Broadway November 16th Day 1

Monty the motorhome is trying to blend in with the autumn colours at Broadway, on the edge of The Cotswolds. It was about time he had some exercise, after a number of weeks sitting on the drive at home and doing nothing.

At last we've managed to get out for a weekend. Since our last outing to The Malvern's the weather has been dreadful - well not all the time, but at weekends it has not been kind. We also have been suffering from more water pump problems, which resulted in Murvi HQ organising for a local service engineer to come out to our home and have a look. We are now on our third water pump (he fitted a replacement, but that didn't work, so now we're on the replacement for the replacement); it seems to be working and this weekend will be the test. The problem seems to come when we drain down and air gets in the system, the pump then refuses to re-prime when the water is filled up again. So I suppose the real test will be when we drain down after this trip - something we will have to do as the forecast is for snow and freezing conditions next week.

Anyway what about today. We chose Broadway as it is fairly local to us and we were here in an hour and a quarter. We are on the Caravan Club site, which is where the old Broadway railway station used to stand until 1963. We had one of the last pitches as it seems many people leave their caravans on site throughout the winter, and there is a rally on.

Where's Monty?

The village is about 15 minutes walk from the site and it is a tourist trap, aimed at the well heeled, with an abundance of expensive boutiques and art galleries. We were particularly impressed with some paintings of still life in one gallery and almost bought one. Trouble was I didn't have sufficient cash in my wallet - £9500!

We made do with a coffee at a place called 'Leaf and Bean'. Coffee turned into lunch, with some tasty pea and ham soup, cheese and caramelised onion sandwich, along with a pudding of warm chocolate brownie and local ice cream. My ice was flavoured with lavender - different and really quite nice (surprised me), while Ruth opted for ginger in hers.

Then a little stroll around the village - golden cotswold limestone buildings and autumn clouds to match.

Back at the campsite we are settling into a relaxing evening after a starter of pizza from a wood fired oven. An enterprising couple come to the site every Saturday with a mobile oven (on the back of a trailer) and set up under a gazebo. We had one called 'verdure' - tomato, mozzarella, peppers, courgette, onion, ricotta and a flourish of roasted pumpkin seed oil. Lovely.