Day before my Birthday, so we wanted to escape somewhere for the day to get out of the house before the rains. Almost went to Avesbury, but instead headed for Hereford. Not sure I have ever been there before, certainly driven through it, and would be surprised if I had not – but I can’t remember if I did. Anyway, its about an hour up the road – so we were there about mid day.
Looked on Google Maps for the best parking place on the approach, so no problem with getting somewhere to park, then we walked over the bridge and into the town. Just over the bridge was a place called Left Bank, it had fantastic terraces overlooking the river – three tiers and looked really nice. Until you got close up and realised it was now an empty shell – probably was something once, but was in such a fantastic position it seemed strange nothing had been done to it. Followed some folks down a back street and came out at the cathedral.
There was noise and white tents and lots of people, we were shaghighed as we entered the court-yard and was told that we had stumbled upon the Hereford Food Festival – and yes, Mary Berry was going to be there. Lots of tents and stalls, mostly selling cheese or some type of fruit drink. You could see the stalls with free samples as they were packed, the ones without were left alone by the greedy throng. Too many people really for my liking, but it was bustly and a little like a Christmas market. We had a nose around and tasted some very nice cheeses, but with all this food around we needed lunch!
We took a walk into the town itself and came across an array of food stalls, selling lots of hot, tasty, nice smelling stuff. But it was parky out, so we had a look, then a warm in The Entertainer, then looked for a pub. None to be seen. This must be the first place I have ever been that didn’t seem to have any pubs around. We found one, which was closed (or at least looked closed) and lots of shops, but nothing else – we must have been looking in the wrong places as there are always pubs in towns like these – but they weer well hidden. So we ended up in Pizza Express. We nearly had a buffet of English/Chinese and Indian, but Sian scoped the place and we decided against it. Pizza Express was good.
Then we had another stroll around the tents, and the Cathedral itself, then Kate bought a rubbish cake from a stall and we made our way back to the car, with 10 mins to spare on our three hour ticket. That was Hereford. Seems nice, not enough pubs to keep my attention though.