Never one to waste an opportunity to turn a simple journey into a road trip, I had spent full minutes investigating things to do en route to Snowdonia. Quickly dismissing the various monuments to the industrial revolution (Ironbridge, a knife angel?), I settled for the old faithful - a little border nerdery.

It turns out that the English/Welsh border runs through the village of Llanymynech. More than that, it runs through the bar of the local pub. One can imagine the challenges that this will have caused during differing lockdown regimes!

Before getting there and just before entering into spectacular Welsh scenery, I passed through the villgage of Knockin in Shropshire. Now I’m sure that Knockin has a lot to recommend it (some rudimentary research suggests that it was home to one of the few Baron Strange’s in English peerage history), but I think for the tourism stakes, they have decided to lean into the name. I had to smile as I passed the village store named the Knockin Shop (obvs). Way to make use of what you have Knockin!

Onwards to Wales and, with some time to kill before I could get into the let, I headed into Bala. Not for the lake you understand, I am under strict instructions to visit a bottle shop in the high street. Well worth the trip. It would be even more worth it if I were in the market for beer, but they had Black Dragon cider, so all is well!