Day 3 Wales/Ireland

Day 3
We had a great English Breakfast, but no blood sausage. I hope we have it later this week. Otherwise it was beans, grilled tomatoes, big bacon, eggs and grilled mushrooms. It was really good, we ate with Jess and Jessica whom we met while looking for the statue of the horse. They are from PA and super fun.
Thankfully I have two plug ins for the wall. They are three prong and I was able to charge everything I needed. Unfortunately already at 2pm I had to change out my battery. Luckily DH made sure I have three, so it is very handy and I am getting quicker at changing it out on the fly and catching the photo I wanted. Again thanks DH for the tutorial.
We stayed at Bristol last night it was very nice and the weather was gorgeous. I got my first round of postcards on their way. I am sure I will be back home before anyone gets theirs. We saw a lot of countryside today. The tour guide said the slave ships would dock at Bristol and the slave women were kept on the bottom of the ship with the grit and grime. When the men went to the ships to pay to spend with the women they were going down to the "nitty gritty"
We crossed the River 7 the longest river in Britain. The bridge was large and pretty neat. Wales is an English principality. Edward the 1st (longshancks) defeated the last Welsh Prince. He was in Wales with his wife Helanore and while there, she gave birth to their son Edgar. The king was giving a speech to the Welsh and they started booing him, He asked his Welsh advisers why. They said you don't speak their language and they don't respect you. He brought his son forward on a shield and said this my son knows neither English nor welsh I give him to you to rule. That is why the first son is always the Prince of Wales.
Northern Wales wants to be and independent state and Southern Wales like England and wants to stay united with them. The Northern Welsh speak welsh and the Southern Welsh speak English. The Southern Welsh sided with King Henry the V at Agincourt. That is where the v symbol that isn't very nice originated. Apparently the Welsh were expert bowmen and if the French caught any they would cut off the first two fingers of their draw hand. At the end of the battle they would give them the two finger salute to show they still had the two fingers.
We arrived at Cymru and they had dragons (the Welsh animal) and sheep everywhere. The countries veggie is the leek. They also had a castle that had jousting at certain times but was not available to us while we were there for and hour. We saw animals leaning over a wall, they were made of stone. Some had glass eyes and they were all pretty cool. /behind the wall the backsides were crouched with their feet pushing on the wall like they were in the process of jumping over the wall. We did some shopping and back on the bus. Crossing over to Wales John the tour guide played a welsh song and while we left and there was really not much to see but countryside, he played a comedy tape.
We signed up for all the extra stuff that was available and only 1 thing was not going to happen because of not enough participation. Sad but OK, I am sure we will have plenty of fun with what we signed up for. I can't believe Mom wanted to go to it all.
We were on our way to the ferry when the traffic stopped. We were told there was a terrible accident and we would be diverted to a different town. Of course this was not a road we would normally take and bus is really quite large, at times we had to pull over so the traffic could pass. It was a very windy road, with curves and not much straight away. Thankfully we had a very skilled driver Jim and he got us to the ferry in one piece. He really deserved a Guinness!! We arrived with 3 minutes to spare to board the ferry. We are starting our crossing now and Mom is reading. In a bit we will got on deck to see what we can see. Next stop Ireland!!!! YAY!!!!
It is 4pm and we just got back from standing on deck watching the water and land. It was super windy but refreshing. Luckily Mom said to take my coat and I listened to her. We really needed it because of the wind. The boat is moving and once in awhile I get a little motion sick. We bought a sandwich and some chips with our tea. Not cheap and not the tastiest but it was what was available. Mom is getting tired and her hair looks great. I re filled my water bottle for yet another time but bathroom water tastes the same as the bottled for the most part. I am not paying 2 euros for a water. Mom exchanged $60 for Euros on the ship and she got 40 Eros and change back. The guide mentioned we could exchange out money on the ferry so we thought that would be best. He mentioned a Traveler's Express that would be able to exchange it. We thought no the ferry would be best. Of course after we left we find out the ferry is the most expensive exchange rate and he doesn't recommend exchanging more than a few dollars for the evening. We were not happy. He said we could get cash from Amy ATM's available for the best rate. Of course we both took out a bunch of cash instead of keeping it in the bank and withdrawing what we need. Well we will know for next time :-)
When we arrive at the hotel dinner will be ready at 8:30pm. We will be sooo ready for it by then. We will also be stopping at another town for a bit more shopping so that will be nice and in Ireland finally!!!
We drove for quite a bit then came to Tramore. The sea was beautiful! We walked down and Jessica and I put our feet in it. Mom and Jess stayed at the pier. We ate beef and Mom had fish. As an appetizer Mom tried the Cream of Vegetable soup and I had potato wedges with garlic cream sauce. For dessert we had the cream puffs. We were told were to find the ATM but we had walked and walked and there was still no ATM so we decided to give up and go back since it was getting pretty late, we ate at 8:15pm.