After a somewhat restless sleep due to my sore throat, I very lazily got moving. Dan was reading, so I dozed on and off and we didn’t actually leave the room until after 9:00. By that time my throat felt so much better — it seems it bothers me only at night.
We walked a short bit to find some coffee and health food. Oh. Oops! I mean unhealthy food.
From there we continued to walk, just investigating the area.
When we looked across the street at one point we saw the California sign and had to check that out. It’s a wine shop and no, we didn’t bother to go in. We figure we can easily find California wines in California.
We continued to walk, crossing the England Bridge, with the Abbey in the distance.
Then we went into the Shrewsbury Abbey. I just love it when there is an organist practicing. (I haven’t taken photos of the children’s area in other cathedrals, but I finally did this one: they seem to be in each one, though.)
Leaving the Abbey I saw the other side of the sign that I posted prior to our Abbey visit.
Back across the England Bridge, I wisely suggested we walk along the Severn River rather than on busy streets. After all, our 12:00 scheduled Sabrina Boat Tour was on the Severn. So downstairs we went to continue our walk. Sadly I took no photos.
But then Dan said something implying he hoped we were actually going the right way. Um. Well. Maybe not! Had we continued we most certainly would have missed the boat. So we turned around and went up some stairs, and past the prison where they clearly would love us to live. We really felt very welcomed. But again, we’d miss the boat. So never mind. So on we marched.
And there we were … at the boat tour. And we were even early! I had reserved tickets, so when we went on we were seating up toward the front. I think, in fact, we may have made the first reservations since we were at the first table. It was a fun ride!
After our boat ride we walked along the park area, crossed the rocking bridge and turned back again. We saw Hercules who, at some point, had a bit of him pulled off (you can guess what) and has since been replaced by a fig leaf. Hah! We passed a spot where the Zippo Circus was setting up (no pix — I’m not much of a circus fan), and went in to “The Dingle” (a garden area). Not much there yet, as they were putting in the summer plants today.
From there we walked up to the Georgian circular church, St. Chad’s.
When we went back out we saw that it rained again. Go figure!
For lunch (we can hardly call it not lunch.) we had tomato basil soup, and I bravely tried the non-alcoholic red wine. It was better than others I’ve had, but still didn’t have the taste I’d like. But I guess one has to have alcohol to get that taste, eh?
Then more walking and more fascination with the crazy off-kilter buildings. We had walked by the Kings Head yesterday, but took another look today.
I find it interesting to run across signs of Covid in every place we’ve visited. Memories ….
We had seen Rowley’s House and Mansion yesterday, but today got a closer look. I would love to see the buildings all fixed up.
We’d talked about doing the afternoon tea thing so we finally got to it today. (And yes, we are eating too much.) I had tea and a fruit scone and Dan had espresso and a raspberry scone. The place suggested they had the world’s best scones (in their opinion, they did admit) but I’d say Dan’s are better. I also suspect a better place wouldn’t serve the clotted cream in a plastic container like that, nor would the butter be in foil wrappers. In a short while we’ll be in another village where we had wonderful scones in the past so we’ll compare then. At this point I was overly stuffed (and I couldn’t finish my scone.)
From there it was back to Cromwell’s Tap House to have a short break. Or maybe a longer than short break. (I believe our two windows are the ones you see on the far left in the photo below.)
Now because we hadn’t had nearly enough to eat today (hah!), we went out to find dinner. Dan had read about a place called The Coach & Horses so we went that direction. I had seen it on Google and it said that it was busy, but we figured we’d give it a go in any case. When we went outside it was quite bright with a blue sky. A miracle!
Entering The Coach & Horses we saw a few people in the pub area, and the man at the bar asked if we wanted to see the menu. He asked where we were from and after we told him Dan asked where he was from and he said Nevada! Turned out he was a military kiddo and, fortunately for him, was born in the UK so he had dual citizenship and was now living in Shrewsbury with his wife (she will have to take a test in something like four years to try and gain citizenship). Am I jealous? You bet!
We said we’d like to dine there so he told us where the restaurant area was. Well, Google may have thought they were busy, but we had the entire place to ourselves! I’m guessing Monday evening isn’t quite a busy time there. I ordered salmon cakes and Dan had cottage pit PIE (yeah, I typed pit first and I think it’s too funny to remove!). Prices were quite good and food was yummy. I really loved the greens with my meal. Then we ended with the extremely healthy sticky toffee pudding. It came with ice cream so we appreciated all that calcium. Or something. You can see the very nice man from Nevada that we spoke to in the final photo.
Anyway, if you are ever in Shrewsbury, go there. It was great!
Then we ambled back to our room, taking a few photos as we walked. At one point I saw some sort of plaque on a building and it said “Shropshire” and below that “North Wales”. As I read online, it was the “Welsh Kingdom of Powys in the 5th and 6th centuries” so I guess it was in Wales and perhaps some wish that were still the case. Dunno!
Back in our room I, as always, set out tomorrow’s clothes after I put my pjs on. Then it was time to finish up this blog.
Tomorrow is moving day. I’ve enjoyed Shrewsbury, but on we go!
13,493 steps, 5.4 miles, 4 flights climbed
