Worcester Shopping

Yesterday we drove up from home for a Christmas and New Year break aboard nb Alchemy - mostly in the marina but hopefully with at least one short trip out. The journey was straightforward and traffic levels were generally remarkably light. We arrived around 2 pm, unloaded, lit the fire and later went to Morrisons in town for a few items. Main food shopping will wait until later.

Today we opted to visit Worcester to look around and chase down a few items, mostly non-urgent. We found that we could park at Droitwich station for £2 for the day and our tickets, with railcards, came to £5.50. However, the car park was not attended and payment only by mobile and credit card. This necessitated first downloading an app, then registering, entering car details and finally paying after getting the card details correct - second time (less usually it did not need a / in the expiry date)

The train took us to Foregate Station which is at one end of the main shopping street.

As we walked down Foregate we spotted this street sign - we can understand why the name has changed!

After meandering through the main shopping area we arrived at the cathedral at the other end, close to the river. We found the small cafe and enjoyed a sandwich and panini - well presented and tasty.

In the cloister there is the annual Christmas Tree festival with dozens of decorated tree provided by many different organisations. Many were from schools and cathedral department but other community organisations contributed, even a few commercial businesses.

Some of the displays were based on traditional - real or manufactured - green trees but plenty of other ideas were on show, some very inventive. This is a fund raising initiative and has been repeated for quite a number of years now.

We wandered around the main part of the cathedral - centrally placed is the famous tomb of King John, he of Magna Carta fame (or infamy?)

The present cathedral dates from the 11th century, although there were earlier buildings on the site which the religious community had outgrown. The first part to be built was the crypt - a wonderful, peaceful place with an amazing feel to it.

After leaving the cathedral we largely re-traced our route, but diverted off several side streets and shopping precincts. Only towards the end did we remember that we were looking for a bun tray to make mince pies. Despite spotting one in a specialist shop that was very expensive (we don't make that many mince pies!) we left empty handed.

We caught the train back to Droitwich and visited some of the local stores - surprisingly it took us until the third to find a bun tray. But we did find the rest of the more immediate items we needed including mushrooms for the beef stroganoff tonight.