Monmouth

 Sunday 6th September 2020

First full day of my Forest of Dean based holiday, weather forecast "uncertain" - well it is on the Welsh border - and  I needed to get provisions. I took the scenic route from Blakeney through the forest which reminded me just how hilly the area is and eventually as the border was now open ended up at Monmouth.

Parked up in the Cattle Market Car Park next to the River Monnow and after eventually finding a ticket machine that "spoke" English went for a walk around the historic county town of Monmouthshire.

Starting with the ancient and hard to miss Monnow Bridge. The medieval stone bridge with it's incorporated gatehouse is the only one left in Britain. Now only open to cyclists and pedestrians of which there were plenty on a Sunday lunchtime some of them even attempting to maintain social distancing.

Because the pavements are narrow in this old town a temporary road closure was in place in Monnow

Street to give more space to pedestrians in much the same way as has been done in parts of London. Theoretically there was a one way system to walk uphill on the left side and down. Like that was going to happen. There weren't that many shops open although there was quite a lot of people about and though I'd have quite liked a coffee all the (reduced) seating in the cafes was full.

In normal times Monmouth is a nice place to wander around in a touristy fashion and I have been here before and done so back in the 1990s in what feels like another life. From what I remember it hasn't changed a lot. 

I walked up to the castle, tucked away up a side street. there's a small ruined bit remaining in the

corner of the grounds of Great Castle House, HQ and museum of the Royal Monmouthshire Royal Engineers whose history is depicted in a series of panels on the wall in the street leading to the castle. 

King Henry V of England was born is the castle in 1386 though I'm not sure he'd recognise it now, it having been knocked about a bit in the English Civil War (or Wars of the Three Kingdoms or whatever we're supposed to call them now) and after partially collapsing in 1647 was built over by the house mentioned above. The military museum was on covid-reduced opening hours and this wasn't one of them so after taking some pictures I headed back down the hill (keeping left) and got

some lunch from Waitrose and then was lucky enough to secure a bench next to the River Monnow to sit and eat it.

It had turned warm if not actually sunny (Wales remember) and made a nice place to watch the world go by, or at least a small part of it, before joining an inexplicable traffic jam to cross back over the River Wye and back to England and the Forest of Dean.

Monmouth's nice still.