A Travel Day

That's what today was...a travel day. We probably spent a total of 7 1/2 - 8 hours traveling. We left Newport after breakfast heading to Fishguard, Wales. Our coach driver was a full-blooded Welsh man. It's hilarious to hear the English speak of the Welsh (and make fun of their language) and vice versa. They both seem OK with the Irish. As we were traveling, our driver pointed out the former home of Katherine Zeta Jones... some of the delegates enjoyed seeing that.

Our drive was about 3 hours - so about halfway through, we stopped in the sweet little town of Carmarthen for about 45 minutes. Unfortunately for us, most of the shops were closed since it was Sunday. As we were driving, we started seeing quite a few strawberry stands along the road. Their signs also said you got free chocolate sauce to go with the strawberries. Sam, our delegation manager, thought this would be fun for us, so we stopped at one - MUCH to the delight of the guy selling!!! - and we inhaled strawberries, dipping them in chocolate.BubbleShare: Share photos - Play some Online Games.


On we journeyed to Fishguard where we boarded our ferry for Ireland. It was a beautiful day so we spent a lot of time on the deck of the ferry saying good-bye for now to Wales... and then hello to Ireland.

Once we docked, we were met by a very Irish man - Mr. O'Brien. He will be our driver the entire time we're in this country. This is the first time we will have had a driver for more than a full day. I know I had told you at meetings that we would probably have 3 drivers - one for each of England/Wales...then Ireland... and then Wales/England. But that's not how it's been this year. I'm glad it wasn't, because it was a great experience to ride the London Underground.

The delegates were able to go out exploring our new destination tonight... but we had them in minimum groups of 4. They had to be back in the hotel by 10:15 p.m. - which they all were - and then the hotel opened up a room for them to sit and play their cards/games. It's now 11:15 p.m. and all your precious ones are in their rooms. This is the only night we're in this hotel...so hopefully I'll be able to update again tomorrow.

Cheers!

Coal Mines and a castle in Wales

So here we are in the beautiful country of Wales. A little misty, off and on, but not bad. After breakfast today, we loaded up and headed to THE BIG PIT. Yep, that's the name of it...and it's definitely a big pit. It's a coal mine in a town called Blaenafon - or on the outskirts of it. Our driver today was a man named Carrie who had an awesome accent, very different from those from England.

We had our orientation...got our hardhats on with our head lanterns, strapped our battery packs and oxygen masks to our waists, turned in all our cell phones/cameras/anything with batteries (they didn't want our batteries to ignite a spark to blow up the coal mine) and we stepped into a cage and were lowered 300 feet into the earth.
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Now, don't be too alarmed... People to People is definitely into safety..but the mine isn't operational for coal anymore, and it wouldn't have blown up ... but they still have to follow mine rules. Apparently the mine is still checked twice a day by a fire marshall - or something like that - for safety.

It was amazing down there...the tunnels were so narrow and so short in some places. Tyler was in my group and the poor guy hit his head probably half a dozen times on the ceiling. All the equipment from mining were still in place... and you could see the exposed coal and the boards where the miners had covered up areas that had been mined. It was also so very damp. You could see how disease and injury could be a huge issue.

From the mine we drove to Cardiff. Awesome city... I think it's the capital of Wales. We had about an hour to roam around the city and do some shopping or site seeing... then we met and had a tour of Cardiff Castle. OH MY GOSH! What a place that is! Extravagant, posh, eccentric, elaborate, ... all could be used to describe. I'm sure 100's of photos were taken - and we could take no photos inside the castle, but there was plenty of things to take photos of outside.BubbleShare: Share photos - Play some Online Games.


We had dinner back at the hotel... the delegates are all into games and hanging out again. They have certainly formed some sweet friendships. I love it when I see different groups of people together. It reassures me that they're getting to know everyone.

Breakfast is at 8:15 a.m., loading the coach at 8:45 and taking off for our next stop. Hopefully I'll be able to post tomorrow night, but as before, I have no idea what the computer/internet situation will be at the next stop. We'll only be at the next hotel for one night...

All are well... so as our delegation manager Sam says, "Cheers!"

Stonehenge Rocks!

That apparently is what is written on a shirt some of the delegates bought at Stonehenge. Unfortunately for me...I didn't have time to go to the gift shop.

We left London after breakfast and headed to Stonehenge. BubbleShare: Share photos - Powered by BubbleShare
Heading to Stonehenge from London

I had heard that it would be a disappointment - well, I wish I could remember who told me because it was awesome! My only disappointment was that we weren't there longer. Quinn just told me about 10 minutes ago that Stonehenge has been his favorite part of the trip so far. We had an audio tour that we could listen to at the pace we wanted. It's also in a beautiful area of England...gorgeous countryside.BubbleShare: Share photos - Play some Online Games.
Stonehenge! No disappointment here for me.

Next stop was Bath... Wow! What a city...the architecture is gorgeous and it's all set in the rolling countryside. We went to the Roman Baths which was also incredible. Apparently there was a house built on that spot and the people kept having water seeping in...so when they (I'm not sure who "they" are...) checked it out, that's when these baths were discovered and they began excavating. We had an audio tour with that too. I think all of us like the audios because you can go at your own pace...relistening to something or skipping a part that's not interesting to you.

After the tour, we had free time - about 1 1/2 - 2 hours to roam the town. Jane Austen's home - or one of them - is there. I'm not sure how many went to see that. Again...the architecture, the shops.... We had some girls who were able to get some shopping out of their blood! Actually, some of our guys did their fair share too!BubbleShare: Share photos - Powered by BubbleShare

These photos above are driving from Stonehenge to Bath...and then all around Bath.
After Bath, we headed to Wales where we are now. We had about 45 minutes once we got here to unwind, do some laundry, shower...whatever - until our 7 p.m. dinner. The kids INHALED lasagne... now they're all spread out around the hotel playing cards, Catch-Phrase, and just hanging out visiting.BubbleShare: Share photos - Play some Online Games.

