A Simple Life of Luxury

As part of our couple of days away, after a day at the Blue Planet we stayed in the Premier Inn Wrexham. Although close to Wrexham it is a little way out of the town and felt nice. It was never going to be a luxury night away but it was perfect for us. Cheaper than a Youth Hostel despite having YHA membership, clean, quiet and comfortable and therefore everything we needed for a night.

The room was plenty big enough we had a bath and a shower and confortable beds and a friendly enough greeting.Of course, having a proper flush toilet is always a luxury for us!

There was a pub / restaurant next door called The Beeches which is co-owned by Premier Inn so this is where we went for our evening meal and where we were to go for breakfast in the morning. Once again we have no complaints. The restaurant was nicely laid out, the food was good and the service was excellent. We therefore had a nice relaxing meal, even Morgan ate OK and the waitresses were friendly and helpful. Breakfast in the morning was good too… Eat as much as you like which is something I always like and in addition to the full cooked breakfast there was plenty of cereals, toast, croissants, yoghurts, fruit, juices and coffeee etc. Just what I needed before a day out mountain-biking at Llandegla.

Certainly recommended.

Unusually for us we decided to conform to the norm and have a couple of days away during a Bank Holiday weekend!

We drove up to the Blue Planet in Liverpool on Friday morning. Morgan’s travel sickness seems to be coming on in leaps and bounds so it took a little longer and quite a few changes of clothes to get there than normal but it isn’t to bad a drive.

It isn’t cheapt to get into the Blue Planet but we had booked into a Premier Inn  for the night and got a free child ticket with that and the prics compare to most other attractions. I have to admit that I wasn’t that impressed to start, but I did used to work in an aquarium so I guess I was expecting a little more from the tanks in such a large aquarium. The big shark tank did of course impress though and that is really what it is all about. The ’show’ was a little corny but the tank itself and the fish were pretty impressive. Thankfully it wasn’t too busy so (when not chasing Morgan around) we were able to take our time and have a good look. We bumped into a friend of Morgans which was good as they seemed to enjoy each others company and when we ask him what was the best thing about the Blue Planet he says it was seeing his friend there!

After a little play in the playground and some lunch we had another quick circuit around the tanks before heading off to find a chemist and some travel sickness tablets for Morgan and our hotel for the night.

Overall the Blue Planet was good. I still think it is quite expensive and I think the smaller tanks could be a lot better than they are as they just feel like padding for the main attraction of the Shark Tank.

Shark at The Blue Planet

The Blue Planet Aquarium

Burning up some Energy

I’ve been wanting to ride at Llandegla for a while now so on our way back from Wrexham we stopped off at Llandegla and I finally had my chance.

As we pulled into the car park it looked really busy, people and bikes everywhere but I guess that was to be expected on a bank holiday weekend.

After a quick look around the shop and visitor centre we walked back up to the car in the overflow car park and got ready. I had planned to do the full red route and black route whilst Anna and Morgan were going around the 3 mile long Green route. Anna was going to walk with Morgan on his little balance bike.

We set off together and once on the trail it wasn’t nearly as busy as it looked I did pass quite a few people and there were often people stood around at the beginnings of certain sections or the tops of climbs but considering how full the car ark was it was nice out on the trail.

Overall it was a really good trail, nothing too technical and not too much climbing really so it didn’t take me as long as I expected. No knowing what was coming next meant that I took it easy all the way around. There are big signs as you approach the black sections warning you about the ‘extreme nature’ of the trail but for those worried about it then don’t, all of the trail is easily rideable as you can simply roll over any of the obstacles. obviously if you attack the course and go for big air off the jumps etc. then it could be a little more challenging but it is also possible to simply ride over them keeping both wheels firmly on the ground. (Which is pretty much what I did!).

Back at the car and Anna and Morgan had just returned too. They had fun, Anna enjoyed her walk and Morgan had got on really well on his bike. he doesn;t get chance to use it much so an hour on it is probably as much practice as he’s ever had so he improved all the way around and apparently came to an impressive skidding stop at the car!

Can’t wait until he’s a little older and all three of use can go for rides on the easier trails together.. I’ll have to convince Anna to go out on my bike, but that does at least mean I’ll be forced to treat myself to a brand new, shiny full-suspension bike!

On the way home we stopped off at the top of the highest road in Wales for a succesful geocache find.

Oh, and we finally got the video camera out of hibernation so here is a little clip of Morgan at Llandegla.