That was us today, driving to Oswestry we crossed from Wales to England, then back into Wales to get to the hospital and then a repeat for the homeward journey. This is because Oswestry, a border town that used to be in Wales is now in England after the border was redrawn creating an English bulge. It was strange to see road signs written only in English though many of the place names were Welsh. It's fun to translate the names. Hengoed is Old Wood but Coedpoeth - Hot Wood had us wondering. Maybe there had been charcoal burning in that wood which requires fires to be burning for long periods of time?
Our trip was for me to have an initial consultation about having the cyst removed from my toe. I had thought it would be a simple matter of the consultant looking at my toe and the original x-ray, which he did, and then setting a date to have the surgery, which didn't happen. That's because he would like additional imaging, hopefully by ultrasound or possibly an MRI before the surgery to have a better look at the bones. He's asked for this to be done on the NHS which would save me some costs so now I'll have to wait to see if that is possible. If not I'll have to stump up.
It was quite a bit of driving today, two hours each way so by the end my back was beginning to ache. I have noticed that the passenger seat in our car is considerably less comfortable than the driver's seat. Another factor in not enjoying the journey was driving on dual carriageways once we got to England. And so much traffic even in the middle of the afternoon. I've spent so many long journeys on those monotonous roads, high banks on either side topped by trees or bushes with glimpses beyond of uninspiring almost flat fields. That sort of countryside really does not appeal to me. But the minute we get into Wales the hills and mountains appear and there is a beauty to the wild scenery.
Something that Peter pointed out today is that the car's speedometer is not accurate and makes it look as if we are driving 4 or 5 miles faster than we really are. So when I'm sticking to the 20mph limit I'm really only driving at 17 mph. 20mph is slow enough. We know this because we were using a Satnav which gives an accurate speed and we made numerous comparisons at different speeds.
Since we were making such a long journey we decided to spend a couple of hours in Oswestry as well. It is a picturesque market town with many small passageways and timbered buildings dating from medieval times. The main shopping street is pedestrianised and has a preponderance of eating places. The type of place you would go to after or during a night out at the many pubs and venues. Not really our sort of thing but we did call in at quite a few charity shops as Peter had expressed a desire for dictionaries and study books for his language studies. Currently he is brushing up his French, German and Spanish as well as learning Welsh. He found some so he's happy. We don't usually eat lunch but shared some chicken sandwiches from M&S as we couldn't find any independent local bakeries and didn't fancy the mass produced offerings in the other bakeries. (I know M&S is mass produced too but it was cheaper and looked nicer.)
The Llwyd mansion is a Grade 1 listed building that dates back to 1400's when it was four separate shops with dwelling places above. The Llwyd family acquired it in 1604 either as their town house or possibly as a rental property.
After all that driving as soon as I got home, having dropped Peter off to meet somebody, I simply sat out on the terrace to decompress while watching the flat grey sea with the 'islands' of the Llyn sitting mistily on the horizon. I'm glad we live where we do.
Oswestry Town hall.
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