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Julie & James' Vacation 2005 - Wales/Ireland

This is our account, in words and pictures, of our fabulous vacation to Wales & Ireland (with a little bit of England). Hope you like it!
(James' writing is in yellow and Julie's is in white)

10/28/05

The plane is accelerating! So much so that I obviously can�t write.

Off the ground!

Well, this is the beginning of the VACATION �05. Whee! We should land in London (Gatwick) @ 8am and then it�s a flight to Manchester. No music currently as you have to stow �all electronic devices�. Oh, now can. Sweet. Bye now!

And Julie takes over. It�s awful to read what I wrote 7 years ago � it�s completely different than my experience 3 yrs ago. [note: this refers to the actual journal itself; we wrote in the same one as our previous trip to Europe in 1998 and Julie read through a bit of it before writing new stuff] I had to take some Dramamine because I was getting vertigo from the initial movement of the plane. I feel much better now, and am sure the rest of the flight will be great. Stupid me � decided to have one last run before vacation. I forgot my socks and ran 3 miles anyway. My feet bled and ran through my shoes! Now I have Band-Aids in several locations. Anyway, mom drove us to the airport after we both worked. Lucy jumped all over us and was totally crazy. Mom says Sophie was equally crazy at one point, but I just don�t believe her. We saw Christian Aars at the airport, who was there w/ his parents. He�s on our flight, headed to Venice via London. Nuts! What a small world. I haven�t seen him in almost 10 years. James is iPodding while I write and I�m soon to sign off for dinner and a movie. A nice date in the plane a few hours before our 9th anniversary. I already can�t wait to land :)

10/31/05

Well, we�re here! This is our third day here and only the first journal entry. Marie and Scot picked us up from the airport in Manchester. We actually almost missed our connecting flight in London (Gatwick). We got off the plane along w/ a lot of other international flights and had to stand in a long immigration line. Our plane to Manchester was boarding, so I asked the security guard if we could cut through. He let us go in the shorter 1st class immigration line, which we cleared shortly thereafter. We then had to run up 2 flights of stairs, go through customs, then through security, then down several long hallways to get to the right gate. We ran all the way, showed up sweaty and out of breath, and boarded after the flight crew. We then sat on the tarmac for an hour while they took off all the luggage searching for 2 suitcases of passengers that were switching to a later flight. We finally made it to Manchester and set off to drop our luggage at Marie and Scot�s house. Their house is really cool � a nice front garden, back patio, garage, two bedrooms, an office. Lots of windows and light, and lots of greenery out of the windows. They live in Llay, Wales, close to Chester & Wrexham.

Marie & Scot's house, back side

front walkway at Marie & Scot's

We dropped our bags and left to see Chirk Castle where they�re getting married July 29, 2006. What an amazing setting � a winding drive through trees and countryside, green rolling hills, grazing sheep & cows. The castle is at the top of a huge hill, and has the Welsh flag flying on top. It has walls and turrets completely intact. It even has a dungeon, which we went down into. It was damp and dark and pretty small. The castle rooms were very impressive and nicely furnished. There were lots of rugs, tapestries, exposed wooden beams, and murals on the ceiling. We met up w/ Marie�s sister, Melanie, and her boyfriend, Phil, and walked through the gardens where they will be having a �drinks reception� after the ceremony. It was amazing � lush and green with views of the countryside below.