Okay...sit right back and I tell you a tale, a tale of 3 Americans traveling abroad at the mercy of.....well, this is quite the story: You were last aware of our time in Wexford, Ireland...so we could catch the ferry boat from Rosslare port to Pembroke, Wales. Let me just start by saying...BE FLEXIBLE when traveling outside the U.S.....if you RELAX, and take things as they come, and remember to laugh a lot...if you stop to breathe and say a prayer and give up any worries, concerns, time scedules, and personal agendas...you just might be able to truly ENJOY and see the blessings God has for you along the way...and you are guaranteed to have memories of places and people that will be with you always. Sunday morning we ate our breakfast of Alpen cereal and toast before heading out to the ferry terminal by 7:30am. Our boat would be boarding at 8:10am....so we had plenty of time to sit and think over our wonderful week and a half in Ireland. Customs: one thing I've noticed is that there really isn't any over here in the UK and Ireland (at least to what we've experienced so far). When we arrived in London...we went thru immigrations where they stamped our passports...but that was that. When we flew from Scotland to Ireland and arrived in Dublin...we went thru immigrations where they stamped our passports...but that was that. And when we took the ferry from Ireland to Wales...we didn't even go thru immigrations. It's been so easy to cross boarders over here. (even with the bombings!) Anyways, so we got on the ferry...and it was a lovely crossing of the Irish Sea...but...the boat was a half hour late leaving Ireland so it was a half hour late docking in Wales. THIS began the wonderful adventure of "what do we do now?" Our original plan was to take the ferry to Wales...catch a train (which was to our understanding very close by the ferry terminal) within an hour of arriving...and head to Cardiff....then catch a taxi to the airport (where we had only a 2 hour window of picking up our rental car there) and then drive to Bath, England to our B&B. HAHAHAHAHAHA!!!! What fun is in that? Our world got rocked when we docked at Pembroke. Now remember...it was SUNDAY (and typically over here most things are closed on Sundays)....the wee ferry terminal (and I'm talking WEE) had a wee tourist info counter (that by a miracle was actually open!) And there was a very nice lady there who talked to us. See...the reason we had to pick up our rental car all the way in Cardiff (which is a 2 hour drive by car and a 4 hour ride by train) was that there was NO other place with a car available on this particular Sunday in July (and remember...my mom reserved all these plans back in January and February!!!) We had no money...cuz we still only had Euros (from Ireland) and there wasn't a bank machine or exchange bureau at the ferry dock!!! The lady agreed to make some phone calls for us...we needed to get a taxi from the ferry dock to the train station (which was about a 10-15 minute drive). There were no taxis available at that time on a Sunday. *****breathe******she agreed to keep trying for us. We thought we could maybe walk to the train station...BUT it happened to be the HOTTEST day of the year over here in the UK...it's like a whopping 80 degrees farhenheit!!! Hello!!! I should've packed shorts!!! I wasn't expecting this sort of weather!!! I've only been over here in the winter and autumn and springtime when it's cold and rainy!!! Anyways, but we decided not to walk due to the heat and we had our big back packs on our backs...and we were tired already...and because we were already late as it was from getting in with the ferry late...we knew we wouldn't make the train on time. The lady finally told us that there was a taxi that could come to us in about a half hour. So we sat and waited. This lady was BLESSING #1...she also gave up 50p if we needed to make a phone call elsewhere's since we had no cash on us. Then finally the taxi driver showed up to take us to the train station...we knew there would be a train coming again in about 3 hours. We could wait for that one...but it would get us in too late at Cardiff to get a taxi to get to the airport to pick up our rental car so we could drive to Bath.*****breathe*****Then mom had a brilliant idea...why not ask the taxi driver if we could hire him to drive us to Cardiff???????? Why not???? So we asked. And he said that he was booked thru 4:30pm...but he would try calling a few of his friends and see if any other taxi drivers would be willing to make the 2 hour drive with us. This was BLESSING #2....he called around while he dropped dad off at a bank machine real quick to get British Pounds out for cash. He then took us to the train station (we thought we could wait there till either this guy found someone to take us or he himself could take us after 4:30pm ....it was 2:00pm by now.) BUT the train station was only a wee building not set up for indoor waiting and there was no one there...and to top it off...this was in a really run down dodgy part of town...there were some young punks dressed in black and sporting mohawks and some young girls hardly dressed at all hanging out on the tracks...hmmmmmmmm*****breathe*****so here we sat on some steps in the sun waiting for a taxi driver that we hoped would show in couple of hours. BLESSING #3.....the taxi driver came back in 15 minutes and told us he found a guy who could drive us...but not till 3:15pm (in an hour) and if we wanted to wait in a nearby pub instead of the deserted train depot he would drop us off and we could at least have a pint as we wait it out. Thank God! So he dropped us off at a corner pub called "The Prince of Wales" and we sat down to cool off and have a laugh. BLESSING #4....the pub owner told my dad that he was actually closed (even though there were lots of people still drinking) cuz he planned to go to a BBQ cuz of the good weather, but after dad told him our story he announced to the pub..."we're staying open till quarter past 3 thanks to our new American friends!" and dad got us some beers and we sat and chatted with this guy and had a laugh in a Welsch pub on a hot summer day! BLESSING #5....And quarter past 3 in came the original taxi driver with the new taxi driver (he was making sure that we were going to be found and taken care of!!!) and off we went with Keith the Welsh taxi driver for a 2 hour drive to Cardiff, Wales. He too had postponed a BBQ that he had planned to be at...so he could take us to the airport in Cardiff on time to pick up our car!!! We had a wonderful banter in the car all the way there! and we did get to Cardiff in time to get our rental car BLESSING #6...and we set out on our way to Bath, England...making it to our B&B for a relaxing evening in front of the tele as we had some tea and went over the amazing events of our day. What could've been a complete disaster and a day of stress and even dangerous situations...turned out to be a deligtful adventure not only getting to see how God protected us and provided for us and blessed us...but we also had the opportunity to meet some wonderful Welsh people who were so friendly and fun and interesting!!! It was a memory of a lifetime!!! God is so good!!! OHHHHH and Bath...oh my goodness this place absolutely oooooozes RELAXATION!!! We are in a wonderful B&B...the lady who runs it is sooooo nice and sweet. We are staying just down from the Royal Crescent...we took a tour bus nearby today and got the tour of the city (it is so beautiful!) I am loving being in the city that Jane Austin wrote about!!!! All her books come to life here!!! We visited the Roman Baths today too....WOW! Incredible!!! This city is lovely!!! Tomorrow we head out to see Stonehenge and Avebury stone circles. I probably won't email again till we make it to London Wednesday evening....we'll be staying at the same B&B we were at back when we first arrived in the UK (near Victoria Station) and there is free internet there. I wanted to email you and tell you the incredible story of our travels yesterday....I give God all the glory for the whole thing...it was one of those days where you could step outside of yourself and look in on what was going on...and laugh and marvel. It was a hoot!!!! Thank you all for your prayers we sure did feel them...especially sitting there at that abandoned dodgy train stop waiting in the hot sun not knowing what was going to happen next. We sat there and prayed...and then we laughed and took photos. One for the history books!! Love you! Cheers, Lisa
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