Llangollen

After Shrewsbury Folk Festival we headed up to Llangollen in North Wales for 3 days of holiday. Checking into our guesthouse room we were delighted to find a beautiful Tudor style four poster bed, complete with curtains! Very romantic. The couple that ran the guesthouse had previously lived in Camberley, only a few miles from us.
It was a bit showery on the first day, so we got our waterproofs out and did the town trail, also venturing to the Last Inn in Upper Hengoed and the Cross Keys at Selattyn, a superb pub where the older men sat gossiping in front of a real fire.
The next day we went hiking, showers not withstanding, up the steep slope to Dinas Bran castle, past Trevor Rocks to the Pontcysyllte Viaduct and across it (somewhat scary drop) to the canal junction. A lady lost her hat in the breeze and it dropped down from the viaduct into a sewage farm below - I don't expect she'll want to retrieve it! There was an entertaining boat-jam at the Cysyllte junction as boat after boat emerged from the viaduct (which is one-way only) and the two branches of canal, all wishing to go different ways. Then it was back along the canal to Llangollen, accompanied by one of the narrowboats which had extricated itself.
The next day was overcast but dry. We hired some (rather ricketty) mountain bikes from the shop in town, with the intention of doing the challenging "Conquering Heroes" trail into the mountains. But we had not gone far before Bill Badger's mountain bike got a puncture, and we had to stop and change the inner tube. I had a look at the tyre and decided it was too flimsy for proper mountain biking, so we just stuck to the towpaths and roads instead. Our first stop was Horseshoe Falls, a man made weir, very pretty and peaceful. Next stop was a tour of Valle Crucis Abbey, with it's interesting gravestones of Welsh nobles, and then a little further on to the ancient Eliseg's Pillar. Then we went on to the Sun Inn in Rhewl where we sampled delicious Spitfire and Hanby Bitter, and I refuelled with a Welsh Lamb Henry. Later I also managed a beautiful scallop salad in Gales Wine Bar - my meal of the holiday, followed by visits to the rather posh Corn Mill pub, the Wynnstay Arms and open mic night at the Sun in Llangollen.
On our final day we visited Plas Newydd, the home of the celebrated lovers known as the Ladies of Llangollen, a wonderfully eccentric place. We also had a look round the little town museum in it's unusual converted library building. On the way back we stopped off at Chirk Castle, which was more of a stately home but nonetheless interesting (and open!), then next stop was one of our favourite pubs, the Bell at Waltham St Lawrence.
Holidays are never long enough!