A MAN’S HOME MAY BE HIS CASTLE, BUT THANKFULLY WE DON’T TAKE THIS LITERALLY ANYMORE

This morning we slept in a bit and then stopped in at the village store where Iris works, so we could get a bit of a feel for a typical day in Kinnerley. It is a quaint village centre, with basically a parish church on one corner, the store on another, and the requisite pub on a third. Met several of the local townspeople and they were all very friendly – something I really appreciate as we are so far from home!

Saw our second English town today – Oswestry (also in the county of Shropshire), where we wandered around a bit with Iris and Jos and then met up with Julie (daughter of Iris and Jos) and her elder son, Sam, at Wetherspoons Pub (a popular UK chain) for lunch. After my sheltered existence in Vancouver, it was weird to eat at a place where smoking is allowed, but I suppose that is all part of the Authentic British Experience. With my luck, they’ll probably ban smoking in restaurants (which has already been done in N. Ireland) just as we are leaving. If you think this is a silly prediction, see above for what happened to the ferries on the day I most needed to travel, and then tell me about the type of luck I have.

After lunch, we picked up Billy, Julie’s younger son, and the seven of us crossed over the Welsh border to see Chirck Castle, dating back from around 1300 (so a relatively new digs!). Apparently Chirck was built as part of Henry the V’s (in any case, one of the Henry’s, I appear to have lost my information pamphlet) attempt to guard the English border from the marauding Welshmen. Obviously didn’t work that well, because Chirck is now in Wales! I’ve posted some photos of the outside of the castle and the beautiful grounds here, would love to show you the inside but no photos allowed. My museum upbringing (thank-you, Lola) allows me to appreciate that no flash photography is for the sake of the artifacts, but I do wish you could have seen the beautiful paintings and ceiling murals. I guess this means you will all have to visit and see it for yourselves! While I have to admit the castle was nice (and a family descended from some Lord or other still lives in one of the wings), it was at least several degrees colder inside and out (not a good thing when out is cool already) and the state of some of the rooms suggested the place was definitely a fixer-upper.

Iris was very naughty and spoiled me with a lovely woolen throw from the gift shop (perfunctory tour required in order to get out of the castle) and Ray with a water tumbler that says “His Lordship” on it. I just hope he doesn’t take it to heart! Returned to Ian and Julie’s place afterwards to check on the progress of British sport – Ian keeping us updated on the football and cricket scores, both of which England was getting her rump sorely kicked at – and then retired for a traditional English meal of fish and chips. All in all, a lovely day!