Brother Cadfael and Laundry

The next spot on our itinerary that is a must see is Cardiff - not for any rugby related reason, but because it offers the Dr Who Experience. This is a must see for Grant and Dani as true Whovians.

It is a long stretch from the Lakes to Cardiff, though and and the break point for this journey has been a bit of a challenge as the path is through the industrial North of England. We toyed with Nottingham and a spot of Robin Hood spotting in Sherwood Forest - but then I spotted Shrewsbury. It turns out that in addition to the Brother Cadfael connection (grant and Dani have no idea who Brother Cadfael is) there is a temporary exhibition at the local museums about Vikings - for Dani and a nearby RAF museum for Grant.

We set off from beautiful sunshine in the Lakes - but in true form the clouds are gathering by the time we reach Shrewsbury. It is Spring and time for April showers after all.

The omens on the way into town are good - we are due to turn left at a T intersection where we are faced by New Zealand house (why?). The left turn has a road closed sign and the traffic is backed up (they call that a queue here) but as we approach the road closed sign is removed. There appears to be some kind of military parade through the streets that we have just missed.

The museum is at the opposite end of town from our hotel, so we park the beast and set off for a walk into town wearing our trusty waterproof jackets. On the way we pass the abbey church - which sports a broken bit of wall on the side where part of the abbey was demolished by Henry VIII. Clearly no rush to neaten this up.

The Main Street of the town turns out to be charming with a large selection of Tudor buildings. The shops look interesting (window shopping only). More individual shops and less chains than in some
other places. The town square has a market and a seriously old market building (wish this would let
me load photos) from around 1100

The museum turns out to be lovely. It focuses on local history - and as there has been some form of settlement at the side of the river Severne since the Iron Age there is a lot of history to offer. There is a good collection of Roman artifacts.- including a lot of intact pots   Some unfortunate traders whole market stall appears to have been overturned and somehow buried  

Of course lots from the Tudors and information about Coalport pottery - which is nearby. It is also the birthplace of Charles Darwin - so there are some bits and pieces about him too.

 The Viking exhibition is a little smaller than I might have hoped- but Dani is happy anyway. A lot of it seems to have come fromYork. The Viking displays there being currently closed while they recover from the floods.

On he way back we stop in at the abbey church. I have bought a booklet with walks that let you identify the real places in the (fictional) Cadfael books - but it is a bit too complicated. And I find as I read the guide that I don't REALLY remember the stories all that well at all. The church seems to have more than its fair share of medieval tombs though. So is interesting anyway.

After all our exploring we are a bit weary so opt for an Indian restaurant near the hotel for dinner.  This is our first experience of English Indian food and it is very good.  We like the way they serve pappadams with condiments (mango chutney, lime pickle and some others I couldn't identify) as a starter.

The next mornings he plan is for Grant to have his time looking at old aircraft at the RAF museum. This is not so interesting to Dani and me. We are planning to go to a nearby shopping centre instead - but I suggest that maybe it would be a good time to get some laundry done - as we are almost at the point of having more dirty clothes than clean ones.

Google maps tells us that there is a laundry in the town of Dawley nearby so Grant drops Dani and me and the dirty clothes off there. Dawley is no attractive tourist village. It's Main Street is not enhanced by the fact that nearly all the shops are shuttered on a Sunday morning.

Similarly the laundry is not a tourist centered facility with change machines or dispensers where you can buy detergent. It does have some seriously large washing machines though.

A kindly local gives us some washing detergent and fabric softener and fills us in on the machines a bit. We load up and set it off and find places around the place where we can perch and use our electronic devices - chairs also being something not particularly seen as necessary in this launderette. I am happily engrossed in my book when Dani points out to me that we have been there almost an hour and the machine's 45 minute wash cycle is showing no signs of ending. She lifts up the
dispenser at the top and water is still flowing into the machine.

On Sunday's the launderette runs without any on site staff. Dani rings the number on display - but we hear the phone ringing behind the locked door at the back of the room and she just gets a recorded message.

In the hope that it is a small enough town that people will know each other, I try the other open shops -the supermarket, a particularly grotty pub where all conversation stops when a stranger walks in and the sleek betting shop - but nobody has any contact details for the launderette prproeter.

I think we will be stuck there until they return to shut up shop at 4pm - but Dani is made of sterner stuff. She climbs over the chest high machines and turns it off at the PowerPoint. This drIns the machine - but we still can't open it and extract our clothes. Whether they are clean or not doesn't seem to matter at this point. She makes the climb again and turns the machine on again - but this still does
not release the door.

At last she tries a button on the back of the machine. Fortunately this is NOT the self-destruct but advances the machine through the cycle.  HOORAY!

We stop it at spin and mercifully it proceeds through that bit without incident and releases the door!

We retrieve theclothes immediately. Fortunately the tumble drying goe without any further excitement.