Wading through Worcester

It never rains, but it pours. Literally. Coming from drought-ridden Australia, we have not seen so much water in years. Sunday night in Wirral it rained most of the night, and it sounded like the rain was hitting the windows horizontally!

Monday morning we left Wirral and took a drive through Broadheath and Neston, villages that Anura's mother and her family lived in. His grandparents lived in Neston, and the church his parents were married in is at Broadheath. The children have been totally bored by the 'follow the family tree' tour of England, but it is nice for us to re-visit places that have been talked about around the dinner table on Sundays for years!

From Wirral we ventured into Wales and spent some time in a lovely village called Llangolan (don't ask me how to pronounce it!). There had obviously been a lot of rain there also, as the river was raging. The scenery was amazing, particularly ancient ruins of a castle on the top of a hill, and an aquaduct for the canal boats that is the tallest in the country! We had a nice lunch there, and wandered through the main street looking in the shops, before making our way back to the car and heading for Worcester.

For those who haven't travelled to the UK, I will give a quick run-down on the roads here. Looking at the road atlas, blue roads are motorways which are very wide, and very direct and the fastest way to get from one end of the country to the other. These appear to be the only well sign-posted roads in England, as any other road you want to travel on is not clearly marked! The green roads are the next best, usually have overtaking or double lanes, and are almost as good quality as the motor ways but not quite as direct. After that, you can choose to travel the red "A" roads or the yellow "B" roads. The A roads are not too bad, usually wide enough and take you through some lovely countryside and villages. God help you if you take a B road and are in a hurry! Most of them are very narrow, and in some places you need to pull over if there is a car travelling in the opposite direction! These are the roads most likely to have a cattle truck stopped in the middle while they load/unload, great puddles and lots of mud on the edges.

We travelled on A roads to Worcester, and had a lovely drive through the countryside. We arrived in Worcester at about 4pm, in time to visit the tiny village of Tibberton, where Anura's grandmother was born and married his grandfather. The church was unlocked, and we were able to go inside and look at the lovely stained glass windows. Some graves in the churchyard were those of relatives, and we need to come home now and look at the family tree to find out exactly which ones!

After visiting Tibberton we went into Worcester city to find our bed and breakfast that we had booked in advance (wonderful thing, the internet!). We knew it was somewhere near the Cathedral, so it wasn't too difficult to find the general location, but the narrow one way streets were a bit of a challenge in actually finding the B&B! As it turned out, we were totally amazed by the location. The B&B was in the grounds of the Cathedral, and our very large and well furnished bedroom looked straight out at the stained glass windows - literally only 20 metres away from our window and separated only by a cobblestone path! What a view... We had dinner in a portugese restaurant, and then had an early night.

This morning after breakfast we went to visit the Cathedral, which is one of the best we have seen in England. It is very well laid out, with plenty of signs for visitors. This Cathedral has the tomb of King John (after Henry II), and of Prince Arthur (for those who don't know the history, this Prince was the Prince of Wales and was married to Catherine of Aragon at the age of 14, but he died early and never became King so Henry VIII came to the throne, and also inherited Catherine of Aragon as his wife!). Also there are a number of Bishops buried in the tomb. the crypt is also very interesting, the bones of a Norman pilgrim were discovered there during renovations, and you can see his boots and staff on display.

After visiting the Cathedral, we walked around the back to look across to the cricket oval that has been talked about often in the family discussions, to find that it was well under water! The banks of the river Severn have given way with all the rain, and all the sporting grounds are well and truly flooded. Carparks and some houses have also been flooded, and we felt like we were in the city of lakes! Water, water everywhere, but none in Canberra, I'll bet!

After leaving Worcester, we travelled to Droitwich and had lunch with Anura's mother's cousins, Joan and Jim. It is 10 years since we last saw them, and it was lovely to catch up with them and talk about family. Joan is 79, and Jim has just celebrated his 80th birthday. They were amazed at how much the children have grown....thank goodness! It would be a bit of a worry if after 10 years they didn't look any different! Jonathan was 4 when we last visited them.

From Droitwich we visited Upper and Lower Broadheath, where Anura's grandfather was born and lived during his childhood. For those interested in music, this is the village that Elgar was born in (you can do well sign-posted Elgar tours of Worcester and surrounding area http://www.elgar.org/). Grandpa always talked about the fact that he was born in the same village as Elgar, and they both sang in the choir at Worcester cathedral (although I don't think at the same time). We managed to find the house Grandpa lived in as a child, called Elbin Villa, and the pub just across the road where Anura's great grandfather used to play the piano in return for free beer! It still has the same name, but was shut so we couldn't go in and order a pint. Pity.

We saw the church where Anura was baptised in Hanley Castle, and then went to Hanley Swan, and saw the house that Anura can remember staying with his grandparents in as a young child. After that, Catherine and Jonathan were rather fed up, so we ended the Family Tree Tour of England and headed for the motorway to find our way south to Bath.

We arrived in Bath this evening just after dark, and are staying with Nola (Peter's mother) at Stableford House. As it turns out, we drove up this very road 10 years ago (long before Nola lived here) when we were here to get a good view of Bath from the top of the hill! What a coincidence that we have now come back to stay. The house is lovely, and we are looking forward to touring Bath tomorrow. After that, we will venture to Oxford for a day, before making our way to London and the last few days of our holiday.

Two weeks today until we return to reality, school, work and the business of everyday life. In some ways it will be good to get back, but in a lot of ways I wish this holiday could go on forever. We've totally lost track of what day of the week and what date it is, except to remind ourselves when to move on to the next location! Oh well, we can't stay away forever. We will just have to go home and work like crazy to save enough money to come again, particularly as we are already planning what we will see 'next time'!

Better go, the computer is in hot demand!