20240527 Monday May 27, 2024; Prestatyn to Bath. Crossing Back into England visiting a Victorian Aqueduct.

We got up early this morning to be able to take a walk on the beach.  The beach had nice find tan colored sands, and we found a lot of Atlantic razor clam shells.  It was interesting to see these since we have been so keen on digging our Pacific Razor clams at home.  These were a lot smaller and their shells looked like really long finger nails.  

The Breakfast at the Beaches Hotel was done a little differently.  They had a waitress who seated us and told us to help ourselves to juice.  She brought out tea and coffee.  The coffee was served in its own French press.  Janet's tea was in its own pot.  We then ordered off a menu.  They had granola listed, and also yogurt with fruit compote.  It turned out the granola was served in yogurt with fruit compote like a parfait.  We also had Eggs Benedict and Eggs Royale again.  Janet doesn't seem to care much for the British bacon/ham because it inevitably has fat in it. 

 

This was another very long day of driving. Although the Nordic Visitor guide suggested multiple stops in several villages, there is really only time for one stop each day when you have to check out of one hotel, drive to the next, and check in.  We chose to visit the Pontcysyllte Aqueduct which was about 90 minutes south of Prestatyn, en route to Bath.  Our GPS initially lead us up a winding twisting suicide lane climbing out of Prestatyn, but it did reward us with a nice view of the coast before turning inland.  

There was about a half hour’s driving through suicide lanes until we finally merged onto real streets with painted center lines and enough pavement for two cars to pass at speed without veering into bushes or stone walls on either side of the street.  We then eventually got onto a motorway, which was extremely welcome.  But it never fails that whenever you have to navigate through the small villages where the main tourist attractions are, you end up back on too narrow streets with cars parked willy-nilly blocking lanes of traffic, and meeting traffic in the middle of tiny stone bridges with no room for two cars to pass so someone has to back down to the nearest wide spot.  

The GPS took us to the carpark for the Pontcysyllte Aqueduct, but that car park was strictly for disabled vehicles and pass holders ONLY. The parking lot for all other vehicles was somewhere else, but for whatever reason, they can’t seem to post a map with North Up and directions to the nearest legal parking lot.  Ben was able to spot a private parking lot close by, attached to an old church converted into a teahouse/restaurant.  For £2 you could park all day in their lot.  When we arrived, there were only a handful of spots left, so we were lucky to get one.  It seems like you have to do your trip planning in the UK not from one tourist site to the next but to the nearest car park.  

This Aqueduct is not a Roman Aqueduct, but rather is a Victorian era public works project where they connected much of England via narrow canals for transport of goods and people.  These canals were owned by railroad companies and operated like rail lines with narrow boats pulled by horses across the countryside.  The canals connected to rail spurs where cargo and passengers were transferred between these modes of transport.

This aqueduct bridged a valley carved by a river so that canal traffic could cross perpendicular to the river 126’ above the river.  The aqueduct is 12’ wide with a 3’ wide footpath, and the water channel is 5’ deep.  They ran narrow boat rides across the aqueduct for £10 per person but it takes 45 minutes to do a round trip, so we just walked the narrow footpath.  Not something for the acrophobic.  If it were in New Zealand, someone would have been bungie jumping off the middle.  We also did a nice circle hike to be able to see the aqueduct from different angles other than straight down from the top.  It was impressive that it didn’t leak at all, despite being constructed at a time before welding technology was available.  It is a steel aqueduct supported on stone piers.  

After seeing and hiking around the Aqueduct, we made a bee line for Bath so we could arrive before too late.  Ben did have to pull over at one point for a 10 minute power nap after 2-1/2 hrs of straight driving and we did have intermittent rain and a few more stretches of suicide lanes before getting onto the M4 Motorway.  We arrived in Bath at 4PM.  Ben dropped off Janet and the suitcases at the hotel, which had no loading zone or parking nearby.  A parking space opened up across the street but required a permit, so we just had to hope that a license plate scanner didn’t drive by while we were getting registered at the hotel.  The receptionist reassured us that we’d be ok for the short while it took to get us registered before we’d have to move the car, and she gave Ben directions to a nearby pay car park, and a free parking area about the same distance, but up a hill.  Ben was able to find the free parking area, which ended up being a third of a mile walk.  

The Edgar Townhouse is a bit like the St. Raphael’s Guesthouse, with narrow hallways, stairs and small rooms, although this room was significantly larger than the St. Raphael’s room.  While Ben parked the car, Janet had some tea, and then we were off to explore Bath.  The location of the Edgar Townhouse is very convenient to exploring Bath on foot.  It is just a 10 minute walk to cross the Pulteney bridge into the old town center.  The Pulteney bridge is unique in that both sides of the bridge are completely lined with shops so from street level, you can’t tell there’s a bridge there.  It can be clearly seen from the river level below.  There is a dam to regulate water levels below the bridge and long boats both above and below the dam.  There is no lock.  

Although we had arrived after the Roman Baths and Bath Abbey had closed to tours, we had seen both of these landmarks during a prior cruise ship excursion.  We instead wandered through the town, and walked up to the Circus (not a Barnum and Bailey type circus, but a circular series of buildings around a circular park in the center), and another grand arc shaped building called the Royal Crescent overlooking Victoria Park.  

We then had dinner at The Saracen's Head Pub, which is allegedly the oldest Pub in Bath, dating to the 16th century.  Charles Dickens as apparently a guest in the remote past.  It is currently operated by the same company that ran the pub we ate in when we were in Oxford.  The menu was identical, but the food was not quite as good.  They had run out of mushy peas and buttery mash.  It looks like York's Guy Fawkes wins the contest for best Fish and Chips and Steak and Ale Pie in England.

In retrospect, we would not recommend this self drive tour as currently configured because we spent way too much time racing from one hotel to the next and not having any time to really do much exploring and no relaxation.  They really needed to design this with a 2 or even 3 night stay at each stop so that travel days would be interspersed with exploration and relaxation days.  As on a cruise, you must limit yourself to a single excursion per day to stay on schedule.  Driving the suicide lanes in the English countryside is also very stress inducing and it takes a lot longer to get places than Google estimates.  That’s perhaps because Google maps says the speed limit on those suicide lanes is 60mph, but in practice, anything above 35mph is suicide.  

Tomorrow we’re supposed to drop off the rental car.  It’ll take 3hrs to get from Bath to the hotel in London to drop off Janet with the luggage, and then back to Heathrow Airport to drop off the car.  Ben will then have to take the Tube to get back to the hotel.  That should prove to be a stress filled day.  The Nordic Visitor itinerary suggests things like seeing Stone Henge and the Sapphire Bombay Gin factory, but we will barely have time to get to the London Hotel if we skip out of breakfast early and drive straight into London.