This is my last walk on the Portway. After Winster, it overlaps with the Limestone Way past Robin Hood's Stride - I walked that part with Mom last summer - before veering off towards Alport. By then it is getting too far away for me. An hour each way is my limit, otherwise the ratio between driving and walking becomes unhappily high. Winster takes 53 minutes. I park in the small car park opposite the Miners Standard (the pub doesn't bother with an apostrophe), where I am pleased to see that a grubby sign references the Portway. I zigzag down the hill between houses built a long time before anyone thought that cars would need to get to them. On the main street, the Market House has a green Land Rover parked aesthetically next to it. The door says Open, so I climb the stairs and find myself in a bright, white-painted room with displays about the history of the village. At one point Winster boasted "two grocers, two dairies, two saddlers, three sets of petrol pumps...[many...
We thought we were going to the land of Worcestershire sauce. It turned out that what Worcester really wants to tell you about is Edward Elgar. The composer of Land of Hope and Glory grew up around here and has a good big statue in the city centre. I didn't take a photo of that one, so here we are gazing soulfully at the Malvern Hills, instead. I had spent my time off at Easter and Spring Bank redecorating and shifting furniture around for new carpets. Two bedrooms now looked a lot better, and it was time for a proper holiday. So, on the hottest May bank holiday ever, we were in Worcester. I was afraid it would be packed. However, all the sensible people had gone to the seaside. We easily got seats for lunch at Good Roots cafe (which was larger than I expected, too). After an enjoyable brunch we wandered down to the River Severn, where a man with a ferry boat was waiting to take us across to the other side. He rowed, we paid 50p each. A good deal. We followed a rough approximation...