The rest of the trip (executive summary)
Aug. 21st, 2018 08:48 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
shewhomustThe wedding went very well, and smoothly, with only enough disorganisation to allow guests to feel that they were in on the joke: well, what would you expect...? The weather was kind to us, and the ceremony was held on the lawn without interruption by rain or the full glare of the sun; later it cleared enough for a very satisfactory sunset:
- but that was later. The bride looked beautiful, as did her best woman (I think that was the term used; the bride had a best man, too). Vows were exchanged, poems were read, tears were shed = and thereafter much food was eaten and much wine was drunk. I talked to people I had known for a long time, and people I had never met before, until the disco started and it was impossible to talk to anyone. If we had had our wits about us, we would have left at this point, but a change of plan over taxis meant that we stayed on for another hour or so - my only real regret!
The festivities continued on Sunday, but not until the afternoon, sodurham_rambler and I spent the morning walking from Kingsand to Cawsand and back - not much of a walk, as the two villages are joined (with a rather good bakery at the hinge point, in case of need). Then back to the fort, where a fish and chip van had been persuaded to provide lunch. I opted out of this, because I knew that the wedding cake had been a stack of cheeses, and I hadn't had any the previous day: so I lunched very happily on cheese and a saffron bun. Someone had brought a croquet set, someone had brought boules, someone had brought Jenga: I didn't play any of these games, but I enjoyed sitting, and maybe dozing a little, in the sun, watching other people playing. Later I walked down the steps to the beach: I'd been rather deterred by warnings that it was ever such a long way down, and even longer back, and that you had to clamber over rocks at the bottom, but none of these things was entirely true, and the beach was worth the effort. The rocks run out to sea in long fingers, and there are a series of private coves, and the tide was high and the light silvery:
I didn't swim, though several people did (and not always the ones you might expect), but I rolled my jeans up and paddled and would happily have lingered longer.
We broke our homeward journey with friends who moved to Ludlow at the end of last year. The plan had been to take fast roads until we were north of Bristol, and then find a pleasant lunch stop in the Wye Valley. But it grew later than we had intended, and then we found ourselves on a fast road with no tempting stopping places, and eventually we just took the next turning off the road. Where does this go? Raglan? That'll do!
The thing about Raglan - and I should probably have known this, but I didn't - is that it has a castle. And the castle has a tea room, and once you've eaten your tuna baguette, it would be positively rude not to visit the castle, so we did:
They are very proud of this oriel window, and with good reason, but do follow that link to get an idea of the sheer impact of the castle. We saw only a fraction of it, and then we were back on the road, and now it did take us through places I would have expected to bypass - I liked the look of Monmouth! - and so to Ludlow, and a happy evening with old friends.
More driving today, and another unexpected lunch stop: we followed the National Trust signs to Kedleston Hall, which turned out to be an immense Adam mansion built for the Curzon family.
And home.
- but that was later. The bride looked beautiful, as did her best woman (I think that was the term used; the bride had a best man, too). Vows were exchanged, poems were read, tears were shed = and thereafter much food was eaten and much wine was drunk. I talked to people I had known for a long time, and people I had never met before, until the disco started and it was impossible to talk to anyone. If we had had our wits about us, we would have left at this point, but a change of plan over taxis meant that we stayed on for another hour or so - my only real regret!
The festivities continued on Sunday, but not until the afternoon, so
durham_rambler and I spent the morning walking from Kingsand to Cawsand and back - not much of a walk, as the two villages are joined (with a rather good bakery at the hinge point, in case of need). Then back to the fort, where a fish and chip van had been persuaded to provide lunch. I opted out of this, because I knew that the wedding cake had been a stack of cheeses, and I hadn't had any the previous day: so I lunched very happily on cheese and a saffron bun. Someone had brought a croquet set, someone had brought boules, someone had brought Jenga: I didn't play any of these games, but I enjoyed sitting, and maybe dozing a little, in the sun, watching other people playing. Later I walked down the steps to the beach: I'd been rather deterred by warnings that it was ever such a long way down, and even longer back, and that you had to clamber over rocks at the bottom, but none of these things was entirely true, and the beach was worth the effort. The rocks run out to sea in long fingers, and there are a series of private coves, and the tide was high and the light silvery:I didn't swim, though several people did (and not always the ones you might expect), but I rolled my jeans up and paddled and would happily have lingered longer.
We broke our homeward journey with friends who moved to Ludlow at the end of last year. The plan had been to take fast roads until we were north of Bristol, and then find a pleasant lunch stop in the Wye Valley. But it grew later than we had intended, and then we found ourselves on a fast road with no tempting stopping places, and eventually we just took the next turning off the road. Where does this go? Raglan? That'll do!
The thing about Raglan - and I should probably have known this, but I didn't - is that it has a castle. And the castle has a tea room, and once you've eaten your tuna baguette, it would be positively rude not to visit the castle, so we did:
They are very proud of this oriel window, and with good reason, but do follow that link to get an idea of the sheer impact of the castle. We saw only a fraction of it, and then we were back on the road, and now it did take us through places I would have expected to bypass - I liked the look of Monmouth! - and so to Ludlow, and a happy evening with old friends.
More driving today, and another unexpected lunch stop: we followed the National Trust signs to Kedleston Hall, which turned out to be an immense Adam mansion built for the Curzon family.
And home.
