Ludlow England

In one day we left our hotel at 5.30 am to get to the airport, flew from Istanbul to London, caught a bus to Reading railway station then caught a train to Hereford via Newport where we had to change for the Hereford line. It was a busy day for us and when we arrived in Hereford station we walked to the hotel dragging our bags behind us. Now I know you will be feeling sorry for us but we travelled past some of the most beautiful country side we had ever seen. Green lush rolling hills, lambs feeding from their mothers, green trees of every possible colour of green, wild flowers dotted along the edges and cows relaxing in the shade of the trees. It doesn't get much better than this. 

Ludlow is a Tutor town with loads of old buildings, a castle where Catherine of Aragon spent her honeymoon with King Henry (which was before she married Henry VIII) and a lovely river with 3 weirs. Everywhere you turn it's a photo opportunity. Our cottage is fantastic with two bedrooms, one holding our suitcases, modern kitchen, washing machine and dryer and everything needed for our stay of two weeks. If anyone is contemplating coming to UK or Ireland then we would suggest booking a cottage. We are using Sykes Cottages website and so far it's been fantastic. 

Ludlow is a great place to walk and you can cross through peoples farms through kissing gates and stile its called the 'right of way' and as long as you stick to the path and don't do any damage you can walk through their properties. We walked to an antique fair on Saturday and the round trip was about 14km. We walked along the river Corve, along paddocks of wheat and potatoes and through land with sheep and lambs grazing. It was fantastic and topped off by an antique fair that was just like the ones I have seen on TV. If we could have got them home cheaply we would have brought a set of wine glasses dating back to 18 century, a wooden set of drawers with inlay and a large glass and brass oil lamp. I didn't seen any bow ties but lots of colourful jackets on the men selling their expensive wares. 

We were lucky to find out that a local group of full contact medieval fighters were going to be doing a show at the Ludlow Castle so we headed off to see what it was all about. Apparently they have international tournaments with the guys dressing in knights clothing and use metal swords and women dressed in period clothing. We got to talk to them while they were getting ready for the match and asked about the rules, clothing and weapons. They can get hurt but mostly its bruising or sprains. They really got into it and hammered each other on the head and arms. Their amour protects them but it is also very heavy and the day was hot so they need the women to come around and give the drinks of water via a straw. Each contest only lasts a few minutes as its exhausting for them with their amour and their swords being so heavy. 

There is lots to do here and great places to visit. We have been catching buses to towns like Shrewsbury and Hereford but today we picked up a car which we will use to visit other towns and to move to our next location near Exeter on Friday.  We enjoyed an afternoon at a local pub down on the river listening to a jazz band and took ourselves off to the movies to see Love is All You Need with Piers Brosnan in the lead role. It was set in Sorrento in Italy and it was a lovely love story which made us remember how much we loved Italy.