E2: Alcester to Mickleton

Rain, but also a little sunshine today, and cake at a café!

Lichen on the trees.

As their food was so imaginative I walked into Alcester town centre this morning for breakfast at Chapter 23, the place I had lunch at yesterday. This morning I ate a smoked salmon and cheese omelette listening to the locals.

The first village I reached was Wixford. It had an ancient church but I was more interested in the horse house. An unusual structure with a thatched roof and walls made of gorse used to house the horse of the visiting vicar. I had not seen another like it. Soon after I encountered a modest waterfall, not something I expected in the flat or gently undulating terrain.

A surprise waterfall.

Bideford-on-Avon had a café, although it took me a while to find as I thought I remembered from the map where it was, but I was wrong. On eventually locating it I enjoyed a latte and muffin while amusing myself glancing through one of the books available for customers. It was a satirical look at men's dress habits and manners. I passed the edges of several other villages today, but none with coffee shops as far as I was aware. 

My route led me through part of the Heart of England Forest, or at least what will one day be a forest when the trees have grown a bit. For a while the sun shone, enriching the greens of the fields.

A little afternoon sun.

After a few particularly muddy fields, where I think sheep had chewed up the ground digging up turnips, I arrived at Mickleton. A small milestone as it is the "Gateway to the Cotswolds", an area of hills and scenic villages which I will be walking through for the next two days. The hotel I am staying at is evidently a cut above the average as there are biscuits with the room's tea making facilities, or rather there were until shortly after my arrival. There is also a TV remote that sometimes works, and the dinner was good if on the expensive side. The dessert, a fruit and ginger pudding with custard was especially nice, if a bit fattening. Perhaps not surprising that the dessert was good as the hotel claimed to home of the "Pudding Club", whatever that might be.