Whitchurch. There were lots of half-timber designed houses and naturally a lovely church. 

It rained so that afternoon that Olli had to get on the roff of the boat and retrieve poles and the mop that were about to wash away. Sure grateful for young agile folk.

For our last night Bruce cooked omelets which were so good. Filled with bits of all we had not eaten in the refrigerator. He is such a wonderful Chef. 

We were moored in a quiet place and after we ate Bruce played guitar- even in the rain. Perfect ending to this wonderful time from The flat on Ordnance Hill with Bill to the Dartford Warbler with Kathryn, Christopher, Olli and Bruce. 

 

We are about to come to the end of this wonderful time in the United Kingdom. We have spent 5 wonderful days with our son Bill Barnett and their cat Stella. Great conversation and marvelous food. Bill is a superb cook so we felt like we were in a fancy hotel with a AAA rated restaurant. What a gift it is to spend that much with one of our "children"- no matter how old they get your children will always be your CHILDREN. 

We were passengers on a wonderful 7 night canal boat trip on the Llangollen Canal back and forth between England Wales.
We were invited by our daughter, Kathryn, to join she, her children and her friend Bruce Kennedy.  The four of them did all the hard work as we just watched in amazement. 

Various expressions on these boats.

 After an exciting day with aqueducts and bridges, the second night we moored in Llangollen Mooring Basin.  The younger generation was off exploring the environs while we watched the activity of the spot where we were moored. Bruce did talk to a Welsh couple who totally live aboard their 65 ft canal boat. They were considering retiring and the COVID came along so they decided to just sell everything and make a move to a boat. Bill and Katherine have a friend who for different reasons decided to move to live on a canal boat. Guess you could get used to it...but it would take ne a long time. 

It is very clear the boaters express themselves with their boats. This one with the Buddha on the front and a food basket on the back was making some kind of statement but I sure have no idea what.                                                       

Many boats featured beautiful blooming plants and plants on their roofs. There were several with solar panels...but if the weather was like this most of the time I wondered how they got enough sun to even make it worth the effort.

Solar panels

We saw boats with laundry drying on the roof.  There was a boat with  a duck house beside it. Ducks were every where. Olli particularly enjoyed feeding the ducks.

My favorite was the boat with the floating garden. I guess if a person choses to live on a canal boat you need to do something to make it yours.                                            

Olli feeding the ducks

Floating Garden

Car and Pedestrian Bridge

 Christopher became quite good at jumping to the land and raising the many small bridges' Even cold and rain couldn't stop our journey because of his great work.

Bridge were clearly marked with large STOP signs so there could be no doubt of what had to be done.

This ia a small town and even a couple of the houses right by the canal have a front walk that lowers down so they can cross to solid ground.  I guess folks get accustomed to living like that. 

A car crossed the Bridge and then Christopher worked to raise it up for us to continue on.

I think it takes great courage to leap on and off the bat as Olli, Kathryn Christopher and Bruce did all the time. 

Thankfully they promised us we would just be passengers and not expected to do any of that.

I keep being amazed at how busy this canal is with many activities- mostly all  for fun.

Lots of people paddling canoes and paddle boards. Everybody friendly and helpful. 

People wave and talking and help each other a great deal!

And then just around the corner another experience.....a tunnel. 

Besides the engine, seems to me the most important piece of equipment aboard is the light in the bow to let anyone approaching the tunnel now you were about the enter the tunnel....or when you see a light coming the other way you better pull way to the side and wait your turn. 

Blogging in the Bog

 This afternoon we visited the Fenn’s Whixall & Bettisfield Mosses. It is a National Nature Preserve that straddles the the English/ Welsh border near Whitchurch, Fenn’s, Whixal and Bettisfield Mosses. It is a remarkable site of Special Scientific interest, a European area of Conservation and a Wetland of International importance.

 

At nearly 1000 areas, the Mosses are the third largest and one of the most southernly lowland raised bogs in Britain. 

 

Formed at the end of the last age in a shallow hollow flooded by melting ice sheets. The lowland raised bog was a slow growing dome of sphagnum bogmoss peat. . Bogmoss acidified the rain, water-logging the peat surface so only specialzed plants and animals survived. Dying plants, together with pollen from vegetation on and around the bogs, became “pickled” as layers of peat, forming a giant storybook of the last 12,000 years. 

 

A bronze age ax found in a layer 3,400 years old Scots pine tree sumps in the peat, and the discovery of three preserved Bronze Age and Romano-British bog bodies, tell us that people have lived and worked here for a very long time. 

 

For 500 years small case peat cutting at the edge of the mosses gradually enabled the outer areas to be turned into fields, sweetened with lime brought along the canal from Llangollen.

 

The bog was drained after he Enclosure Acts of 1777 and 1823 for this canal built in 1804 and then for the railway built in 1863.

 

During the 20^thcentury the Mosses were commandeered for military use during the World Wars, and part was planted with pine forests in the 1960. 

 

Mechanized commercial cutting of peat began in 1968, but when the rate of cutting quadrupled in 1989. The central area was acquired as a National Nature Preserve and in 1990 large-scale  cutting was brought to an end.

