Europe Day 24 - Ironbridge

Tuesday June 20

We were very pleased with our choice of B&B. Can you believe that at the agreed time the breakfast was brought to us into the apartment which as I said before was more then a B(ed).

 

And shortly after 9 am we were on our way. 

 

We were on our way to Ironbridge near Telford. Generally the roads where not bad. Hundreds of roundabouts which work pretty well most of the time. James' GPS was great. It kept telling us which exits to take from them: first, second or third etc. Or: be in one of the two right lanes. Super!

But it can't help with traffic jams. An accident in Birmingham added an hour. Boring. 

Finally we arrived at the prebooked B&B, settled in and went on foot into town. This is not the famous Ironbridge but interesting. 

 

 

It was 1:30 pm by now and we were thirsty!

The first pub looked good. We could sit outside in the shade and could see the river Severn. 

 

A beer and a sandwich later we continued the walk. 

No idea what this was. Looked like olives. But this is not Spain. Too small for plums. 

Ah, the English gardens everywhere. 

This is it. The first iron bridge in the world. Very impressive. 

  

 

After a while and a coffee somewhere we wanted to do more investigating and went into a side street. It made a curve and then went straight up and very steep. For the photo to show it you probably would need the huffing and puffing. 

 

We came to the church but unfortunately it was not open. Those steps are funny though. 

Instead of going "around the block" you can go underneath to the other side of the church property and to much lower ground. 

  

From the church you had another view of the bridge. 

 

The church board outside had information. 

So, we continued and thought we would go to the Ironbridge Gorge Museum. We were there 4:04 pm and they just had closed. Bummer. 

So we decided that it might be actually time to go back to our place ... over THE bridge and along the other side. 

There is a lot of history about the bridge and about the area as a whole. 

We walked back on a lovely path which used to be the railroad track. 

Location, location, location. It couldn't be any better. When we first had arrived we looked at each other and our thoughts where "oh no". It looked quite run-down. But it was alright and the owner was very nice and even insisted to wash clothes for James who only had asked whether he could hang them outside after handwashing them.

 

From there we walked to a pub called the Black Swan. It was a bit awkward because we had to use a street without pedestrian pathway. 

There were quite a good number of people. We could have sat inside but across the street was a grassy area with picnic tables. We ordered inside and paid, got a wooden spoon with a number and carried our drinks with us. We found a nice table. 

 

James liked his glass. There is a saying: Hobson's choice! = no choice really because it means take it or leave it. 

 

Children (teenagers) were swimming in the river a little further and we also could see kayaks. 

 

Food was brought to us across the street. 

 

We discovered that we did not have to go back on the street. The rail track path went behind the pub. 

It was lovely. Here we stopped to listen to a brass band practicing. What fun.

VIDEO!

  

And a little further there was a little tree blooming. It looked like a Japanese maple but I have never seen them bloom. Anybody know?

 

It was time to fall into bed ... with the windows open (without screens) because there is no aircon. Of course not. It hardly ever gets this hot.