its about that time.....

it has been 2 months since i posted a blog so be prepared for a summed up version of events with lots of pictures!!!

We came back from Munich at the beginning of June and for the next 3 weeks we didnt really do a lot. Had a couple of parties, went to work, came home and slept, went to work again. I was also struggling a bit with £££ due to being charged massive overdraft fees and needed some time to get back on track with finances so we could start travelling again.

We had a few weekends just wondering around london and going to the camden markets. One day we even stumbled across this massive bike race. I couldnt quite work out what was going on with the thousands of people just staring at an empty road.... that is until we saw the flashes of colour go past and realised it was the tour de france!

In the last month we have been up to quite a bit - we have decided that some time in the near future we are going to move up north to scotland and have been making trips out of london to some touristy english attractions while we are still here.

Zane has some good friends from back home called Keith and Abbey who recently got married back in NZ and moved over here and they kindly decided to show us around North Wales for a few days and let us stay with them. So about 3 weeks ago we took a day off work and headed up in a super fast Virgin train to Abergele in North Wales. It was a wicked trip - the train was going so quick it even was on a lean! AND we saw a nuclear power plant on the way up - highlight of the day for sure.

Nuclear power goodness!!!

The train we took was unable to cross the border into Wales - as they are all a bit odd there and it scares the drivers, so instead they dropped us off in a lovely quaint town called Chester. Chester is most famous for having the most pubs per person in a town. In the 1500's there was something like 396 pubs for the 1000 people that lived there. In fact pubs were so popular they tried to cut down the drinking by introducing 'hot chocolate' houses. It didnt work. They just shut down the cafes and turned them into more pubs. Yah for beer!

In all seriousness, Chester was awesome. The city is surrounded by a MASSIVE roman wall and in the centre of the town is the biggest gothic looking catherdral I have ever seen. We were in Chester for about 4 hours waiting for Keith to finish work in Wales and cross the border to come and get us. We spent the afternoon wandering around the shops and went on a bus tour of the city.

Chester town shopping

A squirrel!!!! There is nothing cooler than a squirrel.

Keith picked us up in his escort at about 5ish and we made the long slow journey into Wales. We stayed with Keith and Abbey in Aberegel which is just off the coast in North Wales. Abbey is working at the hospital and they are staying in the staff hostel near Abergele hospital. We had big plans for our first day in Wales to climb Snowdonia - but unfortunatley the heavens opened and it was miserable and wet, so instead we decided to conquer a high ropes course which was about an hour away from where we were staying. It was really challenging, we were in the trees for about 2 hours doing about 20 small courses. One of the courses was to walk across a log with no handrail 15 metres up. By the time we got to that one, none of us were having fun anymore and I was relieved at the end to have my feet on the ground.

zane and keith - the tree hugging hippies

After a couple of hours in the trees, Abbey was still full of energy and wanted to go for a hike. We then drove to the coast and went to a little town called Llandudno and walked up the pennisula called the Great Orme. It was well worth the walk up the hill and we were lucky to get a break in the rain to see some great views from the top of the hill.

Keith and Abbey - happy to be at the top of the Orme!

The day after our hike we had a quieter day on the Sunday and went for a walk arond Abergele. We came across a abandoned castle which had been fenced off from the public. Zane used his lock picking skills and we managed to break through the gates to explore the remains of a beautiful castle that we think had just been used as a residence rather than for battle. After a bit of exploring we headed back to Chester to catch the train back into London. Overall it was an awesome weekend and just what we needed after being in London for so long.