Pam&Amy in Ludlow; surreal!

Ludlow; in Shropshire, famous for medieval and Tudor style halftimbered buildings, first castle part built in 1050.

In english for Amy. On friday I took the train to Ludlow to see Amy. Amy and I met in Italy and liked each other instantly, she (and Gary) visited us in Bath and we kept an open line through FB. So we thought it would be fun to meet halfway (between Westkirby, close to Liverpool, and Bath) to spend some time together. We booked a room in the famous Feathers Hotel (1619), a beautiful original building. After arriving I had some dinner, Amy joined me and we did some catching up with some glasses of wine. Later on we tried to find a good pub but ended up in The Bull with some happy locals (all men, we two women, it was bound to make them happy). Ludlow proved to be very very quiet in these cold icy wintermonths. After coming back in the hotel we sat in front of the fire, chatted and talked to Colin, the nightporter, who told us some funny stories of people sleepwalking during the night (even naked, he told us and he looked happy and hopeful saying it!). He also found some chocolate and wine somewhere, sweet man!

On saturday we woke up at 10, a bright and sunny morning, had some breakfast and started our walk through beautiful Ludlow. Strolled over the market. Tried to visit the castle, but it was closed due to the weatherconditions, so had (the best ever) carrot and walnut cake in a tearoom instead. Didn't find any shoes on the SpecialShoeDay fleamarket and decided to visit Castle Lodge, an original Elizabethan house, although much much older. We rang the bell twice when an old scary looking man with yellowish wig opened the door (very B horrormovielike). The house was beautiful, with original wooden handcrafted pannels, but otherwise empty, cold and a bit smelly. The owner vanished and we got a bit giggly because some things in the house looked so scruffy (it was way worse than The Jane Austen Centre in Bath). On the second floor, I suddenly felt strange and sick. And although we are very levelheaded, I felt I wanted to leave. Amy suggested to just walk up to the third floor, so we would get our money's worth. And so we did, Amy felt very jumpy and thought she saw somebody and I felt really unwell. We left in a hurry, breathing heavily and making nervous jokes. We wanted to visit the Ludlow museum next, but that was closed as well due to wintermonths, but paid a visit to the information center instead. We asked about Castle Lodge and ofcourse it was haunted. As nonbelievers that did leave us with a funny feeling, so we googled ghosts in Ludlow. Ludlow turned out to be somewhat of a Ghostmecca. They have at least 5 known ghosts; crossing streets in seethrough blouses, throwing themselves screaming from towers, strolling on graveyards and living in very old hotels (The Feathershotel). Well okay, so that explained it?? We deserved a drink! Found a loungeplace with comfy chairs. Met some lovely people, like Sharon the journalist, had good wine and bonded with some locals in the heated courtyard. We also met Marius from Norway, English Stephen and Christian (but all three cousins with Norwegian mothers). They felt like instant brothers with whom we shared stories, philosophies, familypics but most of all jokes and laughter. Fun but sweet as well. They kept all talking at the same time so stories about Australia and India tended to get very confusing. At some point late at night we said goodbye, did a grouphug and were moved by Marius' last words: 'I think you girls are great, I want to bury you both!'. It must be a Norwegian well wish of some peculiar kind.

We decided to have one last glass of wine (or two) in The Feathers hotel where we met a group of aging pheasant hunters with weird and interesting stories. They were kind enough to let us sit with them, because they had the best seats in the house in front of the fire. We met Jack, a 70 year old man with boats and houses in Spain, who apparently earned his money by training an army for a rich Arab who paid him a million pounds. He was also a Freemason and a Templar, so we had many many Dan Brown questions lined up. Ofcourse he didn't answer any of them really, although he admitted to there being secrets and secret rituals. But if a man drinks enough and gets charmed by 'young' women he does tend to let a secret slip. So I will be digging away in some area in Israel for a big treasure, I can't say where, but it is there. Then there was Chris, who made his own dressed up fashion statement, who was not with the hunters, but turned out to be a ghost and history guide, hired by people in a seance conference upstairs in the hotel...things at that point felt beyond weird and became quite surreal. Ghosts, Templars, haunted hotels, seance-conferences etcetc. Hours on end these people tried to contact the spirits in the hotel and Chris was there to make sense of the ghosts identity. Funnily enough he was a non-believer and said he felt sorry for them; ' They never have much luck'.

When we went to sleep we concluded we had a pretty interesting but weird day. On sunday I felt a hundred years old and looked in the mirror only to conclude that I saw 'dead people'. After breakfast we hugged and said goodbye.

It was as though time slowed down in Ludlow and it was a weird and wonderfully funny experience!

Ludlow