Wales

(published a day after written)
Tomorrow morning, we are heading back home after our first trip to Wales. It is one of the most beautiful places we have ever been. We have been comparing it to New Zealand and Bali...who knew??!! 

Last Friday we drove from London to North Wales. It ended up taking us SEVEN hours including a half hour stop. There was so much traffic. And much of it seemed to move very slowly, but ultimately we made it. The first three nights we were at the Royal Sportsman Hotel in Porthmadog. We ate all three dinners and breakfasts there, and it was awesome. The hotel was too hot and the shower was tricky, but it was otherwise fine. 

stuff for a week

The first morning we drove to a copper mine. I had set the car's satnav to the mine's postal code, and it took us on this TINY road with walls on both sides. There were a few meters where we were touching BOTH the right and the left with the car. I did not enjoy this driving and I was dreading another car coming the other way. The car never came, thankfully. I asked these locals who were walking to give me a pep talk. They did. It helped. We ended up at the mine. Phew.

I was TERRIFIED to go in - I am pretty claustrophobic, and I did freak out multiple times inside, but I did it with a lot of deep breathing- we all did, other than Sam. Sam stayed in the car. The mine was closed in the early 1900s and it was re-opened for tours in the 80s. You can see how people worked in there, the tunnels, where they ate, etc. It was actually super super cool. We went for a walk by the mine and then went off to make sure we were parked in a city for Matt's fantasy baseball draft (my favorite).

entering the mine

stalag-everythings

i was truly freaking out but tried to seem like I had it together

finally. the exit

crossing the river when mom and dad take the bridge

I took the kids to a cafe for lunch in Caernafon, and then we explored the castle there. We could go in any room, up and down the stairs, along the top walls - everywhere. It was so so so cool! The boys shot archery. Matt's draft went well. Sam mostly stayed with Matt in the cafe. No interest in the castle.

so many fun stairways. VERY hard to pass people going up or down

After the castle, we drove to this amazing beach with gorgeous ruins and wild ponies. I mean - what could be cooler? It was so so beautiful. We did a gorgeous walk there - the Newborough Beach and Ynys Llanddwyn hike out to the island, all around and back. We were all so happy. Though I was anxious to get back before dark. We hadn't changed our clocks yet, and man these roads with space for one car are scary when you can't see. We made it. But just barely.

sam

mom - take my picture!

elie carried this rock, Jerry, a VERY long way. We did not let him take it into the car. Elie was very sad.

wild ponies

Day 2 we did a big hike. Sam was miserable the whole time and threatened to leave multiple times. But the rest of us loved it - though it was quite long. It had some gorgeous waterfalls, amazing views, ruins, a lake and lunch towards the end at a cafe on the road. It was absolutely gorgeous.

everytime sam whined, I turned around to talk to them and it was a GORGEOUS view

Day 3 we packed up and drove down the coast to St David's. We stopped in Cardigan for lunch - it was so so cute! Then we went to this amazing hike at the end of a point before we got to St David's. The views were unbelievable. We bribed Sam with two Cadbury cream eggs. The sheep were so cute - so many babies playing, and one loose guy who followed us on the trail for a bit.

Cardigan

eating the bribe

tough climb

Elie took this pic of the loose guy

We got to St David's and went to walk to dinner, and Elie rolled down a hill in stinging nettles. With a quick google, we learned we should let it be for ten minutes and then wash it with soap. That night it was a bit itchy - we put some hydrocortisone, and by the morning it was totally gone. Miraculous. And we had a great dinner at a gorgeous pub in St David's. 

stinging nettles

Our hotel there had no soul but did the job.

The next morning we drove about 45 minutes south, along the coast. The driving was nearly ALL on road that had space for one car and walls of bushes on both sides. It was like a maze. When we had to pass someone, someone had to back up to a spot where we could squeeze around each other. I thought maybe it was a joke. But it was real life, and we made it.

