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Ludlow a small town in Shropshire England first came into existence in the year 1086 just a few short years after the Norman invasion of England. The De Lacy family first built the castle that still stands to day in 1086. In addition, Ludlow became an important part of medieval life. Many important people stayed at the castle. Including Roger Mortimer, whose mistress was Queen Isabella the wife of King Edward II. Who both helped to overthrow. However, by far the most famous residents of Ludlow castle were the little princes were held before been taken to the Tower of London where they both were murdered. One more prince that lived there was the young Prince Arthur son of King Henry VII the history of England was changed forever at Ludlow castle when Prince Arthur died as a child, and the young Mary first became Queen and then her sister Elizabeth.                                                                                                                           Vacations

In 1377, Ludlow had become very successful and unbelievably had 1700 tax paying residents not very many by today’s standards but for medieval England, it was considered very densely populated. The castle was built mainly to defend the population from the war like welsh that came now and again to wage war against the English. However, as time came and went and England Wales Scotland and Ireland became as one Nation the town and the castle become more peaceful, by the 18th and 19th century Ludlow became the centre for glove making and many townsfolk built elegant town houses. The town has one notable church the elegant St Laurence the notable poet A. E. Housman born 1859- died 1936 had his ashes scattered in the church grounds.

Today many visitors wonder through the narrow streets marvelling at the fine buildings and walking the ramparts of the castle. Broad St is delight to shop in with its parade of fine and elegant shops and for a treat dine at the De Grays teashop. It is said that Ludlow has more eating establishments per person than any place in England. The population now is 10,000 and today the industry is mainly agriculture with a smattering of engineering.

To get to Ludlow you drive from Birmingham on the A456 and drive through the town of Kidderminster. To travel by rail just buy a ticket from any major railway station and there is an hourly service from Manchester, Crewe, and Cardiff in Wales.

So if you are ever in Great Britain and want to see somewhere else rather than the same old tourist attractions then take a day trip to Ludlow were I am sure that you will walk back in time to a place were a king was overthrown, and two young princes were taken from the safety of a castle to there deaths. Moreover, were the history of England was shaped forever.

The Ludlow castle has a very good tea shop was you could relax and eat very good English food. Just before you enter the castle, Ludlow has an English open market. Open markets in England are an old tradition before there were any shops towns folk could only buy there goods from these markets, farmers, merchants and such like would once or twice a week come into towns and set up stalls and sell there goods. To day in many English towns this tradition still exists, my own town of Newcastle under Lyme has one that meets twice a week once on a Wednesday and then on Saturday.

The Loire Valley is famous for the french kings castles - as well as for its wines. But with so many attractions, the choice of good places to visit is crucial.

The Loire is still a wild river. Ask anyone who runs it and they show you that it distorts almost every year, the old sand bars disappear and the new rising out of the water. The cities of each bank access and if you keep your eyes open, you'll probably drives past flood levels have been reached, sometimes two or three feet above street level. Beavers live on the islands in the stream (they were reintroduced in France a few years ago), and herons égrappent the shallow waters for their prey.

But while the river itself is still wild, the campaign is first tamed. By the river you'll find orchards, on the slopes above, often arise from the almost hidden, are the vineyards, and the plateau to one or the other side wheat undulating in the sun. It was the native country of Rabelais - an author renowned for his rudery, but also for its vivid descriptions of food and wine.

For one hundred years was the home favorite french kings. Francois I - the king who brought the Renaissance in France, a contemporary of Henry VIII of England - came here to hunt and drink. You will see the heraldic insignia, the salamander, everywhere along the Loire, at Blois, he decorates the spiral staircase that was added to the castle, while in the salamanders Chambord alternative coffered ceilings with the original `crowned F '.

Start on the River Cher, which operates in the Loire, at Chenonceau. The small square fortress was built on an island in the River by Thomas Bohí, in the sixteenth century, replacing an earlier subsistence. The round turrets and dormer windows pinnacled are still Gothic in form, but the decoration was in the new model of the Renaissance. Diane De Poitiers, mistress of Henry II, moved in here - but when its king was killed in a tournament, the widow was kicked out and moved itself.

It is to this widow, Catherine de Medici, that we have the newest castle, a long gallery built on a bridge over the Cher. While you may still call Bohí Gothic castle in the form, you could not do qu'erreur here - it's beautiful architecture mannerist, in fact it reminds me of just the Uffizi in Florence with its subtle rhythms . Walk through the gallery, and you can exit on the other bank of the Cher, in the moist dense woodland, far removed from the formal gardens on the other side.

Fans of fine arts Chenonceau find one of the most interesting castles, with a small fine paintings - a head Veronese, two Tintorettos, and Poussin, among others. It is also notable for its flower arrangements purposes - changed log, and supplied from its own gardens of the castle.

Amboise castle was a royal debut, set on a bluff over the Loire with the city nestled at its foot. The small Gothic chapel sits on a rocky transition high and to enter the castle that you take a building through the rock layer. This is one of my castles Francois succeeded his predecessors - in fact it was much higher here, and when it was made to King, he led Leonardo Da Vinci to live here, and added rooms at the Renaissance castle.

Perhaps the most intriguing of the castle, though, is not the royal apartments, though splendid, but the special tour of `underground which takes you down the stairs, halls and Gothic passages below. Atmospheric and sometimes phantasmagoric, it is strongly - recommended although it costs extra.

I find it hard to recommend a visit to Clos Luce, Leonardo Manor, about one km from the castle. It's quite pleasant but not a house remains of Leonardo's time there - all the recreation of its machines, including a version of Renaissance military tank, are modern.

The head along the Loire to Chaumont and you will find a mixture of Gothic and Renaissance castle with its geometrically accurate round towers flanking the entrance and a courtyard facing the Loire. (At home, a fourth wing would cut this, but was removed in the eighteenth century.) The spiral staircase is delicious, with the decorative end cut in the soft tufa stone of `in the region.

Chaumont is also a center for the design of modern art and garden. There are always exhibitions in the castle and extensive grounds. I was touched, too, to find the tombstone of Miss Pundji, the elephant of the pet of the family, fill in a far corner of the gardens.

Your next stop is the town of Blois - a town with few houses and timbered mansions for the Renaissance, but notable mainly for its royal castle. Here you can see four ages of architecture - the architectural history probably the most complete you will get anywhere in a single building. There is a Gothic hall of the thirteenth century huge and simple, a late Gothic wing erected by Louis XII, with its symbol of porcupine clearly shown, a wing of the Renaissance by Francois I, liberally spotted with salamanders, and a wing Baroque, which was added in 1630 by Gaston d'Orleans.

Make time to see the city - particularly historical shifts in the cathedral instead of survey, and the beautiful rose garden in the town hall (formerly the palace of the bishop). Few wire brass studs that the way around the walk led to four different - you can get the map of the tourist office near the castle for just a few cents.

The final stop on tour is perhaps the greatest of all the Loire chateaux, Chambord. Francois I was not built as royal castle, but as a hunting lodge, and in his entire reign only spent about thirty days there - but it is massive and designed with impressive rigor around a central staircase double spiral and a gallery screwdriver. Four corner towers doing enormous dominate the central mass, and crowned by the exuberance of the most striking turrets and pinnacles. It is as if to roof level, Francois could reach to keep the rules of the Renaissance - but once it got up on the roof, gothic french indigène affirmed and broke out in and spirelets transient.

The forest around Chambord is always a can of hunting, where you can see deer and wild boar. It is worth taking some time to walk in the green wood - and to get from the crowds, which here as elsewhere in the Loire Valley can be overwhelming.