Winchcombe, June 4

Good morning!

Our room is on the street side of the hotel (since 1554 per the brochure ) so there was a bit of noise, street noise, which we do not have at home. Well, I guess we have a little when the bears walk through the yard and the woodpeckers are making noise, but not too much.

Things are slow this AM given the short, but tough hike of yesterday. Cloudy at present and I hope it stays that way as it is cool. We've been told that there is a heat wave, unusual for this time of year, and we both are looking forward to normal, late spring temperatures. Perhaps today it will start.

Breakfast was a delight. After being shown the buffet, selecting food items and beginning to eat, the waiter came over with the menu and said we could choose from the selections...so two breakfasts! Arlene chose eggs benedict, and I had salmon with eggs and we are ready to go for a couple of days.

We walked to the castle (Sudeley Castle), and got there just as it was opening. A large place as one would expect and the owners still live there in the winter, with the exception that one lives there year round. They maintain apartments and close the castle during the winter to tourists We toured several rooms, one being a guest room that is used when guests stay over. Guess some of those weekend parties where they dress up in knights' armor can be fatiguing. Lovely grounds, and especially the gardens.

We are now following our daily ritual of coffee and scones so more shortly.

Next was St. Peter's Church, then the Ace Hardware Store (go figure how a castle compares to a visit to a modern hardware store?)

St. Peter's beginnings...798 AD. Destroyed and rebuilt several times, but survived. Lovely church.

We checked out the hardware store as Arlene wanted to purchase a few English spoons for coffee / tea. Not sure what is so special about an English spoon, but we are now the "proud" owners of four English spoons.

Next stop was a food store as I was shopping for dried apricots, but had to settle for dried pineapple and papaya. Good energy food for the hike.

Decided on Thai food for this evening (prawns sounded good) so we are chilling out, packing things for tomorrow and staying off the feet.

Dinner was excellent! Arlene enjoyed the stir fried beef and I had the stir fried prawns with cashews. No room for dessert, but we checked at the White Hart and we're told "no", so bummer to that.

Long walk tomorrow. Night, night.Read more