Going with the flow…

Along with “Broadening our Horizons” as the boys like to sarcastically quote, we are also trying to go with the flow of the trip, be more relaxed, and have more fun as a family. In that spirit, we have decided to rethink the itinerary a bit and delete a few places. Like all of Ireland. And Northern Ireland.

Don’t get me wrong, they are lovely places. But there are a myriad of reasons why staying in Great Britain makes sense on this leg of the trip:

• The boys have decided that they are really enjoying the scenery and aren’t super excited to leave
• We would all like to travel just a bit slower as the ‘new-town-every-day’ method is exhausting
• The ferry back and forth to Ireland is approximately $350 — EACH WAY
• I can get refunds on all but $50 of the rooms I have reserved and/or paid for in Ireland and Northern Ireland
• I can get FREE rooms here in the England for those same days using Marriott Bonvoy points
• The extra car insurance legally required to take our rental would’ve been several hundred more
• We purchased an Overseas Visitors pass to English Heritage and I am determined to get our money’s worth out of it! (To be fair, we already have- they cost £87 and after 4 sites we have gotten £115 out of it, so far.) It is valid until the 23^rd, though and we would’ve been gone for 8 of those days. We have seen things that we otherwise might not have, and it has been the best investment we have made on this trip.
• We have spent more in unexpected expenses than we ever thought possible (yeah, yeah, I know they call them UNEXPECTED expenses for a reason, right?) but we still have several months to go, so if we can cheerfully cut corners somewhere, that must be a good thing, right?

So, instead of seeing Ireland this time we are going to consolidate our time in Wales and spend 8 more days seeing the center of England. I would love to spend more time down on the southern coast or in Cornwall, as well, but there is just not enough time to see it all.

We have seen Dartmouth Castle and Tintagel which we probably would not have and both are experiences I would not trade. Tintagel may be the most beautiful place I have ever seen and I would move to that village tomorrow and spend every day haunting those cliffs, if I could only figure out how to finance it! Anyone have any King Arthur-themed business ideas? Any start-up capital they want to lend?

The driving adventures continue. I drove down single lane roads that would have wide spots to pass about every 100 yards or so. If you met a car anywhere in-between, someone had to back up.

The roads went on for miles and the hedges you see in the photo are NOT hedges… they are earthenworks. These didn’t just grow up on the edges of centuries old roads- they were built this way ON PURPOSE! If you hit one you are going to severely damage your car. The locals FLY down them. The speed limits here are insane anyway. The narrow country roads where there are roundabouts every half mile have 60 and 70 mile speed limits between. I am consistently driving 15 miles an hour UNDER the speed limit and it still feels like we are going too fast.

The road signs remain strange…

In explanation, “Cat’s Eyes” are the reflectors that some roads have down the center and they have been removed from several area roads for expected repaving… I REALLY think they could’ve found a better way to word that. Ian says he’s going to have nightmares for weeks.

Rob is going to write the next installment. We are spending 3 days in Wales- one night in a camping pod in Southern Wales and two more up the coast in a mountain chalet.

He loved Wales last time and has been looking forward to this portion.

Until next time! Wish us luck!