25th September 2018
Llangollen & Llanfair Pg
Horseshoe Falls
Today I parted company from Susie, Ben & Aimee, and met up with Andy for the rest of the week.
Up again for a 09:30 breakfast, then back to our rooms to finish packing. I then loaded up the car, and we headed round to Jessie’s. I now had to unload everything except my stuff.
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I had originally agreed with Andy to meet me at Jessie’s, but changed my mind, due to Jessie, Susie, Ben & Aimee going to Wrexham, so I took the opportunity to go and visit Horseshoe Falls and St Tysilio's Church, so I messaged Andy to meet me in the car park of Home Bargains.
St Tysilio's Church.
After a number of trips up and down to Jessie's flat with everyone's luggage, I said my goodbyes, and headed off.
I drove through Llangollen over the River Dee, turning left along the A542, then turned left again onto the B5103 (this becomes a very narrow road), the car park by Horseshoe Falls, is on the left. Once I had parked up I headed to the pay machine, when a couple who were heading back to their car, asked if I wanted their ticket, I thanked them, then got my gear out of the car and had a short walk down to the falls.
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I spent some time here taking photos. As I headed along the bank, I got into conversation with a gentleman about photography, he was saying he used to enjoy taking photos, but hadn't done any serious photography for some time now due to health issues, he had had to stop and wait for his family to return, as he didn't have the energy to continue the walk they had gone on. I wished him well and continued on my walk.
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I then headed along the path to St Tysilio's Church. This church is in the middle of nowhere and is a lovely little church. I took quite a few photos around the outside of the church before heading back towards the car park, following a different path from the one I had come in on. As I was on my way back towards my car, thinking of going back into Llangollen to see if I could get some more photos there, I got a text from Andy, saying he was here! I called him to check where he was (Jessie’s or the car park). Here was the car park, I said I would be around 15 minutes, as I still had to get back to my car and then make my way through Llangollen to the car park.
A Celtic Cross Headstone.
I found Andy parked up, we decided to walk into Llangollen, to a café Jessie had recommended called m’Eating Point. On our way out of the car park Andy noticed a sign with reference to parking there, after a load of blurb, it said that parking was free once you have bought something from one of the shops there, so we went into Aldi and bought a bottle of water each to cover both cars. When I was paying for mine, I asked the cashier if she needed to give us a parking ticket/voucher? She said no. So off we went to the café. We found somewhere to sit, Andy had to spend a penny, while he was gone one of the staff came to take our order, I said my friend would be back in the minute, the staff member said he would come back shortly. Once Andy had returned, we discussed what we wanted, Andy said he wasn’t really that hungry, so we decided on a coffee, we waited… and waited, with no staff returning, we both decided enough was enough, and got up and left. We had decided to head straight to the cottage, get moved in and have a drink there.
It was good to be back at the cottage, there had been some changes since we were last there (2015! has it really been 3 years?), the bathroom had been totally refurbished, there was now no bath, this had been replaced by a huge walk in shower. In the kitchen there was now a dishwasher, but all in all it was still the cottage we loved. Once we had unpacked, we headed to Tesco to do our shopping for the week (mainly stuff for breakfast and some snacks). We had already decided not to buy loads of food for home made meals, but instead go out for main meals. Once back at the cottage we unpacked the shopping, and then just chilled out for a while.
The Cottage Dyfnia Bach
When we came up in 2015 with James, on our way back from Fairy Glen near Betws-y-Coed, we were just about to enter Caernarfon, when we spotted an Indian restaurant called Sopna, we had a lovely meal in there, then a day or so later, on our way to Red Wharfe Bay we passed another Sopna Indian restaurant just on the outskirts of Llanfair PG. So, for our evening meal on our first night, we went to Sopna near Llanfair PG. Yet again, another lovely meal, as we were paying the bill we got talking to the owner, saying how nice the food was and we had been to his other restaurant near Caernarfon, to which he replied “It was nothing to do with us, we had sold the business and the new owners were supposed to change the name, but they hadn’t”. We then headed back to the cottage.
Due to the area and my mobile network being bad around here, as on previous trips, I had to make my way up to the top of the garden to give Susie a call.
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We had decided before the holiday, that we would have a Star Wars week (watch all the Star Wars movies in chronological order, which also included the film Solo, which I had bought when we went to Tesco).
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So chronological order reads as follows:-
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1. Star Wars Episode I - The Phantom Menace (1999)
2. Star Wars Episode II - Attack of the Clones (2002)
3. Star Wars Episode III - Revenge of the Sith (2005)
4. Solo A Star Wars Story (2018)
5. Rouge One A Star Wars Story (2016)
6. Star Wars Episode IV - A New Hope (1977)
7. Star Wars Episode V - The Empire Strikes Back (1980)
8. Star Wars Episode VI - Return of the Jedi (1983)
9. Star Wars Episode VII - The Force Awakens (2015)
10. Star Wars Episode VIII - The Last Jedi (2017)
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See how far we get with this saga set in a Galaxy Far Far Away...……...
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So, this evenings entertainment was The Phantom Menace. A great end to a busy day.