Day tripping to Chirk

Part of the 'lets do as much as possible with Mhairi' ethos that is going around at the moment led to me, Mhairi and Nicola do a day trip to Chirk (in Wales...)

I had read quite a lot about the Wrexham & Shropshire railway, and was keen to try it. And as Mhairi likes going on trains we thought it would be a fine thing to do. And it was! The day started off well as we decided we would go for the full cooked brekkie. Delivered to our table (unheard of on other trains!), we had a fantastic breakfast of juice, hot drink, bacon, two sausages (very good ones as Nicola pointed out), tomato, black pudding (which I donated to Nicola), mushrooms, scrambled eggs and hash brown. All cooked to order as well!

It took about four hours to get to Chirk - odd for me as I went through several stations close to Wem, including Shrewsbury. Back in very familiar territory! Once we got to Chirk we headed straight for Chirk Castle. Which was a wee hike - about a mile up a road covered in sheep dung... But the colours were lovely - although we were getting a bit fed up by the time we finally got to the entrance. Nicola was in dire need of a reviving cup of tea... As it was Halloween it was crawling with kids in fancy dress (and as kids were allowed in free it really was crawling with them!). So after a pick-me-up drink we checked out the castle and its grounds. Quite imposing from the outside, but the inside wasn't so great. Definitely not one of the better ones I've been to. But the grounds were lovely - great topiary, and views out over the Wrekin. We finished that part of the day with a lovely National Trust tea and cake.

After that we went and checked out the Chirk Aqueduct. Very cool! It sits half in England and half in Wales, and it really is quite imposing. The rail bridge was built higher than the aqueduct to reinforce the superiority of the rail network... We also walked through the Darkie Tunnel - which must be named as it is pitch black inside! Mhairi lit the way with her mobile while Nicola and I followed somewhat nervously behind - it was great! 1200ft so it took a wee while!

Then it was back onto the train for the trip back to London. Dinner with wine was an indian curry with pate as a starter - again delivered to our table, and really nice food. Twas a great day out - check out the photos on Flickr!