We have just arrived back from our Canal Boat Holiday in Wales. We had a lovely time and took soooo many photos. very scenic. Over the next couple of posts i will try and describe briefly our holiday.
We left London on Tuesday and took the train to Chester and then on to Chirk. We were on a Virgin train which was very nice and even included a light lunch. We picked the boat up from Chirk marina and headed up to Langollen .
We decided we didn't want to rough it and have tiny beds so we had a room each with a double bed (smaller than a real double bed). We should have realised that meant we would have a very very long boat !! When we picked it up they said something like 'you have picked a long one !'. When the gale force wind picked up it was like trying to steer a 70ft sail ! challenging. However we managed quite well and only blocked the canal a couple of times.
This is a picture of us moored at Langollen for our first night stop.
We left London on Tuesday and took the train to Chester and then on to Chirk. We were on a Virgin train which was very nice and even included a light lunch. We picked the boat up from Chirk marina and headed up to Langollen .
We decided we didn't want to rough it and have tiny beds so we had a room each with a double bed (smaller than a real double bed). We should have realised that meant we would have a very very long boat !! When we picked it up they said something like 'you have picked a long one !'. When the gale force wind picked up it was like trying to steer a 70ft sail ! challenging. However we managed quite well and only blocked the canal a couple of times.
This is a picture of us moored at Langollen for our first night stop.
To get to Langollen we travelled over a very high Aqueduct and through a long tunnel, very exciting.
We had dinner in a lovely pub called the Corn Mill. The next morning we walked around the town and did a bit of touristy shopping. This is us in Langollen.
The rain hit us in the afternoon and fortunately Jo and Chris had bought weatherproof pants in the morning. It bucketed down all afternoon and we all got very wet !
The second night we moored in a small sheltered (so we thought) marina outside a hotel. After a lovely meal in the restaurant we went to bed only to be woken at 4am with the boat smashing on to the wharf !! The wind had hit and because of our 70ft sail it was very wild and woolly. So the three of us were on the wharf in our jarmies(and rain coats) re tying the boat at 4 am.The next morning was sunny and after that we only had isolated showers but plenty of wind.
Thats enough now i will continue the last couple of days in the next post.
wow Fiona, seems like you are having plenty of adventure already! That long boat looks pretty hard to manage too!
ReplyDeleteGreat to hear you are having a lovely time... After a beautiful weekend, we got rained on today, with all the grayness and windyness you know can happen. I will continue to trip vicariously through you both !!
Ariane
We really enjoyed seeing the canal boat after all the time we spent listening to the three of you planning this trip. We look forward to seeing the inside! It sounded like a real adventure steering the very, very long narrow boat through the canals and the narrow tunnels, if they were all like the one in the picture. The sky looks nice and blue in this picture, so we are glad you enjoyed some sunny weather too. Very happy to hear you had a great time. Chris and Jo sounded very excited, but relaxed when we spoke to them on the phone.
ReplyDeleteLooking forward to hearing about the rest of your trip.
Gwen and Annette