Day Eleven July 23rd - last full day with the boat

Today would be our last day as a group of six.
My daughter and I were up early and took a walk from our mooring spot up a big hill to the castle ruins above Llangollen. My daughter was hoping to find Cinderella's castle, but instead, she says, she found a broken castle. She did a heck of a job on the walk.
We first had to cross this wonderful bridge, which was near where we moored.

After a very big climb for such a little lady, with just a few shoulder rides, we got to the castle over looking Llangollen.

We met the others on our way down, on their way up.

John N. got some wonderful pictures from up at the top.

The view of the town was fantastic,

and when we returned to the path by the boat we could look back and see the castle ruins.

We spent most of the morning in Llangollen because we didn't have far to go in the boat today.
We had lunch at The Corn Mill out on the deck.

We even had a couple kayakers pass while we were there.

The pub area was nice also.. . .

After lunch we got back on the boat and started to make

our way back towards Chirk and our last night on the boat.

First we had to turn the boat around in the narrow canal by Llangollen.

We motored for a little while, then stopped for an early dinner at our last pub on the canals.. . .

The Sun Trevor.

Looking back the way we had come was a great view of the ruins above town.

We had to pass over the the aqueducts again, this time Robin took a turn at the helm. . .

While Babsi took a closer look at the drop. . .

We moored just a few minutes from our ending spot for the next morning.

I would love to go back and do another canal trip some day.

What a great way to travel.

A break from the trip or tree of the month. . .

Started a new class this monday. "Painting Loss and Free". Sort of a prep for plien air or just painting loser.
About and hour to do on slightly bigger canvas than I had planned on.

A local scene, St. Paul, Mo.

Day ten July 22nd - Ellesmere to Llangollen

Today was a day of mileage and repeat scenery. Not that that was a bad thing.
We had a pleasant day of boating, a few clouds, a bit of rain and lots of locks.
There are a group, a rather large group, of people who live on their narrowboats full time, year round. Moving every couple of days to a new spot. Making friends in passing boats, and favorite pubs along their routes. With 3000 miles of canal in the UK, you can explore a lot of pubs, . . . I mean, . . . historical places.
You can usually tell the people who cruise a lot by how fancy their boats are. . .

Some would have solar panels or TV antennas or satellite dishes.

Some had gardens on top, or the roof would be where they would store bikes and BBQ's.

We did lots of bridges. . .

and lift bridges. . .

And this was the section of the canal where I got voted, "Best legs on the canal, 2010"!

And more locks. ..

And more tunnels. . .

We met several interesting and curious creatures. . .

We stopped again at our favorite "Jack Mytton Inn" for lunch and the owner was as Jovial as ever.

While waiting to order lunch, John and Emelaine would play a game similar to tick-tack-toe.

Emelaine was getting so good that. . .

. . that every time she walked away, John would cheat.

Just kidding. She was fascinated with the way all the balls

would fall at once when she pulled out one piece of wood.

I loved the food and the beer. 

The beer changes every few days to a different cask ale.

I took the boat over the first aqueduct so John could get pictures.

When we came to the second one, John took the helm. . .

Diane was on and off the boat so much over the course of the week that she became quite the narrowboat wrangler. . .

Right after the aqueduct John did a sharp right angle turn, followed directly by a bridge. . .

Here's John lining up for the bridge.

We had a wonderful Pork Roast on board for dinner this evening.

We made LLangollen for the evening and some of us had time to go to the "Corn Mill" for a pint right beside the river before we turned in.

This would be our last really full day of boating

England day nine July 21st - Familiar waters

Morning, Wrenbury, still very cloudy but no rain and not
much of a chill in the air to keep us in very late.
Once breakfast on the boat was done we all walked into
the village of Wrenbury to visit the store and
check out the old church of St Margaret.

The church was beautiful. Built starting in the 14th century, it has some wonderful stained glass and stone tombstones which John and Robin captured well in their pictures.
Also note the interesting gargoyle’s on the outside.

The store was only a brief stop to pick up cocoa, postcards and such.

Wrenbury was a pretty village with lots of history.
Several of the houses in the area had the thatched roofs.

Once we got back on the boat and got going we were cruising water
we had already travelled on. John and Diane had not done the
aqueducts with us, and we really enjoyed that part of the country,
so we started our way back to LLangollen.
Back through the locks,

(Robin and Barbara doing the heavy work at this one)
. . and under more bridges.

I think we did about eleven locks today and went under some thirty bridges.
We may have been travelling over familiar ground,
but that did not mean we did not see new things.

I don’t know if these guys have a floating dog house, or the owner has a cheap burglar alarm!

And then some dogs just always know how to relax.

We also found a market the ladies explored, and Robin just loved the place. A real pretty garden, lots of homemade goodies and local meats like lamb and sausage.

When not riding on the boat, we would often, when the weather was nice, walk along on the tow path.

We reached Ellesmere again, arriving fairly late.
John and I stayed on the boat, while the ladies went into
town and had dinner at “The Black Lion”.
We did a lot of canal miles today, but it sure was fun.

What a great day!
As you can see, whenever we ate on board,
there was plenty of food and room!

Thanks to John N. and Robin for most of these pictures.