Ystad Ddiwydiannol - try pronouncing that!

Monday 13th August

We left Birmingham in the direction of Wrexham which is in north Wales, the point of this detour being a visit to Demon Tweeks, who sell race gear. Thankfully our trip out of Birmingham was away from the city and after a short time through a few suburbs (much nicer than the ones we saw yesterday)  we were out in the country. Our trip took us up along the main road that runs parallel to the motorway - still not a lot to see, but better than seeing nothing.

As we got closer to Wales I said to Rob 'I wonder how Dora will go with the Welsh place names?'. Well she provided us with a few laughs. I wasn't even prepared to have a go with those words containing far more consonants than is reasonable. The translation of 'ystad ddiwydiannol' is industrial estate. Really? This was the sign we saw when we got to Demon Tweeks. Rob was happy - he bought a new balaclava for racing - don't think it was any cheaper than we can get at home though.

Thankfully all the road signs have both English and Welsh because we'd have no idea otherwise. Have a go at 'heddlu'. Police; you can't even begin to guess.

We stopped for lunch at a pub called Duke of Wellington where we had a great meal (2 for £10) and picked up a brochure about the Pontcysyllte (can't pronounce that either) Aqueduct which was completed in 1805. We took a short canal cruise across the aqueduct and back. Apparently they do a safety check every 5 years where they block off either end of the aqueduct and pull the plug to empty it. That would be a sight to see.

The pub - lunchtime, driving along and saw the sign 2 meals for £10.
That will do us, and excellent meals they were,
including the blackberry crumble which we shared.

Came out of the pub and the police had set up the mobile speed camera.

The aqueduct is about 7ft wide for the boat plus 4ft
for the horse to walk along to pull the boats.

Sculpture representing the main industry of the area
and use of the canal - limestone quarrying.

Lots of canal boats in the area - apparently you can follow
this system all the way to Birmingham and then on to London. 

Pontcysyllte Aqueduct from below.
126ft above the river.

Railway viaduct - this looked pretty impressive too.

Tonight we are staying in a B&B near the town of Bala in Wales. The house is over 400 years old - beautiful place.

Just a small example.

Found this in the pub where we had lunch. Nothing much changes does it?