Last Friday was our Golden Wedding Anniversary - fifty years married! We'd been feeling the need of a break, and this seemed like the best time to take it, but it wasn't going to be a break on Kantara. We wanted to go somewhere, but if we went by slow boat, the somewheres we passed through or stopped at would be places we'd seen many times before. No, we wanted to go somewhere new to us, and we didn't want to have to travel for days to get there. So we went to the ancient Shropshire town of Ludlow. Take a look at it here.
It's a beautiful, fascinating little place, with nearly 500 listed buildings, including lots of examples of medieval and Tudor-style half-timbered buildings. The town was described by Sir John Betjeman as "Probably the loveliest town in England". Ludlow Castle is a ruined medieval fortification that stands on a promontory overlooking the town and the River Teme. It was probably founded after the Norman conquest, and was one of the first stone castles to be built in England.
There's a lot of walking to be done in and around the town, and through the hilly woodland that overlooks it. Unfortunately, the river was far too close to flooding to allow us to walk alongside it, but the rest of the strolling gave us the exercise we needed... and more!
Needless to say, we had a great time.
We left the Cliffe Hotel after breakfast on Saturday, and made our way towards Yelvertoft Marina. We'd be passing the turn-off on the M1 anyway, so it made good sense to drop in and see the poor old boat. It was but a brief visit; just the routine running of the Webasto, and another firing up of the Bubble stove, in which the oil again refused to run until the hair-dryer had adequately heated up the feed pipe - just like the last time. "Kantankerous" was her first nick-name!
Then we carried on home, with Christmas preparations looming over our heads just a week before the day. No pressure there then!
Picture gallery...
A Happy Christmas to you all,
and a very much better new year!
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