konfessions of the Koog

After taking 3 travel sickness pills last night and sleeping for about 10 hours, I woke up right as rain! We had to meet our tour to Caernarfon Castle at 8:15, so we were all up and ready by 7. Soon after I used the app to get a table for breakfast, I was notified our table was ready and we headed down and ordered. The waiter misunderstood my order and brought me a single banana. Oh well. We finished our breakfast and headed to the meeting place for our excursion. I have to give Carnival props for their level of organization. We were checked into the holding area, the large theater, and given a number for our bus/tour. Then they called the numbers and we all walked to our buses and boarded. Orderly and organized, just as I like it! We were the first ones to our bus and were able to get the front seat as B and I were still on the razor's edge of motion sickness. The entire bus was delayed for 2 stragglers. As they got onto the bus, the elderly woman made a snide comment about me...

We were all very happy to have no reason for an early wake up, I think we slept until 8:45. Boys headed to the buffet for breakfast and I went to the main dining room. Not a fan of any buffet. Nice breakfast omelet, bacon rashers and a pot of hot water since I brought my own Glengettie tea from home. I met up with the boys and we headed to the sports bar to watch the Women’ World Cup matches. We saw Australia beat France and the Lionesses from England beat Colombia. Hard to pick favorites because all the women have worked so hard, but I was pulling for the Lionesses! Shortly after the game, we attended the art auction. I was suckered into another piece of art. Mrs. Koog will be happy because it was on sale! During the auction, the water started to get very nautical and B-Koog and I were low key sea sick. As soon as the auction concluded, we headed back to the room to sleep off our nausea. What a nap, it was 2 hours! We both woke up refreshed and it was time to properly use the App...

At 5:15 I heard the sweetest little voice saying, “Momma, it’s time to get up. We get on the ship and have unlimited soda for the next 10 days!” E-Koog has been counting the days for the cruise ever since I told him about the ultimate bottomless soda package I got for him and B-Koog. He was so excited about this drink package, he went through our flat to make sure everything was packed up. Emptied all the garbage and took the garbage to the curb per the check-out instructions. At this point, B-Koog was up and equally excited  about soda day. He put the remaining dishes in the dishwasher, cleaned the kitchen counter and set the bags up in the hall all ready for us to head out. By 6:30, everyone was dressed and packed and the flat was ready for check-out. We headed across the street to the Costa Coffee for some tea and porridge for me and 2 cokes and freeze dried strawberries for the boys. I know this is not a breakfast that Mrs. Koog would sanction, but our Adult was on her own adve...

Wow, day 18 already? Doesn't seem real. We are more than half way through our big UK vacation-palooza. Every moment has been amazing. Let me not exaggerate, most moments have been amazing. The others are a mix of abject terror (driving) and annoyance (twin 12 year olds bickering). So many more amazing than not, though. It really has been magical. Today the reality of being 2/3 of the way through was in focus. Very early this morning, Mrs. Koog kissed us goodbye and headed to her train that took her to Gatwick Airport for a plane that took her to Croatia to meet her sisters and friend for the 50th birthday yacht/bike extravaganza. The boys and I were relieved when she called as soon as she landed safely. As for us, we spent the day in London shopping and chatting and riding the tube. The kids are very familiar with the Tube now and pretty much navigate me through the underground stations. Today, we headed from Farringdon to Knightsbridge to Harrod's! As I was talking to the ...

So, my day started at 3am when I had to leave the bed and head to the tiny loveseat sofa again. The topper the property manager got for our bed was just the mattress from the sofa bed. So at 3am, me and Mrs. Koog moved said mattress back to the sofa bed so I could sleep on the loveseat. Total hours of sleep was 4. As much as I really like London, I cannot wait to leave and get proper sleep! Our main priority today was to ship our box of souvenirs and stuff we don't need for the remainder of the trip home. We looked up the DHL service point and it was .3 miles from our flat. Awesome! So we grabbed the 12lb box and walked the .3 miles to the DHL place. And the least knowledgeable shipping lady worked there and literally had no idea how to ship this box. We were literally at DHL. They ship things as a business, yet this lady had no idea. Frustrating. So, we grabbed our 12lb box and walked the .3 miles back to the flat to regroup. We found a different service, DPD, and made it nearly...

