Awoke
earlier than planned but that enabled me to get packed before going to
breakfast. At 9:15 a taxi came to the
mooring to take Estelle and me to Llangollen.
The other travelers were getting to train stations by bus and taxi, but
Estelle wanted to spend the day in Llangollen, and I would be staying there for
several days. It was too early to check
in at my lodging, the Gales of Llangollen Wine Bar and Hotel, but we were able
to leave our luggage and go off to explore the town a bit. It was delightful having Estelle there
because she’d been to the town several times before so had some knowledge; also
she was good company.
The
first item on the agenda was finding a chemist’s (drug store) so I could get
some cold medicine that would, I hope, work better. Found “Day Nurse’s Cold Capsules” with
pseudoephedrine, purchased, and immediately swallowed two. Help on the way. . . .
We
wandered the town, stopped for coffee at the Dee Side Bistro with beautiful
views of the river and rapids going under the 16th century bridge,
found a launderette (and later returned there with a bagful of my clothes to be
washed), found the tourist information office to pick up brochures, checked out
the canal and the horse-drawn canal boat trips, observed the steam railway (which was
having a special “Thomas the Tank Engine” Day), and generally acted as
tourists.
We were
in good company. Llangollen obviously
has a large number of tourists, and this was a weekend day. The traffic was horrendous, and there are few
official pedestrian crossings, so one takes major risks just crossing Castle
Street, the main street which crosses the river connecting the two portions of
the town.
At 3
p.m. Estelle’s taxi picked her up to take her to Wrexham and the train that
would eventually get her home to the Birmingham area. I picked up my clean laundry and returned to
The Gales where I was able to check in and unpacked a bit. When I went down to the restaurant at the
hotel, I discovered my voice was almost totally gone resulting in being barely
able to croak out my order. I felt
slightly better overall but sounded dreadful!
Returned
to my room and watched TV for the first time in 11 days. Learned about the U.S. air strikes in Iraq
and the death of Jim Brady. Not keeping
up on the news is sometimes enjoyable.
