Monday, May 20

Kate and I followed the standard plan more or less, until we got to Llangollen, Wales, where we got lunch and lost Kate's sunglasses in a sandwich shop near the tourist car park, and then spent a couple of hours visiting the Dr Who museum. This was pretty interesting, even for Kate (not a Dr Who fan) because of all the ex-BBC props and wardrobes on display. The museum is in the same building as a manufacturer of plastic models, mostly HO railroad bits and the odd Dr Who replica, and the museum tour included a walk through the factory, and surprise, the museum shop, where lots of HO railroad merchandise was available, as well as lots of TV show memorabilia, not only Dr Who but the Prisoner (more later) and many many other 60's-to-present shows paraphenalia. Sated with Dr Who, we rode to the hotel in Betws-y-Coed.

At the hotel were a number of steam cars and their owners, on their annual rally. I talked to a German fellow who had built his Stanley from a box of bits of the motor - he'd fabricated the rest of the car himself. (He's a machinist, fairly obviously.)