Our journey today took us into the Shropshire hills to the charming town and castle of Ludlow.  The castle was being prepare for a food festival occurring this weekend, which meant the castle wasn't quite as scenic as it usually is but we still had the opportunity to see a very historic castle. Our tour was led by the quite humorous Lady Catherine.  While not 100% accurate she did an excellent job describing the living conditions at the time, which weren't very good to say the least.  The castle did have a form of indoor plumbing, but you really didn't want to be standing at the other end of the pipe, if you know what I mean.

After the tour we had time for lunch and a walk around the town.  If you know me, you know I'm drawn to food, so the market in the square was an immediate draw for me.  The produce was lovely and the people friendly.  There was also a rather cute dog that I had to snap on my way by.

Right before we got back on the bus, I ducked into a little antique store where I found a obviously English carousel horse.  Notice the buck teeth, which helped to identify his heritage for me...

On to Tewkesbury, where Edward defeated the forces of Margaret of Anjou and ended any hopes of Henry VI retaking the crown.  We started at a cute (but not terribly well done) museum.  The staff however was quite enthusiastic and had spent a couple of days preparing for our arrival.  We then walked to the Tewkesbury Abby where the defeated Lancastrians sought shelter only to find that this church was not actually able to shelter them from Edward's forces.  Not a very happy ending for them.  

Elizabeth, our tour guide, met her match with the Abby guide.  He absolutely refused to wear a microphone to talk to our group.  Our other local guide wasn't too great at using it either.  Let's just say, technology hasn't really found it's was to this part of the world.

Our museum guide walked us down to the actually battlefield to look at the bloody meadow.  What he lacked in knowledge he certainly made up for with enthusiasm!  It was enough for us to get an idea of where the battle occurred.  Tewkesbury is an absolutely lovely little town with some of the prettiest gardens I've seen on the trip so far.  It was a very nice day of touring.