 After taking a cruise on an Ocean Liner to Panama, we were
in search of a more informal setting, but still connected with the water. A friend who had
made six narrowboat trips in England recommended an English County Cruise, now part of the
Alvechurch Line, on the Llangollen Canal into Wales and the Shropshire Canal to Chester.
This appealed to us as these bare boats could be stocked for breakfast and lunches.
Dinners could then be eaten in the lovely towns along the way or in the canal side pubs.
Another couple, old friends from college, who had been living in Switzerland for many
years, joined us.
 After a brief checkout, we motored away at four knots into the Wales
and English countryside. The scenery was magnificently bucolic. Ralph and I steered the
boat and the girls worked the locks, a fairly easy chore. We will always remember steering
our narrowboat across the old Roman aqueduct, 120 feet in the air, enroute to Llangollen
in Wales.
Another memory is of a beautiful lake abounding in trout with a number of the local
fishermen enthusiastically fishing with fly rods. We also toured within the walled city of
Chester, dined well, and were able to visit the Chester Cathedral.
After two weeks on our narrowboat, we parted company with our friends and rented a car to
tour Cornwall and the south of England. We stayed in Castles and Manor houses for two to
three nights each as we made side trips during each day to explore the sights, but
that’s another story.
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