This weekend was Una's birthday weekend and I had decided to surprise her with a weekend away. Her birthday was on Friday, so after work we both met up at Paddington, grabbed some Prosecco and a few snacks for the journey and then headed to the trains. We weren't able to get on the fast train, just way too overcrowded, but at least the slower one just after that wasn't too bad. From there we headed out to Hereford for the weekend. The reason I'd chosen Hereford for a surprise weekend away was to watch the Fureys who were playing last night and I know Una had mentioned wanting to see them ages ago, so the timing this weekend worked out quite well.

We arrived into Hereford just after 11pm and grabbed a taxi down the road to Charades Guest House. I'd phoned earlier to say we'd be late, so the door was left unlocked and the room keys left on the table, a sure sign you're no longer in the city :) After letting ourselves in, we headed upstairs to our room and crashed for the night.

Yesterday morning after breakfast downstairs we took a walk into the city centre to stroll around there. The centre was fairly small for a city, but with it having a cathedral it manages to claim city status. The weather wasn't great, drizzling and overcast, but didn't bother us too much. We started off at Castle Green and then over to the cathedral. The Hereford Cathedral dates back to 1079 and it's most famous treasure is Mappa Mundi, a medieval map of the world dating from the 13th century. The cathedral is a Grade I listed building. We decided to join the small tour up to the clock tower which was really interesting and got some great views from the top.

After the cathedral we headed down the pedestrian only Church Street and to The Old House, a historic and distinctive black and white half-timbered house in the centre of the city, built in 1621. It is now a museum, so we decided to take a brief walk around inside which didn't take that long. After the Old House we stopped in at The Queens Arms for a beer and then, when we couldn't get food at the The Lichfield Vaults Pub, decided to stay on there for the afternoon. They may have stopped serving food at 3pm, but the Pale Ales were still flowing nicely. After a couple there, we settled on The Grapes for dinner which was OK, very Wetherspoon-like but did the job for food.

After a bite to eat we headed over to The Courtyard to watch The Fureys. They're an Irish male folk band from Dublin who started off in 1978 as four brothers - Eddie, Finbar, Paul and George Furey. After Finbar left the band and Paul passed away, there are now just two members of the original band, and generally now credited as The Fureys and Davey Arthur. Even though I only knew a few of their songs, Uns knew a lot more of them than me, we both had a good night there, even though we were the youngest there by a long shot :) Then once they were done playing, Uns got herself a signed T-shirt from the band and we made our way back to the Lichfield Vaults for a little while and then back to the guesthouse for the night.

This morning after breakfast we headed into the city centre and stopped in at No10 Church Street, a small little cafe for coffee and scones. After that we headed back past the cathedral down to the river for me to get a photo looking back towards the cathedral. While we were, we had some time to kill before lunch, so decided to pop into The Black Lion for a quick drink and then headed down to The Castle House where I'd booked lunch, which was a nice three course roast beef and all the usual toppings and sides.

After eating there, we slowly made our way back to the guesthouse and sat outside in the garden in the sun to kill a bit of time before our train. After soaking up a few rays, we made our way down to the station, hopped on the train and made our way back down to London.