AUGUST HOLIDAYS - PART 1

Our planned holiday for this August was for a week in a cottage in the Yorkshire Dales, and then on to a week in a cottage on the Isle of Mull in Scotland.

En route to Skipton iin Yorkshire where had booked our cottage, we decided to visit Shrewsbury and then spend a night at Chester. Shrewsbury was delightful, and we arrived on the opening day of the Flower Festival. By chance we were at the entrance to the Castle and Regimental Museum, when a bus stopped and unloaded the Regimental Band of the Shropshire Light Infantry. This looked promising so we stood around while they assembled, and then the Mayor and Mayoress of Shrewsbury drove up in a vintage Rolls Royce. All very interesting. The picture above shows the 16th century market square.

Leaving Shrewsbury we headed for Chester and as Wales was not far off the route, we decided on a diversion to at least see a bit of Wales. We soon knew we were in Wales because the signposts started becoming bilingual. Once more we hit the jackpot and arrived at a little town Llangollen. There was a Thomas the Tank Engine railway running up the mountainside on a scenic run, and a beautiful river (The Dee so beloved of cryptic crossword setters). A canal ran along the high bank of the town and we saw several narrow boats drifting along above eye level! We took a trip on a horse drawn narrow boat which was totally relaxing. Photo above.
We had been told that we should visit the Pontcysyllte Aqueduct (in Welsh this is spelt Ddyfrbontysblennydd!). What an amazing sight.The aqueduct (like a viaduct but carrying water) is 127 feet above the River Dee and the span is 1037 feet long. It is basically a metal canal connecting the Llangollen Canal to the Shropshire Canal. It was built in 1805 and we walked part of the way across and saw a narrow boat making the crossing - picture above. Then it was on to Chester where we had booked a night in a hotelon a dinner bed and breakfast deal.

When we booked in we were told that as there were three coaches booked in, the earliest we could sit down for dinner was 8.30,but could probably arrange something at the bar.As I find it hard to eat while asleep, we approached the barman, who said hang about! Came back shortly sayiing we had a table booked for 6pm! In the morning when we paid the bill, there was a charge for dinner which we queried and were given an amended bill which deleted the entire dinner charge including a bottle of wine! Carol pointed this out to them (I was going to keep Mum) but the reply was that the dinner charge was all in one and could not be separated - so a free bottle of very nice wine thankyou! And then we visited Chester. See part 2.