Where have I been - to the Forest of Dean!

We had a lovely break away in the Forest of Dean a few weeks ago.

This is where we stayed.  About Time Cottage.

There were 8 of us, my cousins Jill, Julie and Pat plus their husbands Simon, Pete and Martin plus me and Hubby.  Oh and Beanie (Jill and Simon's dog.)

The Forest of Dean is near Gloucester which is close to Wales.  In fact our route there took us on the M4 motorway from London, over the Severn Bridge into Wales and then north back into England to the village of Parkend where the cottage is situated.

There is a steam railway that runs between Parkend and the nearby town of Lydney and we could hear the trains running behind the house.

Pete, Me, Nick, Jill, Julie and Martin

As above but with Pat on the right.

Us girls keep in touch on WhatsApp quite regularly but we don't get to meet up in person that often but when we do we just pick up from where we left off.  

We had a wander around Lydney harbour.  We visited a place called Puzzlewood which is a very unique area of the forest and we also did a forest walk that included a sculpture trail.

We didn't do the whole trail as we needed to get back to the cafe before it closed for tea and cake.  We stop frequently for tea and cake!

We had a pub meal out the first evening and then the other two nights we had a very reasonably priced Indian takeaway and then fish and chips from a nearby shop which was also good.

We did a lot of chatting and played games in the evening and it was overall a lovely break.