While the saga to get to the apartment we rented in Bath was drama filled, I can honestly say it was worth the struggle. Perfect location, perfect size, excellent water pressure and radiant heat in the bathroom floor.
We slept with the windows open as it was a perfect 60 degrees outside. The amount of sea gulls in Bath is almost equal to the amount of sheep in Wales. A lot. They made their laughing noise all night long and surprisingly, I didn't feel like hunting them! It was cute and nearly endearing but I had not forgiven nor forgotten that one of their brethren made multiple attempts to steam my Cornish Meat Pie.
After my appropriately pressured shower, I got dressed and packed up as much as I could with out waking Mrs Koog and the kids Koog. I blogged and checked work email (don't judge me) and sat in our apartment enjoying the sounds of 3 snoring Koogs, laughing Seagulls and the dragging of barricades across the street we were staying on to re-close it for the day. Apparently, the road is open sometime between Midnight and 6am. Mrs. Koog joined me for tea about 30 mins after my shower. She also enjoyed the cacophony of sounds, including the snoring duo in the next room.
After 2 trips to the car to bring our stuff, we headed out of Bath and pointed our car toward North Wales. But a Petrol Station stop was first as the oil light came on again. All that know me know there are 2 indisputable truths about me:
1. I know nothing about cars and would seriously buy a new car than do any auto maintenance. 2. I do not get my hands dirty. That's not a euphamism, I really loathe dirty hands.
Apparently, we were down almost a quart oil! Not so happy with our friends at Alamo, but we trek on.
I fear a theme is developing on this vacation around driving. This time, it was not an inaccessable apartment but traffic. I was led to believe there were more sheep than people in Wales. Unless those sheep have opposable thumbs and a car loan, I don't believe it. As we approached the boader of England/Wales at Oswestry, the road was clogged with traffic. Like DC style traffic. Our SatNav, like Mrs. Koog, does not like to stray off plan once one is set, so it did nothing to reroute us. Come to think of it, maybe after rerouting yesterday and the offensive names I called it, the SatNav wasn't going out of its way for us.
Lucky for Mrs. Koog, I had a map! Unlucky for Mrs. Koog I am not only dyslexic but also color deficient so navigating by map is not really a core skill. But we trek on.
After a few loops in the same roundabout (those are great for keeping in motion while the navigator learns to read a map and find the next move) we exited on a local road and were on our way.
Detours are sometimes the best and in this case it was. We traveled through several small towns, including Oswestry to Chirk where we caught the right highway to Wrexham. Beautiful detour.
We arrived in Wrexham around 2pm. Passed all the "familiar" sites, Racecourse Ground Staduim and The Turf, on our way to Ty Pawb (People's House). It's like a market/art facility that has different vendors and food stands. I was on a mission to find the Pie'd Pie'pr. Everyday I follow this guy and his meat pies (oggies in the LLangollen area). The steak and Wrexham Lager pie was the one I had been wanting for months. After a close call with a biker (their fault) and nearly wiping out a few parked cars in the overly narrow parking garage (their fault) we arrive at Ty Pawb.
I see the map of where the Pie'd Pie'pr is located and make a beeline because I am excited and STARVING. Much to my disappointment and the disappointment of the entire Koog family we are denied. The Pie'd Pie'pr is closed. I immediately assume I've misread the FB page so I recheck. Nope. Should be open until 4. Denied my meat pie, but still optimistic, I head to the other place I've been following Wrexham Trainer Revival (WTR).
The kids and I have been looking at WTR's page for months. They have revived Adidas Gazelle and Samba styles in Football themes and colors. The sneakers are incredible but nothing in my size. I have giant feet for someone of my height, but small feet for the majority of the population in Wales. It seems WTR doesn't revive anything in a Men's 7.5. But I did get a Welsh National Football Jersey and a cool Wrexham shirt with vintage jerseys on a clothes line. (It sounds not cool, but it's cool).
Then we walk through the Wrexham city center toward Y Cae Ras. Sorry, slipped into Welsh... We headed to the Racecourse Ground statium where the newly promoted to ESL League 2 Wrexham Red Dragons play. The city center is so quaint and lovely. People are friendly. Just an overall nice, non tourist-y place.
