Monday, September 15, 2014

England - August 9, 2014





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.

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