Cheltenham City Centre
(If you click on the photos they should bigify)
The weekend after we took the grandchildren to Southport we had another little jaunt booked with our friends K&T, to the Coltswolds. We had to meet a coach at 8.15 a.m. on Saturday which took us to Staffordshire where we changed to a larger coach to take us to Cheltenham (which is a Spa town) in Gloucestershire, where we spent about an hour before getting back on the coach to Toddington to the
where we were boarding a train pulled by The Black Prince, a steam engine owned by the famous wildlife artist David Shepherd, for a 40 minute journey back to Cheltenham, chugging along through the beautiful Gloucestershire countryside at a mere 25 miles per hour. Apparently David Shepherd was visiting the GWR on Saturday 8th August to mark his locomotive’s 50th birthday and he had arranged aircraft of the Battle of Britain Memorial Flight to pass over Toddington. The Spitfire which zoomed over the station four times was superb though much too fast for me to get a photograph unfortunately.
We arrived at Toddington Station and had about 30 minutes before the train was due to leave so we had a wander round and took some photographs.
The leisurely journey through the Gloucestershire countryside was very relaxing and the ride ended at
Cheltenham Race Course Station
Here's some views of the famous Cheltenham Race Course.
We then got back on the coach to be taken to The Park Inn, Birmingham, where we were staying the night. We arrived there about 5.30 p.m. which gave us enough time to have a rest and get showered and changed for dinner at 7 p.m. in the hotel. The hotel is very nice, spacious modern rooms with every convenience and dinner consisted of a carvery which was very substantial and tasty. We had a few drinks in the hotel bar after dinner then retired for the night, as we had to be on the coach the following morning at 9 a.m. for the journey to Stratford-upon-Avon (the birthplace of Shakespeare).
Tune in for part 2 coming soon.
