Llangollen

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Monday October 15 - We had a little freedom with the schedule, since the last couple of days were all different than initially planned, but we wanted to get into Manchester, England, where we would fly out tomorrow, in time for dinner. So we decided to visit Llangollen on the way. I had first heard of it in reference to the ladies of Llangollen on the Stuff You Missed in History podcast. Eleanor Butler and Sarah Ponsonby were from Ireland and spent their lives together. They lived in the late 18th, early 19th centuries and scandalized and fascinated their peers. They came to live here where they were allowed to live in peace. It’s not clear that they actually had a sexual relationship of any kind, but they were quite devoted to each other. We visited the hose where they lived, Plas Newydd, but it was closed on Mondays, so we could only walk the grounds. It was quite a beautiful house with gardens and a stream and forest on the property. We also visited the church in town where they were buried, along with their maid. We went next to nearby Pontcysyllte Aqueduct, another UNESCO site and a navigable aqueduct. We walked across and stood next to the boats crossing it. The views were good, but the clouds were not ideal.

From there we drove about 90 minutes to Manchester. I booked this “guesthouse” on Booking, and it was not so much a guesthouse as a house where all the rooms were rented out. Luckily Jeroen’s cell phone worked, since we had to call to be let in. It was ok, but not great. The weirdest thing was that there was also a guy renting the living room, and he was behind a screen. Not so much privacy, really. We went out to get gas and ended up at Tesco, so we got a couple of frozen pizzas and cooked those while we made sandwiches for the morning. We had an early flight, so we decided to take sandwiches to the airport for breakfast. Living room guy came in for a wee chat while we ate. He was nice but I still thought it was weird that he had been living in the living room for 3 months. I was glad to get back upstairs and sleep. Tomorrow - Northern Ireland!

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