Maggie on Tour 2011: Day 3, Wednesday 10th August

Time to pack up in Much Wenlock. We went into the town to take a few photos of the buildings. I resisted the temptation to take a photo of Phil outside Bastard Hall as it looked like a private house. One last stop before we left was the ruins of Wenlock Priory (English Heritage) ...before the rain started again! Fortunately the Priory was not very busy so we were able to spend a fair amount of time there before the showers set in.

Our next stop was the Forest of Dean and the journey was remarkably smooth until we had almost arrived. Sat Nav Lady started to get her knickers in a twist when we didn't take turnings which she was clearly imagining. Anyway, we finally arrived at Forest Holiday's Christchurch. I must admit, it took me a little by surprise as it was just down a little road from an average suburban street - I was expecting something a little more 'foresty'. A delightful eco-friendly looking log cabin housed the reception and shop sold a range of organic goods and a surprisingly healthy stock of wines. My eyes wandered over the chilled wines and spotted not one but an extensive range of champagnes - not your bargain basement cava, but Mumm, Taittinger and the like. None of the wines were priced, not even the Kumala's and other supermarket staples, all of which made me feel a tad uneasy. I have been brought up to think that if you need to ask the price you probably can't afford it.

Once we were pitched, we decided to get dinner sorted out. What is camping without a barbecue? We had brought a couple of those disposable barbecues with us so his nibs set about the manly work of lighting the barbecue. Unfortunately, the wind had got up a bit and this proved rather more difficult than anticipated. In the end, we resorted to frying our burgers but Phil would not be defeated and managed to barbecue the sausages. After dinner we went for a walk in the, now more evident, forest.

Maggie on Tour 2011: Day 2, Tuesday 9th August

I surprised myself by getting up and showered early which meant we could get an early start for Ironbridge. We drove through the town looking for a long stay carpark not realising we had passed it on the way in..d'oh! The car park was at the entrance Dale End Park which was notable for the fact that it cunningly conceals a bloody great power station. Take note, town planners in the rest of the UK. A few trees can go a long way to covering up an eyesore. Ironbridge has a pleasant riverside of shops and cafes and as we walked, the sun decided to put in an appearance. It was still early and so there weren't that many people about, which suited us down to the ground. Feeling rather peckish, I got a pie from Eley's world famous pie shop...so many world famous pie shops, how come I've never heard of any of them? The pie was rather good, but an extra mouthful or two wouldn't have gone amiss for £2.30. What swung the deal for us with this shop was the name - we pondered if there was a family connection. We had a little walk around, had an ice cream and decided we'd pretty well seen all we wanted to since we were not in a museum mood.

The day was still young and hours to fill. This is the situation where the National Trust membership really comes in handy. A browse through the handbook and you can usually find somewhere close enough to visit for free. And so to Dudmaston, ancestral home to...someone or other! Every NT house has something about it, it's own particular character. We entered the property via the orchard which was in full fruit. There were picnic tables and a cafe and we made a mental note to have tea and cake there later. We had full sun now but given the unpredictable nature of the weather, we opted to sample the delights of the gardens before going into the house. And what a garden! At the rear of the house was a truly splendid and well manicured garden, with pathways beyond into woodland. The lawn was gently terraced, leading down to a magnificent lake. In this truly tranquil setting, I managed to persuade himself to have a lie down on the grass while I did my bus snooze in the sun, bolt upright with nodding dog tendencies. Then, refreshed by the idyllic setting, we decided a walk was in order. We followed the signs to the Dingle (not in Liverpool!), a little woodland walk and then on to the 'Big Pool' walk around the lake taking a full 45 minutes. At one point we chanced upon the biggest number of geese I have ever seen in one place! A bit scary, in fact, but we escaped unscathed.

Once we got into the house which has a number of works of art of note. The last owner, Lady Labouchere, inherited the place from an uncle who wished it to go into the hands of the National Trust. She herself was a trained botanical artist and had a collection of botanical art. Her husband was an Ambassador to Belgium and to Spain. He had a fairly impressive collection of modern art. There is also a connection to Charles Babbage somewhere! By now, tea in the orchard was calling. I thoroughly enjoyed my time at Dudmaston.

Dinner that evening was at the George and the Dragon in Much Wenlock.

Maggie on Tour 2011: Day 1, Monday 8th August

This year we decided to do mini tour in Maggie, our VW T4 camper van. We have been away in her before but it has tended to be just one centre. We are creatures of habit and have a tendency to stick to what we like but this time we decided to go to a few places that we've never ventured to before. We didn't have a lot of time - just 6 days, but we picked three new places that we thought were do-able.

On Day 1 we finally managed to set off for Much Wenlock in Shropshire at about 2.30 arriving about 4pm - typically disorganised and wanting to do all kinds of jobs before leaving! Anyway, by the time we arrived, the town was shtting up. Much Wenlock is a pretty little medieval market town with a more recent claim to fame in that it is reputedly the birthplace of the modern Olympic movement thanks to local 'mover and shaker', William Penny Brookes. That said, it is a bit of a sleepy corner of the world with just a couple of pubs, tea shops and a 'world famous' butcher's shop. We managed to grab an ice cream before the shop shut, just in time for the rain to start.

A drink was in order to start the holiday off so we wandered into a pub which had a nice looking beer garden in a courtyard off the street. The rain started again so we took shelter under a giant parasol, covering a few tables - one of the advantages of smokers being shunted outdoors is that there are more shelters. We had only sat down two minutes when an elderly couple sat on the next table. We started to chat casually and it turns out they live in Caldy! You can't escape, can you?

We decided to take fish and chips back to the campsite for tea. There wasn't much to recommend the food as the fish was over-battered and the chips were like warm-ups from lunch. Typical for Chinese chippies, I find - they seldom seem to have never mastered the art of chip frying. Perhaps we should have opted for Chinese. Anyway, hunger-wise we were in scabby horse territory so we ate until satisfied.

We stayed at Sytche campsite which is walking distance from the centre of Much Wenlock. Very clean and well kept. We would certainly go there again.