Well, today was a better day considering sleep happened last night. The tiny loveseat was better than the bed. Mrs. Koog's side of the bed seems better than the side I was on, so she opted to stay in the bed and also got a decent night's sleep. The boys, well, they traded beds with Mrs. Koog and it was no bueno for the guys. Hopefully, we will hear from the management company before they hear from me again. We headed to the Tube again this morning and got on the train to Greenwich. On the agenda was the Maritime Museum, National Observatory and Prime Meridian. Also on the agenda, rain. Luckily, we still have all our waterproof clothes, so we were dry and trekked on throughout the day. As we arrived at the Farringdon Tube station around the corner from the flat, we got a note from the management company apologizing for the unsleepable beds and they let us know they would be around to the flat today to deliver mattress toppers. Excellent! The boys enjoyed the ride on the Tube,...

The Family Koog is TIRED! Not just because we are marathon vacationers, but because the beds in our super posh flat are torture devices. I sent a note to the property manager and have not yet gotten a reply. We are not typically complainers, at least not formally, but this is completely untenable. At least we are in London, right! After cracking our backs and having some significant caffeine to make the day livable, we decided to stick to our plan and get tickets for the hop on/hop off (HoHo) bus to get our bearings and decide what our day was going to look like. We had a lovely walk from our flat to just outside St.Peters, stopping quickly for more coffee and tea and breakfast. Mrs. Koog had purchased our HoHo tickets online and as we were boarding the bus, they were unable to activate our tix due to a wifi issue on their end. This is important because the tix are good for 24 hours from their first activation. We only used the bus that one time so we are saving the actual activation...

We leave the Murder Pod today. I highly recommend the Highlands Gateway and Glamping if anyone is looking for a super cool place to stay that is centrally located to Stirling, Edinburgh, and Fife. Packing up there was easy because we didn't take much out due to space! Due to Royal Mail weight limitations, we had to repack the stuff we packed to ship and haul it to London to send it via DHL. Shipping is another theme on this vacation as we left our son's necessary medicine in Maryland and had it FedEx'd to Liverpool for the low, low price of $300! A goddess of a friend answered the frantic text message, found the medicine and shipped it. She rocks! Anyway, we got all packed and headed to the Highland Games in Bridge of Allan. I wore my kilt. Highland Games Knowing we had a very short time to experience the games, we were there when they opened. We got our tickets and a program and made our way into the oval where all the action was happening. The first competition was H...

Alas, a day without packing and moving! We slept pretty well in the Murder Pod considering our bed is also the kitchen table banquette. Surprisingly, it is much more comfortable than the bed we had in the posh stone cottage. I think that bed was original to the house from the 1500's. The Murder Pod's water pressure, for those that are tracking my water pressure reviews, it was surprisingly well pressured! Better than our house. Maybe we need to consider a Murder Pod instead of a bathroom upgrade? We spent the day in Edinburgh with at least 2 million of our closest friends. It was the first weekend of the Fringe Festival. It was completely mad! There were so many people it was hard to see and enjoy the full beauty of the City. But we did our best and enjoyed what we could. Travel to Edinburgh The drive was largely uneventful until we reached the city. Similar to Bath, the experience can be described in 4 words; What. The. Actual. F#*K. Between street closures and mobs of p...

On the road again! This morning was a sprint, at least for me. Mrs. Koog, knowing I have not been sleeping well, let me sleep in until 9. I slept like I was dead due to the Harris Teeter brand of Nyquil I took to get that dead like sleep. It worked, but the checkout at the stone cottage was at 11 and we had a lot to pack up! We got it all done, team work makes the dream work, and headed out of Aberdeen toward Clackmannan. Driving out of the city looking at the North Sea we realized we forgot to leave the parking permit at the stone cottage. Ugh!. We drove back. Sounds easy enough but Aberdeen has the least intuitive roads we've seen yet. They are narrow but we're used to that, its that they turn into non-roads with no signs or signals. BAM, there is a bus heading toward you and you are not the wrong way on a one way street! Anyway, we safely navigated back to the stone cottage, left the parking permit and headed for Clackmannan for good. Dunnottar Castle On the way, we st...

