Steenblik Overseas Vacation - Day 7: Canal Ride, Chirk Castle, & Costco

We had a fun breakfast at our beautiful hotel.  I got a yummy yogurt fruit bowl.  Tony got a yummy breakfast sandwich.  After eating we had extra time before we needed to be to our canal ride, so we took the opportunity to walk around the town some more.  We found a cute little trail in a wooded area that was fun to walk around.  It wasn't very long, but fun to explore.  We took a path that took us back to the hotel through the local neighborhood.  Britain's tallest aqueduct.

We then checked out of the hotel and drove to find the canal ride that is Britain's tallest aqueduct.  It was difficult to figure out where we were suppose to park, but we figured it out and got to where we needed to go.  Lloyd fell off the sidewalk walking to the canal and it really scared us.  He did good at tucking and rolling, so he wasn't too badly banged up. 

We checked out a couple of the little shops that are right on the canal while we waited for our ride to begin.  I tried to talk Welsh and it is very hard.  I told Tony that it kind of sounded like I was speaking Klingon.  Then the lady at the shop told me to embrace my inner Klingon while trying to speak Welsh, so that made me feel pretty good.  

Our group was the first ones on the very skinny boat.  Tony and I got the very front of the boat.  Once everyone was loaded we started our short ride on the canal.  We had to wait for people to go through the canal bridge before we could go through.  It is only big enough for one boat or kayakers to go through at a time.  So you have to wait your turn.  After going through the bridge we then drove a little longer and then we made a huge U-turn and came back to where we started.  So it was super short, but a neat experience.

After our ride we loaded back up and drove to Chirk to go tour the Chirk Castle. They had a cafe there, so once we got in the castle we decided to eat lunch first.  After eating we all toured the castle and the grounds.  It was very pretty and neat to see the castle.  They had a rose garden area, so I had to take a smell the roses picture.  It was still very hot, so we enjoyed all we could before going back to the vans.  

We had a four hour drive ahead of us to get back to London.  The drive was pretty.  Tony and Nate did a great job driving for this part of our trip.  Tony said the hardest part was all the round abouts and not knowing what lane to be in to exit the round about.  A lot of the roads in the little cities were very narrow and then people would park on the road, so that made it tricky too.  

Margie noticed that we'd pass a Costco on our way into London, so we stopped there for dinner and a little shopping.  The pizza there was not very good.  Very bland.  But I did find a dress that I bought for like $10, so that was good. 

We then made it back into London.  That was crazy fun driving in London traffic.  They got us to our hotel which was right by the train station.  We got all unloaded and got our stuff in what was the worst hotel of the trip.  Luckily in was only one night, so not a big deal.  I went with Tony, Tim and Nate to drop off the vans.  It was crazy getting the vans to where they needed to be dropped off.  It was super close to the train station, but getting it there was super hard.  It was a relief when we finally got them dropped off.  We then walked to our hotel and called it a night.