Without Lifting A Finger

  Plan to turn crucible of industrial revolution into 'international quality' museum gets funding boost. Merthyr Tyrfil * From a letter from Thomas Carlyle to Ralph Waldo Emerson: I was in Wales, as well as Scotland, during Autumn time; lived three weeks within wind of St. Germanus’s old “College” (Fourteen Hundred years of age or so) and also not far from Merthyr Tydvil, Cyclops’ Hell, sootiest and horridest avatar of the Industrial Mammon I had ever anywhere seen; ... * The History of Merthyr Tydfil - The Town of Steel. Methyr Tyrfil -- Town of Steel

Saw this when we landed (along Garibaldi), but never got back to see the Art. Sorry, Helen (loved the title, though I swear I've heard it before). I've since seen it and more via the Net. 

Being a Michigander I'm somewhat familiar with pasties (they're all over Michigan's UP and you can also find them in the Mitten). In Llandudno we got the Cornish pasties because they looked big and fresh (they were extremely hot!), and also because the locals had pretty much cleaned up on the other varieties. So the question is: Exactly what is a Cornish pasty? (After all: we were in Wales.) Answer: I'm not sure the "innards" we had are in accord with this defintion (I remember peas), but here's what Wikipedia says: A Cornish pasty, as defined by the Protected Geographical Indication awarded by the European Union on 20 July 2011, should be shaped like a ‘D’ and crimped on one side, not on the top. It should include uncooked beef, swede (called turnip in Cornwall), [6] potato and onion, with a light seasoning of salt and pepper - keeping a chunky texture. The pastry should be golden and retain its shape when cooked and cooled. [7] The pasty has been...

Returning to Wales from Dublin, we stayed near Conwy and Llandudno. We spent a whole morning touring the Conwy castle and checking out the Smallest House in Great Britain (quayside in the very quaint town of Conwy). After the castle we went to Llandudno, a beautiful seaside resort in Wales, where Alice Liddell (aka Alice in Wonderland) stayed with her family on summer holidays. We walked to the pier (Welsh kitsch and arcades; I guess someone in Wales loves American country music); walked a ways along the boardwalk (crammed with old hotels); lined up behind a long line of locals knowing something ahead must be good (we had hot Cornish-style pasties). Along the boardwalk I talked to a local official (not sure of his title) about the location of Alice's hotel (apparently called Penmorfa in her day, it was later renamed the Gogarth Abbey Hotel).  Pointing to his little hutch, where he and a partner were lunching, he said, "Not here." He then went on to tell m...

The itinerary strayed far from our original intent (it's called flying standby in summer), but we saw and did a lot of what we wanted to and now we're home again (jiggity jig). The barebones trip went: London -- Chester -- Holyhead -- Dublin -- Holyhead -- Conwy and Llandudno -- London -- Brussels -- Amsterdam.  We're thinking about making our own little film: Planes, Trains, Automobiles, and Ferries. The trains would include London undergrounds (tubes) and overgrounds, the Eurostar from London to Brussels, and an IC from Brussels to Amsterdam. The title's already too long but I suppose we could throw in taxis, shuttles, and a lone bike (the last night I biked from our hotel near Schiphol to a small village to use the only ATM). The Eurostar and IC only because we couldn't get out of Heathrow so we trained down to Amsterdam to have a better shot: it worked. Among the gold there was some dross: driving in England (we finally got used to driving on...