We are lucky enough to have a friend that let us use his quaint cottage in this part of England. The cottage is in a tiny hamlet about 1 mile from Bishops Castle in Shropshire. Our friend warned us that the place is very rustic but after our last stop, this was almost luxury. Not only was the cottage nice but the grounds and surrounding countryside were absolutely stunning. It seemed right out of a storybook. Beautiful green rolling hills and quaint little homes, each with their own unique names.
The kids had a great time exploring the adjoining woods. There was a trail through the woods and the plot of land was completely bounded by hedges so we could let the kids run free without worrying about them getting lost or going too far. Mostly they played in and around the yard. There was a creek running thought the property and the kids had a blast jumping on rocks through the creek, hunting for worms and frogs, and pretending to fish.
When we were first driving to the cottage, we didn’t realize until we were almost there that it was really close to the border of Wales. We were excited to get a chance to dip our feet into Wales during our one week stay. We found a pamphlet in the cottage with information on a hike near Montgomery, Wales. On our first full day, we packed our lunches and headed out for Montgomery, just a 20 minute drive from the cottage. The drive itself was gorgeous and the town was very pretty. We found our way to the trailhead only to realize that it was completely overgrown with stinging nettles. There was no way I could force the kids through nettles again (after my trail mishap earlier in the trip), especially since we were all wearing shorts.
We turned around from the trailhead feeling disappointed and a bit defeated. We decided to head up the hill to the castle. By this point, we were getting less and less excited by castles; we had seen so many in Spain and England so far. Montgomery Castle was about to renew our interest in castles. There was no entrance fee and it was freely open for the public to explore the ruins. The views of the surrounding countryside were breathtaking. There were placards posted in several locations that told portions of the history of the castle and the battles that had taken place there. They were very interesting and really made the history of the place come alive in our minds.
It is really great that there are places like this that are freely open to the public. People were on the grass in and around the castle having picnics. There was no litter and no graffiti on the castle. People, both locals and tourists, seem to really respect the historic monuments.
As we were walking back down the trail to town again, there was a steep drop off on our left side. We warned the kids to stop running and playing and that they need to walk carefully and pay attention. As we were walking, Brett and I started talking between ourselves and at one point, Brett turned around to see Iain holding Riley by her arm trying to spin her around right near the edge of the steep drop off. There are definitely some good things about traveling with the kids when they are this young but it would be nice if they had a greater understanding of hazards.
We also visited Ludlow, a nearby town that we’ve heard described as one of the prettiest towns in England. It did not disappoint. We wandered around the town admiring the Tudor buildings, especially the ones that were leaning quite dramatically.
The boys all got haircuts in town, the first haircuts since we’d left the US.
The last stop on our day in Ludlow was the castle. The castle had first been constructed in the 11th century and was in use until the 17th century. There were some original wood details still in place, and you could see where the floors had been on the various levels. Technically I suppose it is a ruin, but the details still in place made it easy to imagine what the castle might have looked like.
We did end up going back to Ludlow a second time on another day. Brett says it was because he didn’t feel like we’d explored it enough on that first day but I’m pretty sure it was so he could get another gyro from the food cart in the main square.
Another interesting castle stop was the Stokesay Castle, a stately fortified manor house built in the 13th century. This was so impressive – so much of the original wood within the castle was still in place. The wood roof in the Great Hall, original wood staircase, intact rooms with wood paneling as well as a wine cellar where you could still smell a faint aroma of wine as you entered.
We saw a sign on the side of the road one day for the nearby Churchstoke country fair. We decided to treat the kids to the local fair. We met princesses, got to hold some big birds, watched daredevils, got to try some rides, and eat some sugary fair food. A good day.
Laundry. It’s something I haven’t mentioned much in this blog but it is a major challenge to keep five people in clean clothes. The cottage we were staying at had no laundry facility so we had packed all our laundry in the car when going to Churchstoke since that was where the closest launderette was located. After the fair, we took the clothes to the launderette only to realize it had just closed. We drove back the following day to get it done. It was probably the first time I had to use a launderette in almost 25 years. It took us a while to figure out how it all worked and then it was a long afternoon of waiting for the laundry to get done. As we were folding the clothes after they finished drying, Brett asked if I’d seen some of his clothes because they weren’t in the dryer. In that moment, I remembered that I’d put them in a washer but I forgot to transfer them to the washer we ultimately ended up using. So after several hours of dealing with laundry, some of Brett’s favorite clothes never even got cleaned!
On the second to last day, we took a drive to Nantwich, about an hour away. We told the kids we were just driving to another nearby village for sightseeing. What we were really doing was driving to see our neighbors from Portland who were visiting family in Nantwich. Their son is one of Ronan’s best friends. It was so much fun to see them and to see the boys re-united. Hilary (our neighbor) is from Nantwich and it was really fun to see where she grew up and explore the town with her. We wandered around town, spent some time at the playground, got some ice cream and candy for the kids. A perfect day.
We left Ronan with them for a sleepover and picked him up on the following day when we were en route to Scotland. So great to see them and so great to let Ronan and his friend hang out for a night, have fun and catch up.
Onward to Scotland!