Old Friends!

  Rodborough Common, United Kingdom
Tuesday, August 28, 2007

We chose to drive to Gloucestershire where Andy and Judy live on Sunday, because Monday was Bank Holiday. For some reason, this one extra day added to a weekend means that almost everyone living in England goes away, and it turns normally congested roads and motorways into holiday gridlocks which take hours to get out of.  It doesn't seem like a really good way to spend a bonus weekend day, and it seems to us a good enough reason not to go away at all! Usually its the M25 which has the reputation for being the largest carpark in the world, but all the other motorways and main roads vie for equal place when its Bank Holiday Weekend.  So being that Sunday was the one day people might be keen to stay whereever they had eventually got to, we decided it was our opportunity to move on.

We were mostly correct, and happy that we were driving south out of Matlock, and not north into the town because in that direction they had an 8 mile queue - even though it was Sunday. A motorbike convention seemed to be part of the attraction, but it does seem to have some big attractions in the area--- walking, climbing, railway, gondola---- perhaps another time.

01 with Andy & Judy

Andy and Judy live near Stroud in Little London, a collection of just a few houses on Rodborough Common and their home is up a narrow winding road backing onto the common with wonderful views over the valley and hills to the southwest. So we arrived on a warm gorgeous evening and enjoyed drinks in the sun. It almost felt like summer again. That night we caught up with some more old friends of Jen's - John and Melanie Laidlaw, and over dinner discovered we 

02 Tewkewbury Abbey

would be in Essaouira, Morocco at the same time, so scheduled another catch up.
 
Monday being Bank Holiday, Andy showed us some (local) sights - the Abbey at Tewkesbury, which had missed being flooded at the time when the rest of the town was under water in July. Judy was able to join us for lunch and then we had a look at Newark Park, a stately home which is lived in but managed by the National Trust.