There you are, on the walls of Chester city.

And, yes, we’ve been to Shakespeare country! On Thursday we left Burford, heading for our destination of Chester, but ensuring we stopped in Stratford-upon-Avon. We didn’t bother going to any specific displays, homes or historic spots there. We just wandered around the centre of town looking at the Tudor architecture, before having lunch at the “Hathaway Tearooms” (the oldest tearooms in town) – best value food we’ve had so far, in my opinion.

From there we drove straight to Chester, a mere stop off point on our way to the Lakes, but deliberately chosen as it is a walled city with beautiful architecture as well. We literally arrived at 5.30 and headed to walk around the walls before dinner, did some more walking around the centre of town and home again, went to bed and left town at 10 the next morning (Friday, 14 June) Unfortunately the photos from my phone in the late evening aren’t as clear as I would have liked.

Today we drove to the Lake District to a town called Ulverston. We are staying here for no other reason than it is where we could find a place at short notice, as our original accommodation was cancelled by the host and we had to find something quickly. It turns out that this place is the birthplace of Stan Laurel, the comedian of “Laurel & Hardy” fame. There’s a Laurel & Hardy museum here, while although interesting, is sadly lacking in style and layout. It seemed to be a mere clutter of photos, branded trinkets and old costumes from the films. It’s in a cinema so they have the old films playing on loop which is great as you can sit and watch them for a bit, however there is so much more that could be done to improve it. As it happens, it is the anniversary of Laurel’s birth this weekend, while we’re here (16 June) and they have an annual festival on called “Another fine fest”, where there will be musicians, street art and comedians performing on both days. We’ve viewed the programme and have planned to head into the lake area as quick as we can! We are here to see the scenery after all.