14th October 2015

This morning for breakfast I had a “pour water into a prepared mixture in the packaging” pottle of cinnamon porridge. It wasn’t bad. Tomorrow I’m trying a different brand that’s apple and cinnamon, but don’t expect to hear about it for a few days.

Tomorrow I’m flying home.

I’ve had a ball and everyone I’ve stayed with has been more than hospitable and made me feel more then welcome, but I’ve got to say that I’m looking forward to my own home, my own bed, and of course D.C.

East or west (or north), home is best.

But maybe not work. 😉

The weather forecast for tonight’s temperatures is 5°C. This is partly the reason why today is the first time this whole trip, that I’d chosen to wear my Thunderbirds jumper. The only other time I wore it was when at the convention and I had to go down to the lounge to access the Internet in my PJs.

Today we went back to Ludlow. A) I had to collect the gift the church hadn’t put in the packaging and B) Both Pen and I wanted to check out the castle. Also there was a walk showing you the highlights of the town at 2.30pm, that we thought would be interesting.

We’d been trying to work out the best place to park the car – somewhere that offered longer than the three hours we had on Monday. Then Pen thought of the park and ride. This was a brilliant idea as the parking was free and the bus into Ludlow was £1.50 each.

We got out of the bus at the same square that we’d parked at two days ago. First stop was the church, where I got the thing I’d bought.

Then we went to the castle.

Yes, it’s a ruin, but what do you expect for something that was originally built from 1086 and then built on during the subsequent centuries?

What can I tell you about it?

It’s got steep steps…

… although not as steep as the church’s.

But you can see why the Normans chose to build there.

I can’t really tell you much else, but we enjoyed looking around. Just enjoy the photos when I get around to posting them.

Just know that we had a couple of very nice hot chocolates – served in a pot!

As we had planned to go on the 2.30 walk, we decided that we’d better buy the tickets for it. Pen went to ask where you got them from…

She came back and told me that they’re only operating them in the weekends now.

So we found the information centre and got a self-guiding map and did the tour around town. And got more photos of Wonky Tudor – Tudor we hadn’t seen nor photographed before, Tudor we had seen and photographed before, but not from this angle, and Tudor I’d probably already photographed from this angle, but who cares? It fascinates me.

As we waited for the Park and Ride bus we were serenaded by what Pen thought were performing arts students – one of who was strumming a ukulele with some talent.

Ludlow’s a funny town. It bills itself as one of the most interesting towns in the country, has a huge variety of building styles from a multitude of eras, has the Park and Ride to enable people to access it easily and cheaply; and yet its information centre is hidden away on the second floor of a not clearly marked building and the only souvenir shops are in the castle and the church. It’s almost as if they don’t really want tourists.

We did consider stopping off to have tea somewhere (my shout), but Pen wanted to get home to Seth, who’d been stuck indoors all day apart from when his dog sitter came to give him a walk.

So we came home, I settled into the challenge of packing my suitcase (much easier with a pink polka dotted Thunderbird Two, than Pen’s little tiddly thing), and Pen took Seth for a walk and then ordered some Chinese.

And now Seth is curled up on his bed – snoring.