The Land of Hope and Glory. It certainly doesnt feel like it at the moment. The heavens had opened, as we arrived in the Cathedral city of Worcester some 6 hours after we departed from Bristol and The Well Hung Lover. The M5 hadnt really been that bad. We had stopped off for a socially distanced family gathering on the outskirts of Cheltenham. My sister has long since resided in this affluent corner of England, where the pace of life is slower. It is nearly 10 months ago since we had last met up. She rarely ventures north and we have less reason these days to venture south. The world put to rights, we made our way to Worcester.
Whilst I have driven past Worcester many times on the adjacent motorway, we have only visited the city once before. It was about 10 years ago to see a band. It was brief visit. It rained that night too. We watched the gig and drove home. The miserable weather did nothing for the mood and the parking situation was less than ideal. I eventually found a space on a street, that would suffice for the night and still be
OK for our planned wander the following day. I could win the lottery and would still be aggrieved by the prospect of paying £15 to park in a NCP car park. The remnants of our Travelodge voucher was covering the cost of the It was very central, but oddly positioned in a tower block above a shopping centre. We headed out into the night. I imagine in pre COVID times, the city centre to be fairly active early evening. who travel daily up to Birmingham would get off their trains, have a pint or a meal perhaps and then disappear homeward. Worcester is now a University town too. It was always primarily a teacher training college, but since 1997 has fully fledged status. Students too - who I read exceed 8500 in number - would be out and about in normal times, adding to the nightlife numbers. However on a wet October night in COVID, it was deadly quiet. Of course, are probably no Working from home is the order of the day and then motivation to head out for a pint is somewhat lacking, when the wet stuff is falling from the
skies. The new rule of 10 pm closing doesnt help. We found ourselves in the spacious outdoor seating area of The Dragon at the northern end of the city centre. The local CAMRA have bestowed on it their award of Pub of the Year 2018 and 2019. I sampled my pint of Goats Milk - described as golden yellow nectar - and concluded that they had made a good choice. It also had the advantage of lots of space and the aforementioned gigantic outdoor space, so even the most nervous of drinkers in the midst of a pandemic could The original plan had been to have a few refreshments and move on for food. The lack of footfall indicated many eateries would close early and with last orders in pubs around 9.20 pm, we stayed put. Our evening meal became a pub snack of the best Scotch egg sampled in many a year and a bag of crisps. Do not let it be said, that I dont show the Other Half a good time!
The weather offered something more morning. The Cathedral looked impressive, as we headed out to explore. Worcester lies at
the centre of transport links in this part of the country. The River Severn cuts through the city centre and at one point it was the only bridging point between Bridgnorth 25 miles upstream and Gloucester 25 miles to the south. It is the home of the huge Cathedral rising above the river, Royal Worcester Porcelain, Edward Elgar, Lea & Perrins Worcester Source and the Worcester Journal - apparently the Worlds oldest newspaper. Edward Elgar, was born nearby and moved to the city at early age. His father ran a music shop. Elgar was right outside the hotel - not literally - but his statue by Kenneth Potts gazed down the street. Classical music isnt really my thing, but pretty much everyone has heard of the Land of Hope and Glory. Elgar wrote the music in 1901 and the words were added in 1902 by A C Benson.