We took a boat to Skomer Island where we spent the day hiking with puffins, gulls, we saw a buzzard and a few seals. Sam abandoned us on this hike and sat at the one building on the island all day (do you see a theme here?). The boys, Matt and I walked around the entire island and hung out with THOUSANDS of puffins. They are just coming back to the island for the summer to lay their eggs and chill. They're super cute. Did you know that puffins live for an average of 30 years? This island and a neighboring island have 50% of the world's reproducing population of puffins. We had a crazy downpour while walking (but we had jackets), and we saw hundreds of dead birds. 

elie and koby playing american football wile waiting for the boat to skomer island

one of many dead birds

POURING

We then had to DRIVE BACK the same way we came - which was insane a second time also. On our way home, we decided to check out a different place to eat in St David's. Kids had walked more than nine miles, so no one wanted to walk the almost a mile to dinner, so we went to park in the town of St David's. We followed the signs to a parking lot and we saw a HUGE CATHEDRAL and old ruins of a religious building from the medieval times. Had we not been so lazy, we never would have seen this, and it is actually the main attraction in St David's. We should have googled! We had a great dinner at a different amazing, cute pub, and we went back to the cathedral in the morning. It was absolutely amazing and has been there for over a thousand years - the current one for at least six hundred. 

amazing ceiling of the cathedral - from the 1600s

The rest of that day was a bit of a waste. We planned it around a call I had for work. We drove and drove until we reached Swansea - a place we could get lunch and I could have my call and the others could walk around. It ended up a bit late for lunch, so I had no more patience. Swansea was a bit of a dump, and it was hard to find a nice place, and we ended up eating in a gross place. Then, a big chunk of the key people on my call never made it, and the call ended early, so we left, but no one really saw anything interesting. Bummer. We made it the rest of the way to our hotel in the middle of the mountains. We had a lovely dinner there and slept.

The next day was yesterday, and we went on horses through a little village and up a mountain. Matt did not enjoy it for multiple reasons, including his knees and misplaced stirrups, so he ended up abandoning ship (Sam did not abandon this one...). The rest of us rode for two hours, walking and trotting, and we loved it. We had a nice lunch and then went on a small hike (bribed Sam...) in some AMAZING waterfalls. We had dinner with some darts in a pub near where we're staying. 

sam took this pic of me

koby and misty

amazing waterfalls

dart lesson from the bartender

Today we went for a big hike - we left Sam to sleep at the hotel. The hike was AMAZING - one of my favorites ever. SO MANY waterfalls. We saw dudes kayaking down a waterfall. We went BEHIND a RAGING waterfall. It had POURED the entire night before, so everything was soaked, and waterfalls were a-flowing! Then we came back and grabbed Sam, had a lovely lunch at a gorgeous pub and went to see a red kite feeding. It was so so cool to see them up close. More wild horses on the way out of there, back to our inn for some Settlers, Splendor and dinner, and we're off to London tomorrow.

unbelievable falls

we went UNDER this one! - behind it

this is BEHIND the falls! hopefully the videos will work and you can HEAR how thunderous it was

red kites feeding

Overall, eight days in a small car with the five of us wasn't amazing. Sam is at a tough age for socializing with anyone other than peers. Elie and Koby are super physical, and while they love to wrestle, the old ladies at the pubs don't always love to witness it. Driving in Wales is the hardest driving I have ever done. The hiking was some of the most beautiful hiking we have ever done. Food in Wales is incredibly lacking in fresh vegetables. Welsh cakes are a bit dry. There is a lot of meat, potatoes/chips, fried cod. The Welsh language has SO MANY consonants! And then also so many vowels!! But never in the same words!

Elie is ping-pong deprived and said he would rather be in London, but the trip was ok, and he really liked the hike today. But he said he wouldn't recommend it. 

Koby thought the trip was pretty good - he liked hiking and being in nature. He ate a hundred and one cheeseburgers and wasted a few of them. 

Sam wasn't interested in the whole thing and truly seems to hate hiking and really anything.

Matt and I LOVED the hiking. We mostly enjoyed the food. We loved the cute inns. We played a lot of games/Lost Cities, and enjoyed some evenings away from the kids. We wouldn't mind if our kids would share a room and we could actually share a room, but I guess we're not there yet.

