User:JCNROB/sandbox

Chugging towards Chirk The Heathrow Express took us to Paddington, from where we had to get to Euston, on the Underground. We accomplished all that, only to find that Euston Station isn’t the same as Euston on the Underground, and we had to negotiate several sets of steps and a journey on the footpaths above to get to where we needed to be. John used his credit card to collect our tickets and we waited to see which platform we would leave from. We added in the complication of trying to get some money (I discovered I’ve brought the wrong card) and we bought some food, at ENORMOUS expense, so it was a relief to get ourselves onto the train — that is, until the train failed to get to Rugby in time to catch the connecting train to Birmingham. There was nothing we could do but wait for another train, and have another cup of awful coffee. When we got to Birmingham, we had more than an hour to wait for the train to Chirk, so having found that the lift took us down to where we didn’t want to go but not up to where we did want to go, we negotiated a set of steps and sat ourselves down in a pub to wait. A beer will solve many problems.

We got to Chirk Railway Station about 5 p.m. There was nothing there, so we lugged our cases up yet more steps, and left them in a pile with John at their centre, while Faye and I walked into the village to try to find the Hand Hotel. There was so much to ooh and aah at, that it took us a while to get on track. The sight of a Cadbury’s factory shooting great plumes of steam into the sky gave us a laugh.

The Hand Hotel, beautifully bedecked with hanging baskets and flowering pots, was right at the intersection of our station road and the main road. We arranged for a taxi to come and get me to go to the station to get John and the luggage, while Faye got organised in her less-than-desirable room in the hotel that advertised itself as from the era of James I with all mod cons. By the time we showered and changed after all those hours from Iowa, we were well and truly ready for a drink at the bar and dinner at the pub.