Shropshire

This week myself, Chris and my family went on a mini break to Shropshire with Judith and her family (our friends from Preston). We stayed in a cottage (which was like an end terrace) in a tiny little village called Hampton Loade. The road we had to go down in order to reach our accommodation was so narrow that I'd hold my breath every time drove down it (as if in some magical situation holding my breath would make the car thinner!).

Over the week we visited lots of little towns and villages so I thought I'd give a quick run-down of what happened.
On Tuesday we visited Bridgnorth which was fairly interesting as Chris and I just went on our own little walk down quaint side streets and along the river. We stumbled across a cliffside railway which I didn't really think looked overly safe so we didnt go on it, although in all fairness it has been going for years without breaking down so it was probably a bit silly really. Never mind.
We all went to a HUUGGE antiques shop which was pretty cool and, in the scheme of things (ie compared to other antique shops), it was all reasonably priced. I didn't find anything of interest and nobody else bought anything so to be honest it does pose the question was it a total waste of time? The answer is probably yes, but it was a somewhere a bit different to go for a change and liked the idea that there might be something really unusual.

On Wednesday, we went to ludlow where we saw castle art exhibitions and managed to get a free tour around the brewery. Chris and I bought cider which wasn't made at the brewery but was local. I'm more of a cider drinker than ales so it just made sense. Dad bought several ales though as we were allowed to sample them after our tour and he really liked them. Unfortunately (although for obvious reasons) we couldn't sample the ciders so when we got back and tried the cider we weren't overly keen. I think it's just more pungent that what we are used to. Mum compared it to scrumpy and coming to think of it, I'm not the biggest fan of that either! In fact I tend to drink pear or strawberry cider so that probably has something to do with it too :p

On Thursday we visited Much Wenlock which had an antique shop which was so full that with every step I made I was terrified that I'd knock something over! We also visited their tourist centre which was a museum. Apparently it 'played a big part in the birth of the modern Olympic games' so for that reason, a vast majority of the museum was about that. Finding out about the geology of the area was, in my opinion, more interesting than the sporty side of things. Chris and I both did geography at A level and he also did geology so he was able to explain all sorts of things to me about the formation of the land etc.

After Much Wenlock, we visited Iron bridge which is famous as the first iron bridge to be built. We saw an art installation, 'The Core', at a place called Enginuity (from the little bits I saw, it reminded me of the Launchpad at the London science museum). 'The Core' was a bit weird but if you focused on it fully you would notice little things such as how each screen was a bit different-its hard to describe to anyone who didn't see it. It's supposedly going to be a world reknowned arty piece for the 2012 London Olympics which will be interesting to see how they manage that!
I hope to go back to ironbridge one day Because we didn't see as many bits which would be nice. For example I really want to go back to Blists Hill; it's a whole mini town which has been set up as a Victorian learning experience eg shops, schools, people etc. There are also a lot of other museum type places but with the 10 of us it just wasn't cost effective to be honest.

Before long, it was time to go home. We decided to head via Worcester because we thought it might be nice to visit. Unfortunately the traffic in the town itself was absolutely horrendous so rather than going on a route march to find a parking space we got impatient and left haha! We did drive past the Lea and Perrins factory though which was satisfying especially as I asked my mum on the way into town whether Worcester sauce was still made there and she said probably not :)
We stopped in a lovely little town for lunch called Alcester. It was really pleasant and the people seemed friendly too. In the visitors centre, they had made a museum about the roman history of the area which was great. They had clearly tried to make it interesting for children as well as adults, with various activities such as dressing up, worksheets and even a video which was linked to a little section of the room which had been set out like an excavation site. That bit was really clever actually, as it was supposedly a Roman who had gone to the future and was explaining what all of the excavated items were (again it's hard to explain it clearly when you can't see it too...).

Anyway, the week was good fun and it was lovely to catch up with everyone again as I hadn't seen them since last Easter! Hopefully we'll keep contact as we all grow older, as the family are like cousins and it would be a shame to lose that.

xx