Betws-y-Coed

Wales, Wales, we love Wales!

Well, we enjoyed Wales so much last time that we decided to go there again this last weekend. This time we went to North Wales -- into the Snowdonia National Park area. It was around a four hour drive so we left after work Friday night and stayed in a Bed and Breakfast in the small town of Betws-y-Coed (which means 'Sanctuary in the Wood'). We were so surprised when we woke up in the morning to see what we had driven through in the dark the night before. Tons of green fields, mountains (if you can believe it or not), forests, a river running through it all, and sheep all around!

We had a great time that morning just wandering around the small town, visiting the local church and graveyard, climbing a tree, crossing a suspension bridge and admiring the sheep with their baby lambs. It was so much fun to just watch the baby lambs run around. (Their bounding kind of reminded us of the lamb in the "Bound and Re-Bound" clip that you see at the beginning of the movie The Incredibles.) :)
After that we headed off to a local waterfall - Swallow Falls. They were really amazing and we enjoyed walking to the different levels of the falls. This part was my favorite - plus, doesn't Jared look so handsome! ;)
After that we decided to take a hike in their mountains. The hike was a pretty good one, but the wind was blowing so hard that we didn't get to enjoy it as much as we would have liked to. Oh, well! The view was still very pretty!
On our way home we stopped in a town called Froncysyllte to see their famous aqueduct: The Pontcysyllte Aqueduct! This aqueduct is the longest and highest one in Britain. Beyond the fact that small boats can travel across it there is also a walking path on it, so of course we had to walk across it. Although I have to say that it even made me question whether I was afraid of heights or not. I gathered that I was okay because there was a railing, but if there hadn't been I don't think I could have crossed it. It was a great stop and we're really glad that we got to see it in the day light!

We had another great weekend! It's so much fun to go out and see what you can find. It makes me think that we need to do it a lot more at home.

We also have to add the funny two things we came across whilst driving between Wales and back home in Staines.

First, amidst the fields of sheep we came across a "karting" course. Pretty much a race course for kart racing. We stopped to watch the racing. Pretty funny amidst all of the green fields of sheep to find a race course like that.

Second, was the Indoor Snow Ski resort that we came across when we stopped for dinner. It was the strangest thing to find man-made snow indoors along with a lift, slopes, and snow skiers decked out just like they would be back at home for a day on the real (outdoor) slopes. Pretty ingenuitive!

Well, that's all folks! Blog ya later! ;)

Florence & Venice

We arrived in Florence Friday afternoon. It had been a crazy drive there and we were glad to finally be parked and on our feet. (I've decided that driving in Florence makes Utah drivers look REALLY good!)

We didn't have very much daylight left when we got to Florence so we don't have many pictures to share. We stopped by the Ponte Veccio. (A famous bridge there with shops all along the top of it.) We enjoyed walking along the river and across the bridge and then up the the Piazzale Michelangelo a terrace above the city that gave a wonderful view of the town and also had a replica of the David statue in it. We enjoyed more pizza in Florence, but the gelato shops were all closed by the time we finished dinner so we had to pass on that for the rest of the night! Too bad! :(

We drove on to Bologna for the night. What a bunch of Bologna! We had a hard time finding our way around and finding a hotel to stay in. (We'd recommend booking your hotels in advance!) We finally found one for a pretty penny and got a short night sleep before waking up Saturday morning to drive the rest of the way to Venice.

We were so happy to finally get to Venice, drop off the rental car, and get onto the island! It was so pretty! (Hey, have you noticed that we haven't been in coats for any of these pictures? The weather in Italy was lovely and the coldest it got was jacket weather when we were in the shade or in the evenings.)

Of course, we had pizza there too! YUMMY!
We spent a lot of time just walking around the streets (that are mainly pedestrian streets) and exploring the town. The buildings here were also so amazing. They were just like what I've seen in so many movies - how magical!We had to stop by the Piazza San Marco. It was filled with more beautiful buildings, but Jared and Ira enjoyed the pidgeons the most! (For me, I just lived in fright that I was going to get pooped on again! But, I was lucky enough that it didn't happen.) The boys had so much fun feeding the birds and letting them land on them.
I'm guessing that one of their favorite parts was the scaring the birds part! It was so funny!
We spent a while shopping for souvenirs too. Rachelle, Ira and I got sweatshirts and Jared got a t-shirt. (The sweatshirts were too small and didn't have long enough sleeves for him - poor guy!)

