( Overview
/ Berlin
Arley Station House platform 1
Friday 30th June
We leave Oxford about 3:30pm with an expected 2hr drive to Shifnal. A slow exit from Oxford doesn't make me realise that it is Friday afternoon and we can reasonably expect delays elsewhere also. Our route takes us on the M6 around Birmingham which is seriously impacted by the end of week traffic. Thus our trip is closer to 3½hrs and we arrive about 7pm. Shifnal is a market town and civil parish in Shropshire, England with a population of about 7000. We are welcomed in Chris and Peter's home before we head out to eat at the East End Balti restaurant. It was just Mandy and I so were without local knowledge - and are encouraged to eat at the Shifnal Balti restaurant on night two because its the 'better' balti😁.
Saturday 1st July
We get directions and drive into Wolverhampton to meet Mandy's mum. She's in the UK for 3-4 months and this side trip was all about meeting family. We head to a rest home and meet Aunty Doris whose 90th birthday is on the Sunday (we were told it was Saturday yet when we turned up were told no its the Sunday). After a pleasant visit with her I encourage Mandy to let her mum show her Upper Arley. Upper Arley is significant because that is where her father, Michael Smith, is. It was his all time favourite spot, a place to sit back, watch the locomotives and just be the boy he always was. It is also where his ashes were scattered back in 2016 - as the locomotive pulls out of Arley Station on the Severn Valley Railway heading north, its steam engine whistle is activated and this is how Mike was allowed to rest.
We head south west, stop for a pub lunch on the way and before arrive at Upper Arley and park near the river Severn in the early afternoon. We stroll through the village, across the footbridge and up to Arley Station just a a steam engine pulls in to the station. The place is crowded as there is a 1940s weekend celebration and many people bustle around looking at the old steam train and there are people dressed in wartime outfits, there are wartime cars and army pieces etc etc. It's magic and brings a tear to Mandy's eye.
Night 2 is the 'family' dinner at the better balti restaurant, Shifnal Balti, before the early start on Sunday. Sunday we drive direct to Gatwick where we fly out to Pisa in Italy.
We leave Oxford about 3:30pm with an expected 2hr drive to Shifnal. A slow exit from Oxford doesn't make me realise that it is Friday afternoon and we can reasonably expect delays elsewhere also. Our route takes us on the M6 around Birmingham which is seriously impacted by the end of week traffic. Thus our trip is closer to 3½hrs and we arrive about 7pm. Shifnal is a market town and civil parish in Shropshire, England with a population of about 7000. We are welcomed in Chris and Peter's home before we head out to eat at the East End Balti restaurant. It was just Mandy and I so were without local knowledge - and are encouraged to eat at the Shifnal Balti restaurant on night two because its the 'better' balti😁.
Saturday 1st July
We get directions and drive into Wolverhampton to meet Mandy's mum. She's in the UK for 3-4 months and this side trip was all about meeting family. We head to a rest home and meet Aunty Doris whose 90th birthday is on the Sunday (we were told it was Saturday yet when we turned up were told no its the Sunday). After a pleasant visit with her I encourage Mandy to let her mum show her Upper Arley. Upper Arley is significant because that is where her father, Michael Smith, is. It was his all time favourite spot, a place to sit back, watch the locomotives and just be the boy he always was. It is also where his ashes were scattered back in 2016 - as the locomotive pulls out of Arley Station on the Severn Valley Railway heading north, its steam engine whistle is activated and this is how Mike was allowed to rest.
We head south west, stop for a pub lunch on the way and before arrive at Upper Arley and park near the river Severn in the early afternoon. We stroll through the village, across the footbridge and up to Arley Station just a a steam engine pulls in to the station. The place is crowded as there is a 1940s weekend celebration and many people bustle around looking at the old steam train and there are people dressed in wartime outfits, there are wartime cars and army pieces etc etc. It's magic and brings a tear to Mandy's eye.
Night 2 is the 'family' dinner at the better balti restaurant, Shifnal Balti, before the early start on Sunday. Sunday we drive direct to Gatwick where we fly out to Pisa in Italy.
W
Street View above Arley Station overlooking Upper Arley
Street View
www.google.com.au/maps/@52.416...
Engine leaving the station north
1940s wartime dancing on platform 2
Engines in the station
Upper Arley view to station. This is where Mike & Marion would sit eating there sandwiches and drinking the cuppa tea while watching and listening as the trains came into and then left the station up the hill
Street View above Arley Station overlooking Upper Arley.
Train entering Arley Station
1940s gathering
1940s gathering
walking back from station to Upper Arley
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