Holiday snaps

[strange_complex]

Right - it's time we had this canal holiday in pictures, then.

General canal scene with nice lighting	Our boat - it was 69 feet long
Cows!	The galley - Mum making tea
Role-players beware!	The prow of our boat
Dad raising a lift-bridge	First view of the Pontcysyllte aqueduct
It's pronounced 'Pont-ker-sulth-tee'	View over the side
A railway bridge visible from the canal aqueduct You can also see the shadows of the canal aqueduct across the fields and trees	Mum on the boat, crossing the aqueduct
As far as I dared lean over the edge	Our boat on the aqueduct...
...with Dad steering	And again
From the back of the boat	That railway bridge again
Mum and the river Dee That's what the aqueduct actually crosses. Well, that and the hoofing great valley it's in.	View down to the river It is quite a long way.
The final stretch of the aqueduct	More of the river Dee
And again	Prow, boat, aqueduct
Boat, etc. etc. Canal boats move very slowly in a narrow channel, as there isn't much room for the water to be displaced into. Hence so many photographs - there was a lot of time to take them.	Mum opening her presents at breakfast time on the 26th
Rainbow patterns in the oil on the water These pictures were taken on a rather busy stretch of the canal near Llangollen, hence the oil - most parts of the canal weren't actually this polluted.	More rainbows
Rainbows around the prow	And again
Llangollen town This is Llangollen itself, where we got off and had a wander round.	Llangollen bridge It nestles in a valley, as Welsh towns do.
Llangollen railway station	The river Dee passing through the town
A hotel	Julius Caesar was there, serving beer and food.
Mum's birthday cake Lunch-time on the 26th	Mum having just blown out her candles
A horse drawing a barge at Llangollen	Some pirates drew up alongside!
Oh noes! We'll be forced to walk the plank!	This is a long one-way stretch on the way back from Llangollen
And this is why it has to be one-way	Trees cling gamely to the bank
Another aqueduct and railway bridge combo - this time near Chirk	Sunlight through the arches
Aqueduct	Mum's balloons She originally had six, but already by the time this photo was taken, we'd lost the three from the other side of the boat.
Prow, boat, aqueduct	My sister steering across the aqueduct
And again	Boat, railway bridge
Sister changing gear	A lock-keeper's house I saw quite a few with this round design - I presume so that the lock-keeper could see boats coming from both directions easily.
Close-up Actually, the round bit reminds me of half a Romano-Celtic temple - so I may end up using this picture in lectures to show how the architecture works.	Dad steering, with his skipper's cap.
General canal view	One of about 60 bridges we passed through, once in each direction
Wider bridge scene	A boat going through a lift-bridge
House by a canal junction, jauntily angled for views both ways	Another lift-bridge - we did at least 10 of these, too.
Our boat, moored for the night	Hawthorn berries
This is Bella, a canal cat	She actually only had one back leg, although you can hardly tell from the pictures
She was very friendly	Canal junction sign-post
Bella at the junction	Bella looking cute
Junction without Bella	Junction with Bella
Another rounded house, this time at another junction	The headquarters of the Shropshire Union Canal and Railway Company
A heron standing on the bank. This photo isn't zoomed in or anything - it's simply taken from the back of the boat as we went past.	More cows!
Bridge with rope-marks	Another bridge with rope-marks
Another sign-post	Bridge, bridge, bridge, bridge, number one!
Sheep!	Lots of sheep!
Ducklings!	Close-up of different ducklings!
And again	Daz's tray We bought this from a charity shop in Llangollen, because the boat was long and thin and it was tedious carrying drinks back and forth through it. Now it's back in Leeds, and destined to become the property of big_daz next time I see him, because he collects this kind of thing.