AND THE RAIN CAME DOWN

The wonderfully helpful Barbara picked us up at the hotel in the morning and dropped us off near the airport.
The weather had taken a turn for the worst it was raining and the skies were black. So we decided to stick to the roads. Fortunately there was only one big shower and as the skies began to clear we made good progress back to Tewkesbury. It was a bit boring with only a few interesting Tudor Houses along the way. We were leaving behind the Cotswolds and moving into a different scenic landscape. We arrived back at the hotel at 2.15, a record!
So, after lunch in the pub, Carol and I decided to knock off a few miles of the Severn Way while Maurice repaired his feet. It looked easy, the starting point was in the pub car park. We took a shortcut across the grass to reach the river and that's when Carol realised her boots were not waterproof.
Ploughing through nettles, to try to keep to the river, we encounted a 6 ft high metal gate. "Construction under way, do not enter, cctv cameras in operation". We thought about jumping over but decided we didn't want to get arrested today. So back across the field we saw another sign "please keep to the path and keep dogs under control as this field has been treated with weedkiller" A bit late to tell us now, we'd already been there. We crossed the bridge by road and under the bridge followed the signs for the Severn Way. There was no path and it was all overgrown.
We tried, we really did, but in the end gave up & walked on a footpath on the other side. This was fine for a while until we saw a white van. We had also heard shooting in the distance. This was enough to send us back to the Hotel & call it a day.Carol resolved to go straight to the Tourist Information Centre in the morning to complain about a) The Severn Valley Water Works obstructing our path & b)the state of the path when we attempted to walk it. All does not bode well for the walk from Tewkesley to Worcester on Wednesday.
We could have had another meal in the hotel, but went looking for what else the town had to offer. Flicking through the Yellow Pages, it looked promising. Chinese, Indian, Italian, Bistro Bars... All on Church Street...and all, on investigation, closed. This was Bank Holiday Monday, in the middle of a tourist area. The town was dead, clearly everyone here had gone on holiday. Eventually we found a Chinese, which was ok, apart from the dismal "Musak" We should have stayed "at home" where Manuel welcomed us back into the bar for a nightcap.