Tuesday 4 June - Chirk

No blood pudding

The Shrewsbury signal box is enormous but is difficult to photograph because it is surrounded by railway lines.

After a full English breakfast (they were out of blood pudding!) we walked into town along the river to visit the castle grounds. They were guarded by a wicked looking duck skulking in the shadows.
Mary's internet connection is not working as the provider's network is down nationally.  We think Mary's juju has brought the whole network down.
The trip to Chirk took about 20 minutes in a pretty full train. Arriva run two car trains from Birmingham International to Holyhead.

Chirk station is well maintained thanks to a local volunteer group which has adopted it.

We walked to see the Chirk Aqueduct built in1801 and still in use. We watched a couple of boats come out of the tunnel and cross the aqueduct. Very impressive to think it was built over 200 years ago and still performing as intended. There was quite a lot of boat traffic in both directions.

This is the view from above the tunnel over the canal basin with the aqueduct further back.  The railway viaduct is on the right at a higher level.

This boat has just left the tunnel and is in the canal basin.

Looking down from the aqueduct we could see several sheep with lambs in the pasture. Their noise was the only sound in the entire  valley
Chirk village did not hold us so we caught the 1200 return train to Shrewsbury.
The Bull had a passable bitter - Hobgoblin, and we had a snack across the street.
A wander across town revealed more old buildings and the market square.  Many people are out enjoying the fine weather.

Some buildings were leaning out precariously.

This was one of the most twisted buildings we found. I wonder what the beer is like?

Junk n' Disorderly