Leaving Portmeirion, Bouncing at Bounce Below and arriving in Liverpool

We opted for a Belgian waffle and maple syrup for breakfast this morning at Portmeirion. This road trip is not doing my waistline any favours!

The tide was out again over breakfast, the same as yesterday evening, but incredibly it sped in by the time I went to check out (photo above is with the tide in).

Exhausted after an hour of bouncing on the huge trampoline nets

We headed to Blaenau Ffestiniog where we had pre-booked tickets for Bounce Below - huge underground trampolines in old slate mining caves that we'd seen on newsround a few months ago.

Daddy, J and D spent an hour down there whilst me and Miss T enjoyed a hot chocolate in the cafe and then watched people coming down the zip wire.

After a quick bite to eat for lunch in the cafe there, we set off for Liverpool.

The landscape soon began to change from beautiful mountains, to the more usual roads we are used to seeing. We carried on until we went through the toll tunnel and into Liverpool.

The Joker boat was next to The Yellow Submarine and The Titanic

As we pulled into the famous Albert docks, we spotted the Titanic (not the actual titanic but a boutique hotel boat by the same name), the Yellow Submarine (a yellow holiday boat paying homage to the Beatles famous yellow submarine), and then our purple Joker boat which we were to call home for two days.

Not only were we staying in the tourist centre of Liverpool, we were part of the spectacle - we soon found that the Joker boat was a tourist sight that people wanted to visit as we found lots of people stopping at looking and posing for photos with the boat.

As a pretty private person, I found myself feeling uneasy at all the attention that the boat that was to be our home for 2 nights was getting.

I was also concerned about us staying on a boat after my seasickness incident down at St Ives. Thankfully, you can't feel the Joker boat really move much at all on the water. It is also a lot more spacious than I was expecting. The room sizes are generous and it has been decorated to a really high standard.

The Joker boat was really spacious

The decor is very flamboyant and glamourous - we even have an ice bucket for champagne.

I loved the basin too. There's lots of glitz and glamour all around and with its superstar history, it suits the joker boat to a tee.

This actual boat played the role of Joker's lair in one of the batman films (find out more in 52 sleeps e-book). Although it didn't make the final cut of the film, it is still pretty exciting. It also makes it the second most unusual place we've stayed (after the Doctor Who themed lighthouse a few nights ago).

The boys recently bought a LEGO batman game for the Nintendo DS. As they were playing that game on our journey, they excitedly called out from the back seat to tell us that the Joker's lair is in the game! That made them even more excited about where we were staying.

Whether it is because of the long journeys, or getting soaked in Cardiff the other day, or even the rain that has just begun, my back pain has started up badly today. I've managed to find a sweet shop on Albert dock that sells paracetamol so I stocked up and picked up some more ibuprofen later in the day when we popped to Tesco to pick up some sandwiches, sushi and salad for dinner.

As I was washing up after tea, I saw a couple of young lads right outside. I see a bucket, which they proceed to fill with water from the dock. Then I spot a bag of ice and sure enough they start to film themselves doing the ice bucket challenge going one step further and jumping into the water in the dock after tipping the iced water over the head first.

We tried to get the kids to bed before GBBO, but Miss T could see the TV through the mesh on her Koodi bubble cot and we heard her say a loud 'wow' when she saw the cake in the starting credits of the programme so in the end all 3 of the kids stayed up to watch Iain bin his baked Alaska.

There's lots to see and do around the Albert dock itself, and lots more in the rest of Liverpool. The friendly car park attendant strongly recommended the main museums so I'm hoping my back pain will hold out enough to be able to do that tomorrow.

This post was written up on Wednesday 27th August. This was day 9 of our Laterooms.com #52Sleeps roadtrip. Find out more here.