Did You Miss Colchester?
A happy group of people from the Leicester area visited Colchester a couple of days ago.
"Colchester" was my latest Coach Trip, and frankly if you haven't been there on one of my excursions you have missed a real treat.
It's the oldest town in Britain, not only an important Roman town but the capital of civilised Britain before even the Romans arrived, with the largest Norman keep ever built, itself on the foundations of Britain's largest-ever religious building, with town walls that are Roman rather than mediaeval ....
Yes, it's a fabulously historic old town.
Having left St. Margarets Bus Station in Leicester, we travelled down past Huntingdon and along a little bit of motorway, before emerging into the lovely countryside of Essex.
We went through Takeley and the delightful little town of Dunmow, before arriving at the Blake House Craft Centre at Blake End, where we had our morning coffee stop.
After that it wasn't too far to Colchester, bur before getting there we made a detour through another smashing little town, Coggeshall.
On the Guided Walk I was able to show an amazed group of people a staggering number of historical features, including Colchester Castle, the Roman Walls, St. Botolphs Priory, St. Johns Abbey Gatehouse, the Balkerne Gate and the Dutch Quarter.
Then of course there was plenty of time for sightseeing or even shopping in the impressive town centre. I went for coffee in Williams and Griffin's department store, and later for coffee and a tea cake at Timbers tea shop in Trinity Street.
On the way home, we went through more delightful towns and villages, including Earls Colne, Halstead and Sible Hedingham.
The coffee stop on the return journey was at the Comfort Cafe at Babraham, a pleasant alternative to motorway services.
That everybody had a good time can be seen by a selection of comments from the Visitors' Book, such as "very interesting day surpassed expectations", "an excellent day with good weather and good organisation", "walk very interesting, castle good, our guide the best", "fascinating history, the walk has surpassed the usual high standard, many thanks Colin", "surprised to find such a large number of historical sites" and "a truly fascinating guide to a very interesting place".
Now don't you want to come on future trips? They include "York", "Kent Tour" and "Southend".
Posted by colin on Monday 28th January, 2008 at 4:58pm