Swindon and Hereford

I am back, which of course means I eventually made it to the UK. To start this blog with "I am back" kills the suspense, doesn't it? Did she make it? Was the Sunday morning flight cancelled too? Mmmh... I don't think any of you reading this blog more or less regularly have been chewing down their nails over the last couple of days wondering about these things. So I may just as well give it away immediately.

Sunday morning I got up early, took a taxi to the airport (paid by Lufthansa, who pointed out they were not obliged to pay, because the cause of the cancellation had been the weather, but they would anyway, because they are lovely caring people and service orientated) and boarded a plane to London. So far, so good. At Paddington I proceded to the ticket counter to buy a train ticket to Swindon. A really nice man (honestly, he was) smiled at me and said "Did you know, there are no trains to Swindon today? There are rail works and from Reading on there will be a bus service." Argh! Is it just me or do you also get the feeling that this trip wasn't going very well? Reading is about half way to Swindon and I had no other option than to take the train/bus connection. So I spent 1 hour squeezed in between the bus heating that was on full throttle (why?) and a rather large man. Had I been a steak, I would have been well done by the time I arrived in Swindon.

This is all I saw of the place:




C very quickly came to pick me up and we drove to Herefordshire in his rather posh and very comfortable car.

Lunch at "The Kettle Sings"...

... and a short climb up the surrounding hills...

My foot still in England but already facing towards Wales (I think):



Some sort of fair was going on in the valley below. We could hear loudspeaker announcements, but I didn't make out what it was exactly:

We climbed back down and drove on to a place where houses have names instead of numbers to see N & J. It was lovely to sit outside in their beautiful garden and enjoy freshly homemade scones and tea. Well, I did. C is on a diet and very bravely faced all the goodies, but only drank water.

In the evening, C dropped me off at my B&B in Hereford and I went for an evening walk through town, which has a cathedral and some nice half-timber houses:

The next morning I took the bus to Wales.