After failing to go to Market Harborough on an earlier trip (but succeeding in procuring some Melton Mowbray pork pies), we set off in our newly acquired Hyundai Santa Fe (aka Santy) for the aforementioned Market Harborough but on an indirect route via the Warwickshire Wildlife Trust at Brandon Marsh Nature Centre. Last year we paid for annual membership but visit infrequently. One of the benefits of visiting is the cafe where we had breakfast, thus avoiding establishments beginning with G or Mc.
We spent about 3 hours wandering around without seeing anything particularly spectacular but we did have an interesting conversation with some other more professional photographers sporting very long and very fast (unlike my extremely long focal length but relatively slow OM System lens). Apparently an otter had been seen in one of the lakes but it was inconspicuous when we appeared on the scene.
Around lunchtime we set off for Market Harborough, a first test for the Hyundai Satnav. Arriving in Market Harborough and spotted the Three Swans hotel…but not the entrance to the car park which must be “around the back”. On the basis of this assumption we carried on past the hotel for what seemed like an age, I was just about to turn around for another attempt when Mrs. M spotted a sign to the hotel car park and a couple of minutes later we were parked up. After a quick drink in the hotel courtyard we checked in. A pleasant room on the ground floor.
We set off to explore the town centre, unremarkable but pleasant, plenty of second hand shops to browse in (and purchase books to add to my already overstocked shelves), a nice indoor market with a long history and a particularly interesting (and expensive) hat shop (tempting, but a bit expensive to be too tempting). We checked out the local ‘Spoons and the located the Market Harborough equivalent of Banbury’s Pinto Lounge although as a result of a “misunderstanding” we had dinner in the hotel restaurant; a nice pie although Mrs. M was not totally enamoured with her steak. Returning to the ‘Spoons we had one drink but had to evacuate as it was freezing, it had been a warm day but there was definitely no need for the air conditioning in the evening. We had a quick look in a couple of other pubs but we returned to the hotel bar where I discovered Kraken rum (I think it was all that they had but it was very good).
A nice buffet breakfast in the hotel followed by another walk around the town, a visit to Costa and then the local museum before setting off for home. Not a lot of photography but a pleasant visit.