Half-Term Experiences - Part 2: Ludlow Castle

On the Saturday of last week, the ladies of the house Renata and Kate invited me to join then and their friend on a tour of the Midlands area. The full day tour began with going to Ludlow Castle on the coach, which left at 9am from the university. Usually this wouldn't have been a problem, but we had gone out drinking the night before and I wasn't feeling too good. We had to rush to get to the coach on time and then off we went! And then off I went - to sleep...

I woke up in the small town of Ludlow. More specifically, I woke to a lurch inside the parking lot beside a toilet just outside of Ludlow. Luckily Ludlow is very small, so it only took us 5 minutes to walk to the town square where the market was in full swing.

The Saturday Market was a bustle of alive things (merchants) and dead things (products), with children and dogs running underfoot and amazing smells and sounds assaulting the senses.







Ludlow is dominated by (and famous for) it's 11th century castle; a beautiful medieval castle in the last years/centuries of its life, more of a ruins that you can walk through and onto and under and into and around. We were able to climb to the highest tower in the castle (up long spiral staircases) and become sentry knights surveying the beautiful English countryside, looking for advancing armies or potential tourists. The view was breathtaking. Even the pigeons thought so.



Speaking of pigeons, it seemed that every room in the castle had to have a dead bird in it. It was almost Ludlow Law: All rooms to be furnished with dead poultry. Special double rooms have dead cat at no extra cost! Call now...



Soon it was lunch time and my stomach was calling for fish and chips. Never one to disagree with my tum, we found one of the fifteen fish'n'chips shops and ate by the church, enjoying the view of Ludlow in the Fall....before returning to my dreams on the coach. The next stop was another castle...