We arrive hungry and head directly to The Turf. Cool pub. Really nice bartender (not the owner). They don't serve 2 things that were critical to us food and Wrexham Lager, the later was really of importance to me as the little Koogs at 12 don't drink. Still starving, I opt for a Guinness and 3 half pints of coke for the non-beer drinkers. We were sitting under a TV that had on the strangest version of music videos I've ever seen. We took our picture in various places in the pub then headed to the Wrexham store. The store was cool and much cheaper than the online version. We escaped with less than $200USD.
Still hungry and bordering on hangry, we walk back to the center of town to find food. Initially found a nice pub that served traditional pub food. B-Koog, a teatotaler in training apparently, refused. "You cannot take me to a bar, it's illegal." As nice as I could be in my hangered state I explained that a pub was a bar and little Koogs are allowed before 6. I also told him the next place we found, even if it was a gentleman's club, we were going in and finding food. He agreed.
The next place we found, also a pub, was called The Horse and Jockey. Food and drink. Yes and Yes! 3 fish and chips and a burger for E-Koog. We met the nicest guys there where I was able to have a proper football conversation. They did laugh at me for being an Everton fan. I laughed at the man called "Chelsea" for his dedication to the team of the same name. The one man, not Chelsea, was impressed my knowledge of Welsh Premier teams. He also showed us a picture of his wife's legs with a heat rash from her recent cruise around Italy.
After saying good bye to our new friends, we headed toward Conwy. We drove by the castle. Holy crap it's amazing. Through streets more narrow than Bath that took us to a underpass that was like the eye of a needle. In true Koog navigation, in between yelling "stay left" I told Mrs. Koog to turn left. Looks like that was a parking lot and not the street where our house is located. After a 60 point turn, we got out and found our place. On the most narrow street I've ever seen. On the steepest hill. With street parking only.
Mrs. Koog rocked it and parked it. And there we stayed until tomorrow.
I am in love with North wales.
Be kind when reading and finding errors, I'm dyslexic (not kidding) and super tired!
We slept with the windows open as it was a perfect 60 degrees outside. The amount of sea gulls in Bath is almost equal to the amount of sheep in Wales. A lot. They made their laughing noise all night long and surprisingly, I didn't feel like hunting them! It was cute and nearly endearing but I had not forgiven nor forgotten that one of their brethren made multiple attempts to steam my Cornish Meat Pie.
After my appropriately pressured shower, I got dressed and packed up as much as I could with out waking Mrs Koog and the kids Koog. I blogged and checked work email (don't judge me) and sat in our apartment enjoying the sounds of 3 snoring Koogs, laughing Seagulls and the dragging of barricades across the street we were staying on to re-close it for the day. Apparently, the road is open sometime between Midnight and 6am. Mrs. Koog joined me for tea about 30 mins after my shower. She also enjoyed the cacophony of sounds, including the snoring duo in the next room.
After 2 trips to the car to bring our stuff, we headed out of Bath and pointed our car toward North Wales. But a Petrol Station stop was first as the oil light came on again. All that know me know there are 2 indisputable truths about me:
1. I know nothing about cars and would seriously buy a new car than do any auto maintenance. 2. I do not get my hands dirty. That's not a euphamism, I really loathe dirty hands.
Apparently, we were down almost a quart oil! Not so happy with our friends at Alamo, but we trek on.
I fear a theme is developing on this vacation around driving. This time, it was not an inaccessable apartment but traffic. I was led to believe there were more sheep than people in Wales. Unless those sheep have opposable thumbs and a car loan, I don't believe it. As we approached the boader of England/Wales at Oswestry, the road was clogged with traffic. Like DC style traffic. Our SatNav, like Mrs. Koog, does not like to stray off plan once one is set, so it did nothing to reroute us. Come to think of it, maybe after rerouting yesterday and the offensive names I called it, the SatNav wasn't going out of its way for us.
