Chapter 2-DAY19-Chester to Bristol


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August 20th 2011
Published: August 22nd 2011
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Pontcysyllte AqueductPontcysyllte AqueductPontcysyllte Aqueduct

A bit scary but great views from the middle of the Aqueduct
ENGLAND-WALES-ENGLAND...

The guy organising our breakfast at the Hotel in Chester was French, I was wearing my black NZ Football shirt – he was very keen to talk to me about the World Cup (especially the last one!). Generally the RWC isn’t featuring over here although now the final squads have been announced it might get some more press. Not surprisingly England cricket has captured the limelight at the moment, although nothing compares to coverage of football –it’s great!

Today we left Chester and headed back into Wales, our first stop was the Pontcysyllte Aqueduct. The Aqueduct is an amazing feat of engineering especially when you consider it was completed in 1805 – it is the longest and highest Aqueduct in Britain and carries the Llangollen Canal over the Valley of the river Dee. The structure is effectively a bridge with a canal running through it so the canal boats can cross the valley hundreds of feet in the air. You can walk across the left hand side and the views of the valley from the middle are awesome. The right hand side has no railings just the edge of the canal with a huge drop.

LUDLOW
We
LudlowLudlowLudlow

One of the most historic small towns in Britain
then headed off to Llangollen for a half hour break to stretch our legs and have a look around the village, from there we dropped down to Shropshire and the historic town of Ludlow for lunch. The trip took a bit longer because George (bus driver) made a rare mistake and missed the turn off – still we got to see a bit more of the countryside! Taking into account its size relative to other UK towns and cities Ludlow has more historic listed buildings than any other UK town/city. Lots of black and white Tudor buildings including the famous Feathers (Prince of Wales) Hotel. Roger's (guy on tour we get on really well with) family originally come from the area and he was able to find out a bit of extra family history from the Information Centre. Quite a few people on tour have found out more about their family history as we have moved around which has been great for them.

On the way south we went through Hereford and passed the home ground of Hereford United - they are currently in League 2 after being relegated last season. They have played at the ground (Edgar Street)since
Tintern AbbeyTintern AbbeyTintern Abbey

Impressive Abbey ruins
the first started back in 1924.

TINTERN ABBEY
After lunch we headed down to Bristol our destination for the day, we had one final stop at Tintern Abbey –or to be more precise the ruins of Tintern Abbey. Henry the 8th had a whole lot of Abbeys belonging to people who didn’t support him destroyed – confiscating all the valuables, stained glass windows etc and then good old Henry had their roofs removed so they were unusable and would ultimately fall to bits. There was a cricket game being played on the park right next to the Abbey, all very British.
The tour doesn’t spend much time in Wales, we don’t stay there, just pass through. The valleys we saw and the stops we made gave us the briefest snapshot. Still we can add Wales to our list of countries visited!

BRISTOL
We had arranged to meet Helen Lewis a former work colleague at Fairfax and her husband John who had moved to Bristol to live a few months ago. Bizarrely John had worked with Carol who is on the tour with us back in NZ (small world), so her and her husband Ian joined us for a drink at the Hotel. It was great to catch up with Helen and find out what she and john had been up to. We then went for a meal at a local Pub and they gave us a bit of a walking tour of central Bristol on the way back. It was just a brief catch up, always under time pressure on tour, but very enjoyable.
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23rd August 2011

Tintern Abbey looks amazing :)
23rd August 2011

Tintern Abbey
It certainly was,there are heaps of Abbey Ruins but this one was particularly impressive. Also on at Skipton which we plan to see to :)

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