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Fasten your seatbelts it's going to be a fun ride

Monday, October 14, 2019

Wales and a fond farewell to the UK

Wales.
The last country.
And one more 'unimpressive' stone circle. 
Ha!

Getting used to a new GPS can be frustrating.
When I set up a series of stops....it's not any good at saying when I've made it to the first stop. 
So I rode right by this thing.
I was so laser focused on avoiding hitting all the distracted people crossing the road, parking, wandering, reading their stupid smart phones. 
Gee....you would have thought I'd realize I was in a tourist spot. 
Ya know, near a famous thing like a stone circle...

Nope. 
Went right by it...until a voice said in my helmet...you just rode right by it!


Great photo of the sky.
I just loved the cloudy skies. 
It was ok that it rained on me nearly every day.
Just to get this gorgeous dramatic stunning sky.


This was a BIG circle!





I first noticed this in Scotland. 
I saw something glowing and sort of "lite-brite"ish in the cabs of lorries. 
They are called lorries in Scotland.
Anyhoo...see it?


The glowy thing?
Dylan was the drivers name.
I want one for my 68 Cougar XR7.


On to the 'highest pub in England'.
Tan Hill Inn.
At first I wanted to stay here.
But it was kinda nasty. 
Dark.
Dirty.
Crowded.
Pfffttt...even the fish n chips were only OK.

\
The dog menu looked better.


They did have the requisite wall of weird signs.


This is what really caught my attention.
At one time you could sleep in these weird things.


Yep. 
Another ruined castle. 
Sick of them yet?


On one of our obscure, remote backroads, we passed a graveyard.
This cross caught my eye and warranted a U turn.
I SUCK at U turns on these little narrow, blind turn roads. 
Especially with the snot grass in the middle. 


Cute courtyard.
Wish I had kept going and not stopped in this town for lunch.
The only place open was mobbed with old guys on their bicycles.
And they could not get my order right no matter what I said. 
Even King Bob had to agree that this time it was not my fault!


I loved these owls.
They are wood.
King Bob really can't take a straight photo?!?!


Conwy.
Walled city.
Got there early....from quite possibly the nastiest airbnb yet.
After we finally found it....wished we wouldn't have. 
It was an unparalled level of nasty, smelly, guy sweat, cat urine, crusty dry food, 
nasty "farmhouse" and it cost as much as the prior amazing farmhouse stay.
Sheesh.


So made up for it with finding the fanciest place in town.
For the fanciest breakfast possible.


Had the place to ourselves.
Everyone else was still sleeping.
Not us, we couldn't wait to leave the nasty place.
I feel better already. Phew...got that off my mind.


Beautiful old buildings.


Cute marina. 


Just loved how the new modern town sprouted up around the original stone fortifications.


Forgot to mention this before but since no one, (well maybe except drug dealers who can't afford burner phones), use actual phone booths anymore, they have been turned into defibrillators. 
I still can't say that word. 
But I can type it. 
Just don't ask me to say it. 
That and Worcester sauce. 


Yep, another moody, wet sky. 


Here I am trying again to get the country flag photo.


2nd time....


3rd time....deleted the other dozen. 
Never did get a decent photo.


And the smallest house in Great Britain.



Just how small?
Insert Nancy for perspective. 


Remember that small rant about attaching things?
Took this funicular thingy where, ahem, someone left behind their camera bag. 


View.


Going up.


And up....


At the top.


This little house was quite enjoyable.
Nothing special. 
Except no cat piss smell.
Or stinky farmboy smell.
Or saggy mattress.
Or bathroom with non functioning sink.
Yeah, still reeling from that last night. 


Cozy room.


View of the babies from my window.


Those closest to me understand my utter love of Looney Tunes.
One of my favorites is "Deduce, you say" with Daffy Duck.
My favorite character...

So when I saw we were close to Shropshire...well we HAD to find a sign and pull out my knife.
The Shropshire Slasher!



Then we found the devil's bridge.
Which was in fact, three bridges from different periods.
Built one on top of each other. 
Nope. We won't pay to go down stairs to see it closer. 


Nope I'll be happy with this photo of not quite sure what...


Wales was a country of pretty rolling hills and farmland.


Took this photo multiple times as the sun and clouds moved and changed the color.




We'd come along this ridge by chance the day before.
It was so lovely, I wanted to make sure we saw it again.
This time without the rain.


Stumbled on a lot of cool stuff.
I got a bit lazy in my trip planning when I got to the 3rd week.
That's OK. 
Found some great stuff. 





Found this beautiful area.







Three dams.



Last photo.
The rest was too sad....It was the end of the ride.
I had one last ferry back to Ireland to bring my precious Tiger back and sell it.
And say goodbye to King Bob. 

But....I would see Arka in London a couple days later.
Where we would then go back to Scotland and see Glencoe again.
Visit Edinburgh and Inverness (which I skipped) and one last walk through Culloden together.
So all ended well. No injuries. Some lingering moldy smell from all the rain.
Some happy gin bottles and one last fish and chips.
This time....I didn't choke on the little tiny bone when I found it.

Farewell.