And then it did get better. Much better.
He had to walk along a section of road, which wasn't a thrill for him but then the path suddenly turned from the road and descended down steep steps through a wood. That felt a lot preferable. It was good to be in a place where he couldn't see any cars. Blob wondered what he might find at the bottom of the steps or whether they would go on for ever. There did seem to be an awfully large number of them.
But the steps came to an end and as he approached the edge of the wood Blob Thing could see the river again. He was glad. He had been told his walk was along a river valley and he hadn't seen any sign of the river in ages. He stepped out of the woods and looked at the sight. It was beautiful and Blob gasped in amazement. Not only was the river spectacular in the way it curved and in the way the light reflected from it he could see something else.
Across the river were some ruins. It looked like a church and monastery. Blob later learned that this was the ruin of Finchale Priory or Abbey, built in the 13th century. Blob was quite staggered by its existence and the complete surprise of finding something so amazing hidden at the bottom of some magical steps.
He was very pleased to have accompanied his person on her walk.
Blob crossed a little bridge over the river and started to explore the priory. He was quite surprised that such a place cost nothing to explore. Nobody wanted to charge him any money to go in and they didn't even want to charge his person anything. It's fair to say that she was quite excited to find the priory too. It's true that her one page PDF map on her phone included the word ruin but she hadn't expected anything as wonderful as this.
Blob decided that it would be a good place to stop for lunch so he sat down in the priory grounds and looked out at the river and rested for a while. It was so relaxing and because of their choice of lunch spot Blob and his person were alone and undisturbed with only the noise of the river and the birds, and with the sun shining on them.
It was a marvellous day. Absolutely marvellous. Blob says that everyone should go and visit the priory. It's that good. But he does warn that if you take a car someone will charge you some money to get out of the car park and it's a long walk to the bank if you happen to forget your purse.
It's fair to say that Blob Thing enjoyed Finchale Priory immensely. He explored every last bit of it and he still has pictures to share on another day. Just look at his smile. Have you ever seen him smile more than this?
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