Thar be Whales...I mean Wales (Ruthin, Wales)

Monday, 21 October 2019

After 2 weeks powering down the canals of northeastern England, we are back on land again. We turned in our narrowboat, took a bus to the train station, took a train to Liverpool, walked 20 minutes to Hertz, and drove 1.5 hours to Ruthin, Wales.

We arrived at the Ruthin Castle Hotel and Spa, our hotel for the night, at 2 PM.  Check-in wasn't until 3 PM and the room wasn't ready yet, so we decided to walk into town.  By the way...here is our hotel for the night:

There are even peacocks roaming the grounds.

Rick Steves suggests visiting an old jail (Ruthin Gaol) and Nantclwyd y Dre, an Elizabethan-era, oldest timbered townhouse in Wales.  As it turns out, both of these places are closed from October through March.  I guess we really are traveling during the off-season now. 

Even though Nantclwyd y Dre, built in 1435, we checked it out from the outside.  I guess we got to save £7 since it was closed.

Nantclwyd y Dre, the oldest timbered house in Wales

We continued our walk into town and came across this rock:

Would you believe that "On this stone the legendary King Arthur is said to have beheaded Huail, brother of Gildas the historian, his rival in love and war."  Well...it must be true since there was an historical marker there:

This old building called Myddleton Arms AKA Seven Eyes and dates back to the 16th century.  Called Seven Eyes due to the 7 dormer windows.

I have no idea what this building is, but it is really cool looking.

Nice views from the town:

In town there was a memorial to Grand Prix driver Thomas Maldwyn.  Born in Ruthin, he was killed in a freak accident when he collided with a safety marshal in a race in 1977.

This mosaic was on the walls of Ruthin Gaol, the old jail.  It is of Grace Hones who was put on trail in 1786 for stealing cloth.  She was sentenced to Australia after spending time in Ruthin Gaol.

We stopped in a local pub for a pint, then went to Weatherspoons for dinner.  As we have traveled the UK, we have seen Weatherspoons all over.  We have avoided it since I try to avoid chains when we travel.  However, they have these signs on their window advertising the low cost of beers and cocktails, so we thought we would give it a try.  Well, for £22 ($28.50) we had a 11 inch pizza, grilled chicken & bacon sandwich with fries, 2 draft beers, 1 can of beer, and a double gin and tonic.  Now I know why people frequent this business.

After dinner we went back to the hotel and checked in.  It is pretty nice to be in a room that has room after spending the last 2 weeks in a narrowboat.  The bed is huge and the shower looks as though I can turn around in it without hitting my arms on the walls.  We really did enjoy the narrowboat holiday, but it is nice to have room to move around again.