Elie really wanted me to include this

cows on the road

puffins!

insane

behind the waterfall!

red kite feeding

My First Premier League Game! Tottenham Hotspurs against Wolverhampton

I'll be honest. I had never heard of Wolverhampton (or "the Wolves") before today. I have never watched more than about 15 minutes of a Premier League game. But I enjoy it and would watch it if it was on. And I super loved watching the first season of Welcome to Rexham. 

Koby had been really into the Spurs lately, so I asked Matt to ask around at work and see how we can get tickets. They're sold out - like for years. I kept looking on stubhub, and tickets (when available, which isn't often) were like £400 each. Yeah. No. But...one of the guys who went skiing with Matt knew someone in the office who has season tickets in Tottenham and sometimes he sells them (at cost). Matt was able to snag two pairs for two different games. I can't make it to the next one, so it was today or never. I was a bit nervous, but I heard they have been limiting hooligan shenanigans, and I also heard daytime games are less scary, so off we went.

Koby and I left the house TWO HOURS before the match. We took the tube to Seven Sisters, in Tottenham, and we followed the crowd out of the station and into the 35 (!!!) minute walk to the new -  GORGEOUS - stadium. There is an overground train that goes there, and there were buses, but they were all full. No choice. 

It was like walking to a Michigan football game. You just follow the crowd. But here they were ALL (ok 98%) in dark coats. Nearly all male. And mostly between 20 and 80 - very few kids - but all ages of men. It wasn't rowdy. Just lots of people walking. A few of the bars on the way had signs in the window that said "home team fans only." Which was kinda funny.

We got to the stadium and there were literally thousands of people (men in dark coats) POUNDING beers. I just thought it was all fun and social until I read that you can't bring alcohol into the seated part of the stadium. They each had between 2-4 beers (and sometimes more) and just drank them. One by one. Koby got fish and chips. I used the toilet and got water. I felt a little unfun.

We found our seats, and the stadium was truly beautiful. Comfortable. Clean. Easy to navigate. No line for the ladies toilets, obviously. EVERY. SINGLE. SEAT was taken (mostly by a man in a dark coat). And there were no bad seats. We didn't have great seats, and we could see super well. When they started introducing the players and the game started, everyone sang along to everything. There were cheers. There were songs. Everyone knew the words. It was so interesting. The only thing I could understand was "oh when the saints" - otherwise, I have no idea what they were saying. 

Koby and I guessed how many people were in the stadium. I compared it to Michigan Stadium, which seats 111,000, and I guessed 60,000. It was 61,000 - I was impressed with myself. Koby guessed 57,000 after my anchor guess.

There were three goals in this game, and only 1 of them belonged to Tottenham, so the crowd was a bit disappointed. In fact, they BOOED THEIR OWN PLAYERS!!! They yelled at people who were hurt to "JUST GET UP!!!" and when they did get up, instead of clapping, as they do for injured players in the US, everyone BOOOOOED!!! They were angry - all of them - all of the men in the dark coats - with nearly every call that the refs made. Hands thrown up in unison. 

The people around us in the seats did not talk to us at all (would have been nice to have a translator, but no one seemed interested). It was mostly men there alone - they didn't really talk to anyone, but they sang all of the cheers and complained about the calls out loud. But on the train on the way there and on the overground on the way home, nice men talked to us about going to the game, and their first Premier League game. It was nice - what a culture of football here. It's such a thing, and today we got to experience it for ourselves. SUPER fun.

Outside the stadium

All of the men drinking their beers before the game started

We were in the south stand

I can't get my videos to load here. will try another time.

Skiing in France: Les Arcs

Wow are we lucky. Last year in April we met friends' friends whom we loved, and they said they have skied all over Europe and loved Les Arcs. We knew nothing about skiing in Europe, but their judgement seemed worthy of trust, so last May, I booked a package in Les Arcs 1950 (as recommended), including ski equipment, pass and ski school for the boys. EVERYWHERE on the website it said refundable, fully cancelable, etc., so I figured I might as well just book, and we could do more research and cancel if we needed. I super wanted to ski there - especially after I looked into it a bit, but I was just keeping our options open.

