Beautiful Bridgnorth

Following our afternoon in Ironbridge Gorge we made our way to Bridgnorth, where we were spending the weekend having our annual catch up with old work friends.

We were staying for two nights at the Parlors Hall Hotel, which was ideally placed and just over the river from the bottom station of the funicular railway.
We settled in to our room, which had more frills than I've seen in a very long time, and had a quick shower, before meeting up with our friends in the garden, which was a very pleasant treat.
Friday night found us in Blue Ginger, an Indian restaurant, pretty much next door to the hotel. Both the service and the food were excellent and we'd definitely recommend it if you are looking for somewhere to eat.

On Saturday the plan was to have a wander around Bridgnorth, visiting a few pubs along the way. After a decent breakfast in the hotel we all met up on the bridge over the Severn and admired the views in every direction before heading up to High Town on the funicular.

Bridgnorth have really gone to town on their floral displays and there seemed to be beautifully coloured hanging baskets everywhere we looked.

The views from the top across the river are spectacular.

We had a walk round the walls at the top, before heading through the Castle Gardens, which were in full bloom, to go back into town.
There was some pretty impressive topiary in homage to WW1, though the tank still needs to develop a bit.


A real surprise was the well tended veg plot along the walls of the garden, looked after by the WI, really well planted with all manner of vegetables and herbs and some really impressive sunflowers.

We wandered past the Old Castle pub, with another excellent floral display, and decided to take a refreshment break in the pub garden before having a walk up the High Street.
There was a market on and town was absolutely packed.  There was a real holiday feel in the air and lots of quaint little shops, perfect for a relaxing mooch about.
It was then time for a another quick refreshment break in The Black Boy before Martin and I decided we would head back up the hill to come back down on the funicular.  We do love a funicular.
Back at the bottom and it was a short walk back over the bridge for a quick pitstop back at Parlors Hall.
It was then time to head off to meet up again at our friends' caravan for the annual BBQ, whatever the weather.  This year we were blessed with warm sunshine and we couldn't have asked for a better spot down by the river.
All too soon it was time to head back to Parlors Hall for one last time, but not before agreeing next year we would meet up in Harrogate.  We're looking forward to it already.