Northern Ireland to Stroud to Germany
Packed up and left the Airbnb around 9:30. This was the checkout time. Early!
Vanessa drove excellently back to Belfast Airport, stopping to refuel just before the airport. After returning the rental car we prepared to say goodbye to our friends. Their plan was to take the Translink bus back to Belfast and from there take the Aircoach to Dublin airport. Catching the Translink bus from the airport went smoothly since they had bought tickets through the app ahead of time. They also pre-purchased tickets for Aircoach. Unfortunately, the Aircoach app doesn’t really explain the bus ticket options, so they got standby tickets rather than tickets for a specific time. Luckily, they were allowed to board the bus in Belfast because it wasn’t completely full.
Edon and I spent a few hours at the Belfast airport before taking a short EasyJet flight to Bristol.
We were picked up at airport by my cousin, his partner, and their son.
We drove back from Bristol. They prepared us a delicious lentil dinner, which we all enjoyed.
My cousin’s dishwasher was not working, so Edon and I did the dishes. Edon, my cousin, and I stayed up later than expected looking at old family pictures of our parents as kids. My dad had recently scanned the pictures and this was the first time I had had the chance to look at them.
The next few days were spent in Stroud and were much slower pace than our previous week. Edon helped get the dishwasher running again, which was very helpful since we spent a good amount of time cooking and eating delicious food. It was so much fun playing with my cousin’s son, who is 13 months old, and this occupied several hours of the visit. It was super awesome to be able to spend time with family and are so glad they made time and space for us to visit!
There are several walking paths around Stroud. Many are publicly owned, but they often also pass through private lands. Just strolling through private land is strange to me as an American, but totally normal and expected there.
We had sunny and dry weather, so nearly everyday we went out for at least one walk on the trails. Star Anise is a local cafe that we ate at last time we visited. My cousin now works there. We had an amazing lunch at the cafe our first full day in Stroud. I had a falafel mezze platter and everyone else enjoyed a delicious curry. A couple days later we got a lunch out at The Long Table. The lunch wasn’t very impressive, but I really enjoyed the vegan chocolate cake I got there.
On the solstice, I accompanied my cousin’s partner and the baby to a small get together for local parents and their little kids. It was at a cool space by a tiny creek in one of the fields owned by a local organic farm. Apparently the farm keeps the space there available for local folks to use.
There is a pretty lake close to my cousin’s that is popular for swimming. After eating a picnic breakfast at the lakeside, Edon, my cousin, and his partner went for a swim. The water was way too cold for me to go in. This worked out well because I was able to play with the baby while they swam.
On the day Edon and I left we were dropped off at the Transportation Hub in Gloucester. Luckily, Edon and I had been messing around on Google maps looking for coffee places in London earlier in the week and noticed something strange about the train route to Heathrow for the day of our flight to Germany. The train we were expecting to take into London and then onto Heathrow was not showing up as available for our travel day. Turns out there was a rail strike planned for that day and the train we needed wouldn’t be running. My cousin helped us find an alternative, a National Express bus. Although the bus would take about an hour longer than the train, it conveniently went straight to Heathrow from Gloucester. We bought tickets right away. It was fortunate we did because the bus was totally sold out by the time we had to take it. The bus had a bathroom, which was great. I was surprised that we mostly passed through fields on our way to Heathrow and not towns and suburban sprawl.
It was a little confusing for me at Heathrow because we needed to take a free train or bus from Terminal 2 where we got off the bus to Terminal 5. Edon and I didn’t see a bus at the bus depot where we were dropped off. There were several signs directing us to the free train, but a few temporary signs seemed to indicate the train wasn’t running because of the rail strike. The temporary signs were wrong and we made it to Terminal 5 on the free train.
It only took an hour to get to our terminal, through security, and to the concourse we expected to leave from, so Edon and I had a couple of hours to kill before the flight.
Edon got chips and a mojito at an airport restaurant. I messed around on my phone.
Our actual gate was announced at the time we should have been boarding our plane. And we were in the wrong concourse. So, another tram/train ride was needed. Our flight was delayed about 30 minutes, so we didn’t miss our flight.
The flight was quite short. Toward the end of the flight our pilot announced he was approved to take a short cut, which I didn’t know was a thing.
Shortly after that announcement the plane hit turbulence as it passed through thunderstorms. It was not really bad turbulence, but it was the worst Edon and I had ever experienced on a commercial flight.
When the cloud cleared, Germany was visible from my plane window as little islands of tiny golden lights surrounded by dark forested areas.
After landing we were picked up by Vanessa and her husband, Mark. The data on my phone was actually working well for the first time of the trip, which came in handy as we tried to find them at the airport.
After giving us a ride back to their house outside of Stuttgart, we got a tour of their amazing home before everyone headed to bed. It was especially kind of them to do all this, since they had to leave around 6:00 or 7:00 in the morning for a weekend trip. We ended up getting to bed around 1:30.
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