Holiday in Hereford (12th May 2012)
What a great way to get away from it all and become immersed in rolling British countryside! Yesterday we returned and early this morning I dropped off the hire car. Below are the rough notes I made in a draft e-mail on my phone at random intervals.
Locations
- Saturday 5th to Sunday 6th May 2012:
- Parents’ house in Fleet.
- Monday 7th to Friday 11th:
- Auntie’s holiday home in Hereford.
Monday
- Had 9 hours in bed so woke naturally before 7am.
- Breakfast.
- Last gathering of items.
- Fiona still had her cold.
- Squeezed suitcases around bicycles, wheels could stay on.
- Set the Sat-Nav.
- Set off near 8:30am.
- Fiona navigated while I drove.
- From cruising on motorways to reversing back into passing places on single track lanes.
- Starting to feel at home in the BMW 520d we hired!?
- Arrived at the place and Fiona opened the gates in drizzle.
- Generous grassy area in front with rough gravel drive.
- Ramps up to the patio door.
- Spacious living room. (Photos.)
- View from every room over the fields with livestock. (Photos.)
- Met the auntie with her husband and 5 of their 6 big, friendly dogs.
- Lunch at local pub (relatively!) where youthful staff served me a top quality belly pork and Fiona a goats cheese stack.
- Drove to local Tesco, Fiona navigating by iPhone.
- Spent ages trying to plot a route back via any phone and the on-board Sat-Nav.
- Eventually drove towards Hereford and then went visually by the satelite map mode in the car.
- Took some photos of holiday home, car and scenery during a brighter spell. (Photos.)
- Passed the time until auntie was making dinner in main cottage.
- Long evening with several fantastic courses.
- Port at the end.
Tuesday
- Woke near 8am.
- Auntie had asked to tag along with us to Noakes Farm Riding School.
- Was still enthusiastic about going so she drove us there.
- Was a big place, several large buildings with 20 horses in total. (Photos.)
- Did a few laps around the arena to remind us of the basics, as we’d requested over the phone.
- I was riding Comet while Fiona rode Strawberry. (Photos.)
- We were led out by charismastic lady with a couple of older girls as tablehands.
- Sunny and varied trail, partly along a long-dismantled railway.
- Helped take some of the tack into the tack room at the end.
- Drove to The Plough Inn where we had lunch in a snug and sunny corner.
- Went back to the holiday home to get the BMW and bicycles.
- Drove to Pedal A Bike Away centre in the Forest of Dean.
- Unloaded bikes while Fiona looked for maps.
- Excellent information panels. (Photo.)
- Chose a blue graded route called Verderer’s Trail.
- Gravel woops from the carpark to the trail set great expectations.
- Was a long, fantastic route!
- Uphill hairpins with downhill berms.
- Went home and made pizza.
Wednesday
- Weston’s Cider tour.
- Animal pens in a long field.
- Intermittent but heavy rain.
- Evening meal with auntie and her husband.
- Planned where else to go.
- Returned to their home to chat and pet the dogs.
Thursday
- Breakfast near 8:30am.
- Went out with Ken and dogs at 9:30am.
- We did the extended route over a hill and saw 4 deer!
- Booked a tour around the Morgan factory.
- Enabled GPS on my phone and used Google Maps to do a route.
- Saved the route and turned off GPS.
- Drove along fun twisty main road.
- Stopped at a gastro pub but was closed.
- Fiona found anothef called Bluebell, which was large but low. Served one of the smoothest white coffees I’ve ever had! (Although the milk came on the 2nd pass.)
- Dessert was a Rocky Mountain Road sunae, which we shared.
- Paid cash.
- Drove wrong way to Morgan factory.
- Did the 2 hour tour for £10.
- Started with a slightly rambling presentation, given through Windows Media Player (not in Fullscreen mode!) on a Windows XP laptop.
- Tour covered every stage of assembly.
- Ended in the museum.
- Drove back and parked in just 1 hour! Took a longer route usingA* grade roads as much as possible.
- Fiona slumped in chair as cold had taken hold.
- I gave her one of the chocolate cake slices as she’d lasted all day.
Friday
- Later start.
- Packing.
- Cycle.
- Crahs.
- Lost.
- Found.
- Waitrose.
- Pizza Express.
- Drove home.
- Bad route.
- Gridlock.
- Got home.
- Put bikes away.
- Toast.
- Luggage swapping.
Saturday
- Dropped car at car hire place.
- Went to office and they checked the key, then directed me to carpark where an attendent would take the keys.
- Led the attendent to where I’d parked the car, out on the street.
- He had a look around it and in the boot.
- Started engine and briefly checked the fuel guage, agreeing that it was full.
Ideas
In order of preference:
- 9:30am Walk with Ken and the dogs to woods at end of garden.
- Westonbury mill water garden.
- Mountain bikes Friday morning; Fiona with Veronica. Meet up near A40; travel home via A40-M4.
- Small church near Sollers Hope. (Cycle?)
- Haugh Wood walk, cycle via The Crown pub.
- Hampton Court castle.
- Abergevny in Wales has The Angel for afternoon tea.
- Ludlow is quite a way.