We took a much needed "day off" today. Took things slow as we were all tired from the previous 10 days. There were a few things on our agenda today, tour the University of Aberdeen, tour the Cathedral Church of St. Machar, replenish the groceries the little koogs ate 30 minutes after we purchased them and get a kilt. I should report the water pressure here in Aberdeen is on par with our place in Conwy. We all felt very clean and maybe a little bruised after our showers. Cathedral Church of St. Machar On our walk from dinner last night through Seaton Park, we approached the towering Cathedral Church of St. Machar. It was closed when we passed last night, but it was a must today. A little about the history...the site has been some type of Christian church since 580, when according to legend St. Columba on Iona sent his disciple Machar to convert the Picts to Catholicism. It was rebuilt many times, but the church we were in today was built between 1380 and 1520. If you are i...

Well, I never thought we'd say we woke up in a castle but we did! Mrs. Koog found a super cool castle that was converted into a hotel for our last night in the Inverness area. In keeping with kooky things on vacation, the castle check-in ranks up there. After our long but awesome day yesterday on Skye, we drove to our castle hotel. Grabbed out bags and walked into the very grand check-in desk and gave our name. The nice lady behind the desk said, "Welcome, we have both rooms ready for you!" Mrs. Koog and I looked at each other and then the nice lady and said "hmm, both rooms?" The lady explained we had booked and pre-paid (non-refundable) for 2 rooms. A family room with breakfast included and a king room, no breakfast. So, 2 rooms it was! The family room would have been plenty big enough with a set of bunk beds and a king. The other room was just a king bed and bathroom with a soaking tub. We decided to let the boys stay in the family room and we took the king...

What a difference a day makes! While yesterday was rain, wind and cold today was sunny and beautiful. Cetainly wasn't summer warm, but it was the most confortable temperature. We woke up in the Inverness townhouse at around 6am so we could pack as we only booked for one night. Why? When we booked the cruise the boys and I will be on the last 10 or so days of this trip, Isle of Skye was a port call. After our final, non-refundable payment Skye was removed from the itinerary and Dublin added in it's place. Happy to see Dublin, but Skye was where we really wanted to visit. Mrs. Koog made some changes to our Scotland itinerary and Skye was back on our list! Unfortunately, in that time the Inverness townhouse was rented and we needed to find another place. Alas, we move again. After packing up our stuff, we headed to the train station where we would meet our tour to the Isle of Skye. Mrs. Koog and B-Koog dropped E-Koog and I off at the station to get snacks for the 12 hour round...

So, it's been a week since we've landed, can you believe that? I look back at our travels and I'm grateful and tired! This morning we woke up in Ballach, Scotland. Our place there was fine for one night, but the lobby smelled like the inside of an ashtray, YUCK! The apartment itself was fine, but the 2 flight up walk was very stinky. The theme of today is driving! Anyway, we left this morning around 8:30 and headed north toward Inverness. It was a rainy and windy day. Mrs. Koog fortified her lady-balls-of-steel on the drive. It was blind curves and swithbacks for hours with the added bonus of blinding rain and wind. At one point, a car coming toward us was trying to pass several cars and was in our lane. We were nearly hit head on. It was scary. After the near death experience, we continued on our way. I didn't take many photos on the way because I was super car sick. Like really car sick. It was stick my head out the window kind of car sick. It lasted about 2 h...