I was amazed at how much water their was everywhere on the island. I should have expected that, but was still shocked by it all. We crossed too many bridges to count and saw so much water. We even got to take a Water Bus a couple of times to get from place to place. One of my favorite parts was our gondola ride. It was a nice relaxing end to our afternoon in Venice. Our guide did a great job and pointed out a lot of historic buildings throughout the ride. He was even decked out in the stiped shirt and all.

We had a great time and enjoyed more gelato in Venice. For dinner Saturday night some of us were "pizza'd-out" so we tried some not so wonderful lasagna. The sad part is that the best part of that meal were the french fries that Rachelle ordered and shared with everyone. They tasted just like the best American french fries you've ever had. Now I can't stop craving them! :)

We stayed in a hotel in Mestre (on the mainland) that night and were able to walk around for a couple more hours on Sunday, before we had to head to the airport to fly back to England.

We really enjoyed our time in Italy! It was lots of fun and great company! We love you all and miss you a ton! We can't wait to see you. (Six more weeks!)

Pizza in Pisa!

We have had a great time with Rachelle & Ira in town. Jared took a couple of days off of work so that we could go and be with them in Italy.

Day 1 started off with an incredibly early morning, again. (We are getting really good at waking up at 3 am to try to catch the flights we want.) After flying into Pisa we picked up our rental car equipped with a navigation system which we later learned only spoke in Italian - Oh, My! We made do though and after stalling the car a few times and making a few wrong turns we made it to the train station where we were meeting Rachelle & Ira (who had spent the previous day and a half in Rome). Our first point of business was to go and see the Leaning Tower of Pisa. It was pretty amazing to look at and surrounded by other marvelous buildings and a ton of street vendors who tried selling us just about everything you can imagine possible. We had a lot of fun walking around the area, taking pictures, and then off down a nearby street to find some authentic Italian food!

It didn't take long at all to find a great pizzeria where we all ate pizza or calzones and then a gelateria across the street for a taste of the famous Italian Ice Cream! And boy is it as good as everyone says it is. (I think we had pizza and gelato every day we were in Italy!)

After spending a few hours in Pisa it was time to head off to Cinque Terre. An area about an hour north of Pisa where there are five small towns along the Italian coastline. The drive was amazing and we enjoyed stopping along the way to look at the views and take some pictures. We even found a little train on a track that they have in a lot of the towns. I'm quessing they are used to transport the people and their harvests (maybe of grapes) up and down the steep terrain of the area. We stopped to get some information in the first of the five towns (heading from south to north), Riomaggiore. It looked like a pretty neat place, but we didn't stay long because we wanted to get a hike in to another town before dark. We drove on past the next town, Manarola, without stopping. The drive was nice and we were so excited. We stopped in the third town Corniglia where a fabulous gentleman gave us instructions on where to park and where to start hiking. Because we would be spending the night in the next town we all packed our own backpacks with clean clothes (or at least clean underwear and a shirt) for the next day, and headed out.

The hike from Corniglia to Vernazza was amazing! It was a lot of fun to walk along the coast and see the greenery, cliffs, and sea down below. It took us about an hour and a half including stops for picture breaks (which also served the purpose of giving us a chance to catch our breath)! We were so excited to get to Vernazza. It was amazing. Most of the streets weren't even car accessible and most of the buildings were attached to each other and built into the landscape! We loved that the town was down at sea level and stopped for pictures. We got a few before one HUGE wave came and got us. Rachelle, Ira, and Jared all got away in time to only get minimally wet, but I got completely soaked! (I guess it didn't help that I ran cross-country and track in high school, huh?) :)

Hope you enjoy the Before and After photos below!

BEFOREAFTER
(Believe me, I was even wetter than I look in this picture!)

We hadn't booked a place to stay while there so we walked around and finally knocked on a man's door that had a sign for rooms posted by it. He took us to a small room that had two twin beds pushed together and two cots that we could use too. We took it gratefully and all shared a cozy night together!

The next morning we were up and at 'em again. We hiked from Vernazza to Monterosso. The hike was about the same length and lots of stairs up and down. We were exhausted by the time we made it to the town. But again, the hiking was amazing!

We loved the beauty of the towns in Cinque Terre. It was fun to get a more untouched view of what old Italy is like. We especially loved the colors and architecture of their buildings! We ended our adventures in Cinque Terra half way through the day on Friday. We loved our time there and would have enjoyed spending more except that we had other things on the agenda for the weekend.