Trip to Hereford Hay on Wye festival 2018

 19th May 2018 we watched the wedding of Prince Harry and Megan Markle.

 20th May left Israel on Easy Jet an flew into Luton where we stayed the night at Holiday Express and the next day took a coach to Oxford.  The driver stopped at High Wickem for a 2 minute smoke break and I found out that this is Buckinghamshire and has a big student population as the Buckingham University is there.

Visited Brenda and Frank and walked to our rented flat and then bought enough ready food for 3 days. I always think that the English bathroom is too big and a waste of space.

A great pleasure  about England is that is that it is always green and at this time of the year there are some very big trees in bloom. Oxford is a bicycle city and most people wear helmets. There is a bike hire system and you can leave the bike anywhere in the street and it has a self locking system when you sign out. Astrid was at Boswells and they gave her an out of date 10 Pound banknote and denied it was from them and we had to take it to the bank. I went for a walk across the canal to the nature park but did not see swans, there are wooden birds nests there as well as triangular shapes boxes with and opening at the bottom which I found out are nests for small bats.

We were with Brenda and Frank for the 3 days and went for lunch at the Plough one day.

24th Thursday We were up early enough to get the local bus before 10am as we had a 24 hours bus pass and got to the Oxford station. This has a very big parking place for bicycles and you have to remember where you put your bike. Took our train to Hereford which passes through stations that have a short platform and people have to move to the front 4 coaches to get off. In Hereford we walked through the town to get to our B&B which is a new room in an old house with a shower room, kettle, microwave and fridge.  Hereford has a Hereford bull statue  erected in 2016 to celebrate the 60anniversary of Queen Elizabeth.  We bought microwave food at Marks and Spencer's and by 6pm the city centre feels empty but I took a walk around this street is a mall and no building is taller than 3 stories and very old. There are 3 Polish shops so there must be  a lot of Polish immigrants. who probably work on farms.

The main church in the centre has a section turned into a coffee shop which is quite popular it is closed on Sunday for the church service.

From Hereford there was a regular bus service to the Hay on Wye festival this was held in enormous marques,  and over the next few day we listened to writers Bear Grillus  on adventures in the wild. Ian McKean, and Alexander McCall Smith. I found it interesting to her authors whose books you have read, how they go about writing and what gives them ideas. We listened to Antony Beever who spoke about the book he had just published "The Battle of Arnhem" He read a text which was not interesting but when he answered questions it was far more interesting

 Hay on Wye is across the border in Wales in a town that attracts writers and has 18 used book stores but the air in the is not good for people with allergies. The people you meet at the festival of course are well read and a pleasure to meet.

We took an organized trip to see a sheep farm in the area who grow sheep for lambs meat. We watched the sheep being rounded up and moved by dogs. We were also given a display of wool shearing.  The wool strands are too thick the clip is low quality and  just pays for the shearers. Wool from Australia and South Africa in the dessert and dry climate the strands are far finer measured in microns and make quality garments. Many of the shearers after the season is finished in the northern hemisphere go off to Australia,. New Zealand and are paid by the number of sheep they clip.

We were given a roll with roast lamb and pickles to eat very tasty. The demand for mutton from the older sheep is small in the UK except the Moslems who are happy to buy that.

I went for a walking tour in Hereford which was a border city to Wales and had a garrison to protect England. In the Cathedral is a chained library with manuscript books each very valuable and chained so you had to sit and read them there.

Dating from about 1300 on vellum is Mappa Mundi which is a map of the world as was understood at the time, with references to the known stories of the  bible and myths. The centre of the map is Jerusalem.