It seems that turning 51 requires an earlier bedtime regardless of where one is, I fell asleep at my birthday dinner table. No joke. Barly making the one block walk back to the hotel, I showered and hit the bed. At 7:30pm. I woke up this morning at 7:30am refreshed and ready to trek on. We had a decent hotel breakfast. I tried Marmite and I liked it. All others in the Koog family gagged as I ate it again and again. To each there own and more Marmite for me! After checking out and packing up the car, we headed out of Liverpool toward Scotland, with a few stops along the drive. (Our stay in Liverpool was way too short. We are returning later on in ths trip.) Mrs. Koog really owns driving on the left! So much so, her speed at roundabouts make the rest of us feel like we are in a centrifuge. B-Koog audibly screamed today because he thought the car was going to flip. She also takes this confidence and speed to the single track roads with blind curves. Come to think of it, she accelerate...

Everyone was up early this morning to pack our clothes, car and memories from our amazing visit to North Wales and head north to Liverpool. Mrs. Koog and B-Koog again made breakfast for us to use the remainder of our eggs and bacon rashers. We finished breakfast, finished packing and loaded the car for a quick stop in Conwy. I needed Welsh whiskey (don't judge me) and wanted to get freshly baked Welsh Cakes for the road. There was agreement from the boys to stop back inside the castle walls because they needed one more pass through...wait for it...The Knight Shop. I prepared them and Mrs. Koog (not that I needed to tell her how to say no) that under no circumstances was a purchase of a Katana, suit of armour or marble statue of a wolf approved. I headed down the street to the Crafts Cymru store to grab Pendaryn Whiskey samplers. The shopkeeper was such a nice lady. We talked for several minutes and she said she grew up in a small house inside the castle walls and has never left...

Today we leave North Wales. They say you should never meet your heroes because they will always disappoint. I was anxious that this place I've always wanted to visit and built up in my head would somehow let me down. It did not. In fact, it was quite the opposite, I'm more enammored and in love than before. For those friends that had a glimpse of our itinerary, there was concern it was too aggressive. You were correct, it was. But as I sit here this morning reflecting on our time spent, I find myself focused on each experience we enjoyed without a thought of the items on the list we couldn't see. I think of all the people we met and all the beauty we've been so blessed to see and experience. It's only added to the love I have for Wales and the Welsh people. As we were finishing our hike from Aber Falls yesterday, B-Koog captured my feelings perfectly. "Everyone here in Wales is so happy. I know why they are happy, look around here and see all the beauty they li...

This morning we slept in a bit. I didn't get up until 7. I'm not usually a morning person, but I haven't wanted to waste a moment of time here in North Wales. Even having morning tea and hearing the sea gulls seemed like an event to be witnessed. Today we got a bit of a late start as our tickets to Halen Mon were not until 11am. It's about a 40 minute drive along the coast and across the Britannia Bridge on the Isle of Anglesey (Ynys Mon in Welsh). Halen Mon is a sea salt company that takes water from the Menai Strait and through science-y processes makes fantastic sea salt. After a beautiful drive along the coast of the Irish Sea, through a mountain tunnel and, of course, Wales' single track yet 2 way streets, we arrived at Halen Mon. https://www.halenmon.com I had heard about Halen Mon from a podcast called "Adventures in North Wales" with Megan Llyn. She had done 2 of the things on our itinarary today. Check out the Podcast, I really enjoyed it. I w...

We started the day very close to our house, Conwy Castle. Morning: We decided (it was too late last night to drive to Tesco) the night before to have breakfast in town. While we are close to the Castle, we decided to drive to the Castle car park so we'd save time on the back side of the day to head to Llandudno and the Great Orme. So, I've lost 50lbs (50 US lbs, lol) since November. I'm thrilled about this but my shunning of most carbs makes it hard on the Koog family when it comes to finding a spot to eat. I'm sure this goes without saying to most, but Conwy is not at all like NYC. There was no diner to pop into with a poster-sized, 30 page menu. Our breakfast dilemma would not have been an issue if I were still eating everything. There were at least 5 local bakerys that had the most delicious looking and smelling pastries. Before anyone assumes I pulled the kids and the Mrs. out, I didn't. I was happy for them to eat at any or all of the bake shops. They did...