Ruthin

Holiday backblip 8

Very sad to leave our holiday cottage a day early as, a while ago, we had promised to go to a friend's 'big birthday' party tomorrow afternoon. Would like to have spent much longer exploring Pembrokeshire!

Had a lovely scenic journey travelling through a wild and windy mid-Wales. Predictably, we didn't take the direct route, but meandered past Devil's Bridge, and then via the Nant-y-moch reservoirs in the Cambrian Mountains. The AA Road Atlas, which I was using to navigate, doesn't show contours. While the road we took up to the reservoirs was just a normal country road, the road down was much more exciting - very narrow, very steep downhill, hairpin bends, with a precipitous drop to one side and very few passing places! The motoring equivalent of Crib Goch! Thank goodness nothing came the other way! (If there had been anywhere safe to stop, it would have been today's Blip!.)

Plans to go to Corris were thwarted, as the bridge through Machynlleth was flooded after yesterday's rain, so we continued on to Ruthin and stopped for tea and cake. We have both passed by many times in the past, but never stopped in the town before. A pretty place; this lovely building with all the dormer windows is in the main square.

Final stage of today's journey past Chester and up to Grassington in the Yorkshire Dales, for an overnight stay in a country pub. After a very nice meal in the pub, we relaxed with a couple of drinks and were soon surrounded by a group of - mostly elderly - people from a local choir. Apparently, the lady who sat next to MrM was one of the original Calendar Girls...