Gloucester City

Although it had a reputation as a pretty grim place a few years ago, we were mad enough to stop off here on the way back to Penarth. Pleasantly surprised we wandered around the rejuvenated old dock area which has been nicely renovated, preserving the old warehouse buildings:

Of course, many of them had government offices inside - the local council hasn't stinted itself on accommodation or location. The wooden walkway is a temporary disabled entrance to the council offices:

In the marina area (the local yacht club runs this) was a sad decaying ex-Norfolk Broads hire boat:

Shame, in their day these were the daddy of hire fleet boats. Now it looks more like the incontinent great uncle. For some strange reason, she had a nice new red ensign at the stern. Might have been better to fix the leaks up forrard that the tarpaulin was covering instead. She used to be "Golden Emblem 1" from Collins of Wroxham and spent 25 hard years being abused by hirers. Now one owner has managed more damage than all those 25 years put together. Yes, boats do need lots of TLC.....

We liked the area around the Cathedral. We didn't like the fact that it decided to rain as we walked into the Cathedral close but the stunning interior and lack of leaks made up for it. We had to steal the interior shots from the web - didn't have the "big" camera with us:

Well worth a couple of hours was the Waterways Museum. If you are nearby, pop in and see the history of the local canals / river navigation and how important it was to the development of the area. Museum website is worth a look too. Another converted warehouse and friendly volunteer staff too:

The only hard bit was finding a pub with some table space to have lunch in. We managed to pick a day when the local rugby club were playing at home so every pub was totally full (heaving is a better word) until just before the game started. A late lunch wasn't a big issue though....

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