Come August, and Matt said he had bad news and he didn't want to ski in Europe. He wanted to go to the Middle East or really anywhere else. I super reluctantly tried to cancel, but when I tried to cancel online, it wouldn't let me. I called, and they said that YES, there was a refundable fare, but that wasn't what I booked. We had the non-cancellable fare. I booked too quickly and didn't pay attention. I felt pretty bad, since Matt didn't want to go, but I (not so secretly) really wanted to go, and I was kinda happy we were stuck with it. Luckily, Matt went skiing with colleagues in Switzerland a few weeks earlier, and he loved it and got excited about this trip in the end.

Last Saturday we flew to Lyon, France (from Luton - first time out of that airport), we got picked up and driven into the mountains. It was raining. It was dark. We could see nothing. 2.5 hours later, we saw lots of snow and we entered a car park. The village we were staying in had a car park underneath and a road next to it, but only skiing and walking in the village itself. At midnight we arrived to our room. Felt like northern Michigan. In the early 90s.

Up at 7, because we had to find our ski pass, find our ski rental and get to ski school by 8:50. Even though we had barely any information with our reservation, we found it all, scrounged whatever snacks we brought on the plane for breakfast, and Koby and Elie went off with their ski school (and somehow we got them placed in the correct levels). Sam wanted to try skiing (go Sam - they had a bad experience in New Hampshire two years ago and had vowed never to ski again), so Sam, Matt and I went to explore. Within a minute, Sam was done and wanted to go back. Matt and I had an amazing time finding our way around the mountain. We could ski back to get the boys, eat lunch at our place and go back out. There were a few trips to the indoor and outdoor pool. There was a LOT of Splendor and Lost Cities (our current two fav board games), there was a lot of ipad, and holy cow there was a lot of skiing. We skied all day for five days and Elie and I had a half day the last day (and Matt had a bit too). 

The mountain was so fun to navigate. We literally skied for that many days and there were still many parts of the mountain we didn't get to. It was especially fun when we didn't have a time commitment (like ski school pick up), and we could just go anywhere and end up anywhere and find our way back. Especially when Matt and I were together, so if we got stuck on a harder trail, it was ok. They don't really have green trails, they have blue, which are mostly slow and lovely, though they have some challenging parts. They have red, and they have black. We did no blacks. I loved the blues and reds. Elie did some reds the last few days (well!). Koby was a blue guy. Matt was great on blues and reds. Sam hated it all but tried the first two mornings. 

A few days we stopped at a restaurant or cafe on the mountain for lunch or hot chocolate. A small fortune, but such a fun experience. One was even an igloo. The walls were literally made of snow and ice with amazing carvings. The restaurants in the village were eh. We ate out twice - once for pizza and once we had fondue and the kids had burgers, nuggets etc. Otherwise, we visited the Carrefour and got food to prepare at home. 

Sam mostly watched tv and texted with friends and read about ten books. They found a friend from cheder in the village and went to visit them at Club Med in our area one day (there was a free shuttle - they went alone!). 

The boys passed their levels and really improved. I absolutely loooooooved the skiing. It was a bit crowded, but we survived. Friday we got a beautiful ride back to Lyon and flew back to London (Gatwick - pain to get back from!). 

It was a WONDERFUL week. (Ok, many of the photos and videos really look the same, but it's so hard to cut).

Sam skiing!

boys fencing. we got our skis from a locker just to my left, under our hotel room. We skied under that bridge and through the village to get to a lift and off we went.

a top of a trail

on a lift

top of another trail. amazing views

was super cloudy that first day - we didn't even realize what we were missing

the igloo bar

igloo for real!

ice sculptures in the igloo bar

day 2 w sam

sam!

I took the boys in the afternoon on day 2

sam coming back from the bakery. def got some stares. yes - no pants (trousers).

lunch day 3 at a cafe on the mountain

dinner out - matt and i had fondue. was good to try. no need again.

we had lots of dates on the mountain while the boys were in ski school

what a view!

elie and i went alone one afternoon, and we went on some harder trails

ski instructors put on a show jumping one night. we stood on the bridge in our hotel to watch