 

Wonderful, very unspoiled area. Kathryn, Bruce, Christopher and Olli went off walking  to go to the visitors center and viewing tower.

They returned filled with excitement for the area. 

This is an experience like we have never had before. 

 

Bumping down the Way

 

Friday was a damp and rainy day almost all day. Everyone slept long and deep. Bruce made Avocado Toast that was wonderful.  We decided to leave Llangollen and begin to explore other areas. We went back across the Pontcysyllte aqueduct. Even though the skies were cloudy the view was still spectacular. We almost immediately ran into a traffic jam and many boats. Kathryn hopped on the bow and began a conversation about our intended direction and it was all quickly solved.

What a peaceful and scenic ride. Christopher drove some of the time. His steering has gotten much better. It always amazes me when it appears we are really away from civilization that we ride beside a busy roadway with cars going by.

 

We moored for the evening at the beginning of a long tunnel. Kathryn, Bruce and Olli decided to walk up the hill to a Bistro on the edge of town. Someone they talked to recommended it to them. 

Christopher, Jim and I divide into three pieces the three pies Kathryn had bought in town. We had bacon & brie, steak and cheddar, and steak and ale. We each had a piece on all three and did a taste test. Actually we couldn't tell much difference in taste- just texture.  

Jim at the salon table

Bruce made Mojitos which were delicious.  We did have fun listening to Christopher’s impressions of life at Boston College.

 

The Castle Bistro diners returned about 10:00PM and we chatted a little, and they were off again to explore the tunnel in the dark. Not something we wanted to do. Their mission was to find some snails and they found some really big ones. 

 

It is now 8:30AM on Saturday morning. Olli and Jim are still sleeping. Christopher, Bruce and Kathryn are off for a walk to see an 13th century castle. We have tickets in the morning for some sort of short extra step-lock. Not sure what that means,  so we’ll see when we see when we see it. When we reached the lock the actual opening time was 9-12 and it was about 12:35. So we will see how the schedule gets adjusted for later today and tomorrow. 

 

 

Thursday and some of Friday

 

After the thrilling first part of our travels on Tuesday afternoon, we then crossed the aqueducts at Clink and Pontcysyllte. Both of them are actually metal troughs across the top of the masonry aqueducts. If you looks very close you can see me waving as we were crossing.Certainly that is a unique approach to travel. The views were amazing.

We first crossed the Chirk Aqueduct which was opened in 1801 and is 722 feet long and 69 feet high. 

Pontcysyllte is the tallest and longest aqueduct in Great Britain. It was designed by the civil engineer Thomas Telford and was completed in 1805. 

The name means in Welsh "Bridge of Cysyllte- a township in the Llangollen parish. 

   We have gone from highest heat to weather that I think is more normal.

The aqueducts were slow going but great fun. The river below had rapids and at other spots we saw kayakers.

Later in the day we motored into Llangollen Basin and moored for the night. Incredible fish and chips were delivered to us by Christopher while they waited for their dinner.

Next morning they all headed out to ride the Llangollen Railroad. The building of the line was completed in 1862 much later than anticipated. Vast numbers of people were employed to finish the work, but in spite of their working on Sundays (to the disgust of the locals- the bad winter of 1860 brought the work to a halt.

The  first passenger train arrived on June 2, 1862. The line closed to passenger traffic in 1965 and to goods in 1968 and the station and tracks were left to fall into a ruinous state.Fortunately local enthusiasts came to its rescue and they now operate steam and diesel trains over 8 miles the direction of 8 miles toward Corwen. The Motor Museum but unfortunately it was not open this day. They also operate a working 1950's car  garage.

Kathryn and Bruce continued on to hike to Castell Dinas Bran, the ruins of the Castle built for Eliseg, Prince of Powys. The town know as Bran, which can be seen from the waterway while approaching the town, was thought to have been have built this original fortification by a Prince named Bran following a dispute with
his brother Beli. He later burned it down. It is thought also to have connections with the Holy Grail. The visible remains are from the late13th century. 

We are going through a really narrow spot. Got grounded and had to all move to the bow to get unstuck. The Dartford Warbler itself has a small. galley where Bruce is able to turn out a wonderful breakfast of soft boiled eggs over salted onions, peppers and potatoes with cheese. Yum!!

The Galley

Wonderful Breakfast

Beds- 18" wide

Beds are small but comfy and the bathrooms have all you need. There is a small double size bed and four twin beds. There are two bathrooms. Closet doors open out to create sort of rooms between the three sets of bed. There is space to sit on the bow and the stern but it has been way to chilly and rainy for us to do that. 

Bathroom has a shower

Tomorrow will also be rainy and cold so we have altered our plans to see more area in a slightly different canal. As we bump down the way moving steadily ahead I find myself thinking canal boating is a great metaphor for life. You have a plan but you never know what's around the bend and how plans might need to quickly change. 

There are huge blackberry bushes along the way that are not yet offering about to be ripe blackberries so someone will have the benefits. We have the great benefits of family, laughter, cards, food and lovely sights along the way.