A leisurely start to Monday and we left Newton Grove sometime after 11:00am. Google Maps was spot on and we arrived at our new site just a couple of minutes early, having been un-successful in finding anywhere nearby to delay our arrival a few minutes.

The Broadway CAMC site was close to, if not an actual, sellout. A very hot and sunny day and we popped up the sun canopy for our few days here.

In the evening, we ordered wood-fired pizza from a visiting catering firm. The pizzas were however, a little disappointing – they needed to have been left a little longer to crisp-up.

Tuesday was Joe’s birthday and the entire day had been meticulously planned by Moe.

Making the bacon butties for breakfast was Joe’s only contribution to the day.

Around 11:00am we headed to the GWSR railway station at Broadway with day rover tickets each.

The Gloucestershire Warwickshire Railway is a volunteer operated heritage railway in Gloucestershire and Worcestershire offering a round trip of 28 miles. It uses part of the route of the former Great Western Railway’s main line from Birmingham to Cheltenham which used to run via Stratford-upon-Avon.

It now operates steam and heritage diesel trains between Cheltenham Racecourse and Broadway through some of the most spectacular scenery in the Cotswolds. The line commands wonderful views of the nearby sleepy hamlets and villages, with outstanding outlooks across to the Malvern Hills and beyond

Our train took us to Toddington where we joined a complimentary tour of the workshop and yard. All the GWSR engines are kept here in one of two sheds – the diesel shed and the steam shed.

As well as the engines on duty for the day, there are more in the sheds at various state of readiness and re-construction.

Our second train (again steam) took us down the line to Winchcombe where we had lunch at the station cafe.

Finally, we headed to the end of the line at Cheltenham racecourse before the return journey to Broadway.

As is often the case now, many pubs and restaurants are closed on Mondays and Tuesdays, so tonight, Moe had booked a table at the Swan Inn, Broadway. Food was good, service average – again struggling to find enough workers.

Thursday we headed to Tewkesbury and spent a few hours looking around the town and the Abbey, in excess of 900 years old. Tewkesbury Abbey is also the Parish church, an impressive building and one of the largest parish churches in the country. The square Norman tower is reputed to be the largest in the world.

The 14 gigantic columns are Norman and the elaborate vaulting is 14th Century. Masons’ marks can be seen on some of the pillars.

The Abbey’s font has a 13th century base. The bowl and ornate wooden canopy were fitted in Victorian times.

The gigantic cast iron heater used to run on more than gas. In bygone days, these would glow red from the coal fire within.

Here you can look up and see the sun, an emblem of the House of York. It was put there as a memorial to their victory over the House of Lancaster in the battle of Tewkesbury, 1471.

There are some remarkable and intricate stone carvings to be seen.

There are many alleyways and passages around Tewkesbury. Sadly these aren’t as interesting or picturesque as one might imagine. We did stumble across allegedly the oldest Baptist Church in England.

It was a nice sunny afternoon and evening and we had a BBQ and salad for dinner.

Tomorrow we hope to leave at 11:00am for the next leg of our journey, somewhere south of Broadway.