This morning Gill dropped me off at the point we walked to yesterday so I could resume the walk to Gloucester. It was warm and sunny hooray!
Just before Gloucester the river divides, the western path avoids the city whilst the eastern route goes right into the centre. Not surprisingly the Severn Valley way now heads for the big city although my 25 year old OS map shows it following the western route. When the Severn Bore comes upstream it takes longer to pass through the east channel leading to some dangerous currents when the two paths meet up again but due to poor planning on my part I will not witness a significant bore although after three weeks I will be able to bore the pants of everyone about my tales of the Severn.
I am staying in the Premier Inn and to get here I had to walk through the new quayside shopping centre only there aren't any shops, they are “Outlets”! I think an outlet is somewhere to plug a kettle into or connect a hose, we don’t got outleting, we go shopping, whose silly idea was it to rebrand shops.
Gloucester is of course another historically important city with a cathedral and a great many historic buildings it also has the National Waterways Museum but I have been there so gave it a miss today.
I did visit the cathedral. Henry III was crowned in Gloucester cathedral in 1216 but as the previous crown had been lost by King John they used a gold coin instead! Clearly that was a second rate coronation (and the only one since 1066 not to be carried out in Westminster) so they had another coronation in Westminster Abbey in 1220.
The cloisters are particularly good but it took me ages to be able to photograph them with out someone standing in the middle.
I don’t suppose Henry visited the Cathedral cafe but it does a very good panini.
You can also go on tours of the prison and there are a number of other museums including one dedicated to Beatrix Potter, a bit of a surprise, she was born and brought up in Manchester and then lived in the Lake District. The only connection with Gloucester seems to be one of her stories called The Tailor of Gloucester.
I resisted the temptation to go in.
Tomorrow I head off into the flat marshlands next to the Severn which apart from being excellent for birdwatching offers the chance to catch elvers, not a nasty disease, all will be revealed in tomorrows exciting instalment.