Lucky for Mrs. Koog, I had a map! Unlucky for Mrs. Koog I am not only dyslexic but also color deficient so navigating by map is not really a core skill. But we trek on.
After a few loops in the same roundabout (those are great for keeping in motion while the navigator learns to read a map and find the next move) we exited on a local road and were on our way.
Detours are sometimes the best and in this case it was. We traveled through several small towns, including Oswestry to Chirk where we caught the right highway to Wrexham. Beautiful detour.
We arrived in Wrexham around 2pm. Passed all the "familiar" sites, Racecourse Ground Staduim and The Turf, on our way to Ty Pawb (People's House). It's like a market/art facility that has different vendors and food stands. I was on a mission to find the Pie'd Pie'pr. Everyday I follow this guy and his meat pies (oggies in the LLangollen area). The steak and Wrexham Lager pie was the one I had been wanting for months. After a close call with a biker (their fault) and nearly wiping out a few parked cars in the overly narrow parking garage (their fault) we arrive at Ty Pawb.
I see the map of where the Pie'd Pie'pr is located and make a beeline because I am excited and STARVING. Much to my disappointment and the disappointment of the entire Koog family we are denied. The Pie'd Pie'pr is closed. I immediately assume I've misread the FB page so I recheck. Nope. Should be open until 4. Denied my meat pie, but still optimistic, I head to the other place I've been following Wrexham Trainer Revival (WTR).
The kids and I have been looking at WTR's page for months. They have revived Adidas Gazelle and Samba styles in Football themes and colors. The sneakers are incredible but nothing in my size. I have giant feet for someone of my height, but small feet for the majority of the population in Wales. It seems WTR doesn't revive anything in a Men's 7.5. But I did get a Welsh National Football Jersey and a cool Wrexham shirt with vintage jerseys on a clothes line. (It sounds not cool, but it's cool).
Then we walk through the Wrexham city center toward Y Cae Ras. Sorry, slipped into Welsh... We headed to the Racecourse Ground statium where the newly promoted to ESL League 2 Wrexham Red Dragons play. The city center is so quaint and lovely. People are friendly. Just an overall nice, non tourist-y place.
We arrive hungry and head directly to The Turf. Cool pub. Really nice bartender (not the owner). They don't serve 2 things that were critical to us food and Wrexham Lager, the later was really of importance to me as the little Koogs at 12 don't drink. Still starving, I opt for a Guinness and 3 half pints of coke for the non-beer drinkers. We were sitting under a TV that had on the strangest version of music videos I've ever seen. We took our picture in various places in the pub then headed to the Wrexham store. The store was cool and much cheaper than the online version. We escaped with less than $200USD.
Still hungry and bordering on hangry, we walk back to the center of town to find food. Initially found a nice pub that served traditional pub food. B-Koog, a teatotaler in training apparently, refused. "You cannot take me to a bar, it's illegal." As nice as I could be in my hangered state I explained that a pub was a bar and little Koogs are allowed before 6. I also told him the next place we found, even if it was a gentleman's club, we were going in and finding food. He agreed.
The next place we found, also a pub, was called The Horse and Jockey. Food and drink. Yes and Yes! 3 fish and chips and a burger for E-Koog. We met the nicest guys there where I was able to have a proper football conversation. They did laugh at me for being an Everton fan. I laughed at the man called "Chelsea" for his dedication to the team of the same name. The one man, not Chelsea, was impressed my knowledge of Welsh Premier teams. He also showed us a picture of his wife's legs with a heat rash from her recent cruise around Italy.
After saying good bye to our new friends, we headed toward Conwy. We drove by the castle. Holy crap it's amazing. Through streets more narrow than Bath that took us to a underpass that was like the eye of a needle. In true Koog navigation, in between yelling "stay left" I told Mrs. Koog to turn left. Looks like that was a parking lot and not the street where our house is located. After a 60 point turn, we got out and found our place. On the most narrow street I've ever seen. On the steepest hill. With street parking only.
Mrs. Koog rocked it and parked it. And there we stayed until tomorrow.
I am in love with North wales.
Be kind when reading and finding errors, I'm dyslexic (not kidding) and super tired!
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