After our drive through Cardiff and navigating the roads of Wales, we realized that our fold-out map of the UK was totally inadequate for the task. We desperately needed a detail map. John met a nice guy in the parking lot who gave us some basic directions – and then flagged us down as we walked toward the shopping street and sold us a map that he had bought for his daughter. Absolutely wonderful people!
We decided to save the “Big Pit” for our next visit and headed north towards, Merthyr Tyd Fill. This small Welch town was one of the headquarters for the early Mormon missionaries. We drove into town and immediately found a place to park at the local grocery store. Parking in the town was virtually non-existent.
With some directions from the librarian, we walked to the edge of town to find the LDS building. We walked for what seemed like miles and suddenly turned the corner to see a huge LDS stake house. John immediately dubbed it the “Outback Stake House”.
Inside the stake house, a group of women were preparing the main hall for a wedding the following day- lots of diaphanous white cloth draped across the ceiling and down the walls. We met a woman whose husband had just been appointed the new president of the Preston stake. She explained that Preston is the site of the mother church of Britain and told us about “Brother Fagg” who does tours of the major LDS sites there.
The Merthyr Tyd Fill stake covers 3 wards, about 3,500-4,000 people and covers an area of 110 miles by 60 miles. David O. McKay's mother lived in Merthyr (plaque on the cottage). After the Welsh emigration to SLC, the church had to re-group- there was no one left.
We made a quick stop back at the library and John experienced a scene out of Bill Bryson- multiple people discussing routes to Liverpool. Everyone had a different idea of the roads to take, what routes to avoid and how long it would take.
We decided to save the “Big Pit” for our next visit and headed north towards, Merthyr Tyd Fill. This small Welch town was one of the headquarters for the early Mormon missionaries. We drove into town and immediately found a place to park at the local grocery store. Parking in the town was virtually non-existent.
With some directions from the librarian, we walked to the edge of town to find the LDS building. We walked for what seemed like miles and suddenly turned the corner to see a huge LDS stake house. John immediately dubbed it the “Outback Stake House”.
Inside the stake house, a group of women were preparing the main hall for a wedding the following day- lots of diaphanous white cloth draped across the ceiling and down the walls. We met a woman whose husband had just been appointed the new president of the Preston stake. She explained that Preston is the site of the mother church of Britain and told us about “Brother Fagg” who does tours of the major LDS sites there.
The Merthyr Tyd Fill stake covers 3 wards, about 3,500-4,000 people and covers an area of 110 miles by 60 miles. David O. McKay's mother lived in Merthyr (plaque on the cottage). After the Welsh emigration to SLC, the church had to re-group- there was no one left.
We made a quick stop back at the library and John experienced a scene out of Bill Bryson- multiple people discussing routes to Liverpool. Everyone had a different idea of the roads to take, what routes to avoid and how long it would take.
We were on our way to Liverpool. We opted for the scenic route rather than taking the motorway. Armed with multiple maps and lots of opinions, we managed to find our way into Liverpool. We had our first “oh my god” moment when we filled the tank of our economy Vauxhall car and forked out $80!
We drove into Liverpool- driving through the Mersey tunnel and found our way to the Albert Dock and our hotel, the Holiday Inn Express. It was a Friday night and the hotel was packed with footballers- dressed in their teams colors and their women, dressed in their finery hotel- ready for an evening out. Our room was great- a beautiful view of the inner harbor of Albert Dock and of the city of Liverpool. Our fears of drunk footballers and late night revelry was fortunately not a problem – only a bit of early AM football songs. (This was the night before the first football games of the season)
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