The Tri-City Tour November 2021: Travel Day 4 - London to Llantwit

[Gill H]

<<Travel Day 3: DLP to London

And so we come to the very last day of our tri-city tour. And to be honest, it’s probably the least eventful day. There aren’t even any photos, I’m afraid. But I’ll include a bit about our future plans, and a link to Peter’s videos (soon!) in case you haven’t seen them yet. So don’t despair, the fun doesn’t end here.

We were up at 6 am, got ready over a cuppa and went downstairs for a nice big PI breakfast, complete with crumpets. I think more breakfasts should include crumpets, they are so yummy! As usual the member of staff who showed us to our table was lovely and chatty. I always find PI staff very friendly whichever one we stay in.

We walked over to Ealing Broadway station and got a train to Paddington at about 8.30 am. It was only a 15 minute journey and very soon we were sitting in Paddington station waiting for our train to be called.

Our train back to Wales turned out be very quiet, and the two and a half hour journey to Bridgend sped by almost unnoticed. At Bridgend we could have waited half an hour for the train to Llantwit, but instead we decided that we would treat ourselves to a taxi home, which came to about £25.

We were home by 11.30 am and Cookie was extremely glad to see us.

We called Mum and Dad to let them know we had got home safely and said we would be round later on. Meanwhile we decided a good nap would be the order of the day, so communed with the inside of our eyelids for an hour or so before doing our Day 2 LFT tests, which we had to do by law when coming back into the UK. Fortunately these were negative - not that we had any cause to think otherwise, but because of looking after Mum and Dad it was good to know we were in the clear.

We went out to get some lunch, deciding on one of our favourite local cafes, ‘The Corner by Siti’. Siti is an amazing woman who cooks excellent Indonesian and British food. She was glad to see us as always. We went for the Indonesian chicken noodle soup, which I’d had before but had forgotten how huge the portions were! It came with garlic crackers and a fiery chilli paste on the side, which we used very sparingly. Absolutely delicious.

We then nipped home and unpacked the present we had bought Mum and Dad - a little tin of shortbread biscuits. We took it over to them and had a lovely time telling them about all our adventures. Their friends had been a great help to them while we were away, but there’s no doubt they were glad to see us back home.

We needed milk and a few other bits of shopping, so walked up to the Co-op and got them.

Then it was home to cuddle Cookie before catching up with last week’s Strictly, eating pizza and falling gratefully into bed.

[Gill H]

So that’s the end of our tri-city tour. Looking back, perhaps it was a lot to ask of two people who are no longer as fit as they once were (not that we were ever particularly fit…) and we did feel that we hadn’t really had time to do justice to London. We would have loved to visit favourite places like the South Bank, and also to spend more time meeting up with friends.

And even at DLP, we hadn’t got round to doing favourites like Ratatouille or Stitch Live, or even seen the new Coco addition to Philharmagic. Fortunately, this might not be such a problem, as you’ll see if you read on…

So, what’s next?

Well, as I mentioned earlier, we had booked an Orlando trip for January. However, soon after we got home from DLP, the UK government announced that travellers would need to test negative before flying home from the US. Faced with the possibility of having to isolate for 10 days in an Orlando hotel, we decided we couldn’t take the risk. Even if our insurance would pay, we had family and work commitments, and we didn’t want the uncertainty to cast a shadow over our time away. So we contacted our amazing Travel Counsellor, Helen, and she postponed the trip to November 2022 instead.

As things stand, it is coming out a little more expensive, mostly due to crazy flight prices at the moment. And instead of Coronado Springs, we are currently booked for Port Orleans French Quarter - which suits us fine, we have stayed at Riverside before and talked about trying French Quarter one day. We think the boat to Disney Springs will come in handy, as we haven’t been since 2014 when Disney Springs was under construction. But we’re keeping an eye on any future offers and are ready to change our plans again if something suitable comes along.

Meanwhile our Japan trip (originally scheduled for November 2020) has moved yet again and is now planned for November 2023 in order to give us time to save up, as well as time for Japan to start opening up to tourists again. We should be there for Tokyo Disneyland’s 40th anniversary, which is an exciting thought.

There’s also some sad news on the personal front. Since I started writing this trippie, things have taken an unexpected turn as Peter’s Mum sadly passed away recently. He’s had a difficult few weeks sorting out all that needs doing at a time like this, and life has been very tough.

So we have decided that we need another little trip back to our happy place, and have booked a few days at DLP, staying offsite, in early March. This will be on a much tighter budget, but we don’t mind that. Hopefully we can go back to some of our favourite offsite restaurants, and have a wander in the Val d’Europe shopping centre too. And catch some of DLP’s 30th anniversary celebrations, of course.

Thanks to all who have read and particularly those who have commented. And if anyone wants more of our tri-city tour, check out Peter’s videos (coming soon!)

For now … see ya real soon!

INDEX

[MrsBC]

Lots of exciting plans to look forward to!

[P&S]

So sorry to hear about Peter's mum

So glad you have managed a trip again this month and exciting plans ahead