Driving from Bath, England...to Wales!

I wish I could post photos for you, but I don't have my cable, plus, I don't know how when it's not my computer with the program I have. HOWEVER, when we return, this will be updated with LOTS of photos!

Even though I know I'm repeating myself...I'll say it again - these kids are incredible!

Our last full day in London

I failed to mention that one of the skills we learned - that actually wasn't mentioned in the People to People guides - was UMBRELLA ETIQUETTE! You would all be proud...no one poked or stabbed anyone with their umbrella yesterday!


Fortunately, we woke up to blue skies...and we took off for our day - after breakfast, of course!

We rode the tube for all our travels today. If you're not a subway rider, never fear, your son or daughter will know all the ins and outs of how to do it. We have raced from one train to another through horrendous crowds of people....and you'll be thrilled to know...we haven't lost a delegate! Counting off has become as routine as blinking your eyes. (a slight exaggeration)This is a map of the Tube... fortunately, we didn't have to read it, Sam knew it like the back of his hand. We just ran when he said 'run' and we jumped when he said 'jump.'

Anyway, our first stop was meeting with a former member of Parliament, Patrick Nichols. The delegates were impressive with their questions and their focus...especially after such a late night last night. We talked about the differences between our two governments - from how it's set up to certain laws - such as gun control...driving age...voting ages, etc.BubbleShare: Share photos - Powered by BubbleShare


From there, we headed to the Imperial War Museum - WOW! We ate lunch on the lawn and had some time to just hang out before our scheduled time to go in at 1 p.m. We had about an hour and a half to explore the museum on our own. They had an impressive part on the Holocaust which was similiar in design to the Holocaust Museum in Washington, DC.BubbleShare: Share photos - Powered by BubbleShare


After that, we took off for Picadilly Circus...where we had about 2 hours to explore that area of London on our own - well, not actually on our own...you had to be in with a group. Most of us headed down to Covent Gardens...an outdoor mall/market/shop area with a lot of street performers and restaurants. It's awesome.BubbleShare: Share photos - Powered by BubbleShare


We had a wonderful dinner - of typical British food - meat pie, carrots, potatoes, brussel sprouts (there were a lot of these left on plates :) and a delicious chocolate/fudge pie with a streak of peanut butter in it to top off th dinner. We walked that off heading to the London Eye. That is incredible. We had 22+ of us in each pod. It takes about 30 minutes to make one revolution. I bought 2 photos of the group with me (the Eye takes a photo as each pod comes around that you can buy at the end...this blogger is a sucker for things like that!) so now there is a contest for who - in my group - can come up with the best caption for the photo...they get the 2nd photo!BubbleShare: Share photos - Find great Clip Art Images.


We manuevered the tube back home... and packed up to take off tomorrow for the next part of our itinerary. Hopefully I'll be able to post tomorrow night - but we'll be in a new hotel and I have no idea what the internet situation will be there.

Everyone is doing wonderful... we've had a couple of dehydrations ( I'm not a Dr....but it's my guess) so we got some Gatorade and encouraged more water drinking. All medicines are being taken...so don't worry about that - plus every meal has had vegan options - delicious ones I've been told. So...as they say in Australia... NO WORRIES!

Here we are in London!

We made it to London without any complications...except a little bit of turbulence. I think a lot of the delegates did NOT sleep much, so we had a lot of tired people by the afternoon. It's 10:30 p.m. here now and we had room/bed checks an hour ago...many were already asleep!

When we arrived, we were met by our delegation manager, Sam. He's 22 years old...extremely bright...studying for a degree in psychology AND to be an airline pilot. We all like him - a lot. We boarded our coach and drove close to an hour to an area - or maybe it's a town - called Chislehurst. Cute & quaint. We had a nice italian lunch in a sweet little Italian restaurant. We have 2 vegan diets and everything is going great with that. Sam is vegetarian, so he's happy to have our vegans. He said it's actually easier to order more than one special diet.

From lunch we went to the Chislehurst Caves. It was fascinating! We walked through tunnels built by the Saxons, Romans, and Druids. Our clostrophobic delegates did just fine! These caves were also used as a bomb shelter for Londoners during WWII, even developing communities in them. We all totally enjoyed this. There is also a stage in the caves that was later used for concerts for Hendrix, Rolling Stones...and others! Here are some photos from the caves:
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We were there quite a while...from there we came to our hotel. By then it was dinner time - eating here at the hotel. We had people really beginning to fade by this time. Some went on to sleep, some stayed down in the lobby playing cards, and 13 of the delegates, along with Sam, Steve, Kristin, and I took off for a walk along the waterfront... an area in East London that has been and is being revitalized.

That's about it...we have a very busy day tomorrow. I'm excited because the delegates will get to ride the Underground...or the Tube... tomorrow when we return home.

I should be able to post some more tomorrow night. We're all doing well...and enjoying London!

REGARDING THE PHONE TREE....

Whenever you get a call, you only call the person directly under your name. If that person is not home, leave a message, and call the next person directly under that name.

It's time for our trip across the pond...

Are you ready?

Some photos from our community service project

Our meeting at the park, which was also our community service project, was the first time we had met together...Judy/Steve/Kristin's group and Sue's...

Actually, even the middle school group traveling on the Celtic Discovery itinerary met with us...
I decided to take a few photos...
We ate lunch together ....
We had our meeting...

and we worked...
and worked...

and got to know each other...The park looked a lot better...
and we certainly knew each other better...





It was a good day...