A Trip Home for the Meadvale fete.

Saturday 14th and Sunday 15th July - Home and back to Gloucester.
Early on Saturday morning, we left MM in the comparative safety of the moorings in Gloucester Basin and headed for the railway station.On the way, we passed this old jeweller's shop with a very unusual chiming clock above it, with five figures doing the chiming.

This weekend is the Meadvale Village Fete and we have missed it every year as we are normally up in the Lake District when it takes place. This year, we decided that we would like to attend, partly because R has been doing research on village history and there will be a history display at the fete but also because R left the mobile broadband behind when we left home (twit!) and we needed to pick it up.
The trains worked well and we arrived at the fete before 1:00pm. R spent much of the afternoon in the history tent talking to people about the displays. The history tent was one of the best attended exhibits.

The fete always ends with a tug o'war between two local teams but afterwards, all the kids had a go. It started as boys against girls but every time one side began to have an advantage, more kids would pile on to the losing side until that side gained the advantage and then more kids would join the other end!

It was great fun and, needless to say, it ended up with everyone laughing and lying on the ground.
We spent the night at home and then returned to Gloucester by train. Again, all our trains ran on time although there were trains cancelled on either side of ours. (GWR is experiencing staff shortages at present).
Back in Gloucester, we were greeted at MM by a very humpy young seagull who thought we might feed him. (We didn't, not least because he had left his "calling card" all over our stern!).

Later, we treated ourselves to an early supper at a Greek restaurant right next to our mooring.

R had kolokithakia (fried courgettes) and a chicken salad while M had her favourite "Gigantes" (butter beans) followed by souvlakia; all washed down with an excellent bottle of genuine Greek Retsina. Delicious! A real treat, as we rarely eat out when on MM.

The whole Quay area has been redeveloped and we had a walk around. It includes a vast new shopping area with all the usual shops and many restaurants. It also includes a large National Waterways Museum and we will try to visit that when we have time.

We walked across the bridge over the canal, which will have to be raised in the morning to let us under it.

The view from the bridge is the canal that we will take tomorrow to go down to Saul Junction to have our fuel "polished" (cleaned) before we are allowed to go down the tidal Severn Estuary.

We walked all around the Basin and took this photo of MM from the other side in the evening sunshine. The top of the cathedral is just visible on the left.

Today: The trains took the strain.