Read my Exeter travelogue here.

The tenth city on my list is the South-Western city of Gloucester 112 miles from London.

Gloucester’s etymology is two-fold. The “Glou” is derived from the old Celtic “glevo” or bright place.” And as we all know by now if a city has “Cester” in its name, you know there used to be a Roman for there.

And that’s how Gloucester began life: as a Roman town in 97 AD, before receiving a city charter in the 12th century.

But I also recently completed my Celta course, so I wanted to treat myself.

My trip to Gloucester began at 10.30am where my train left from London Paddington. There was nobody next to me, so my journey was delightfully quiet. The train conductor didn’t even ask to see my railcard. I have a 26-30 railcard giving me a nice discount on tickets, but alas this will expire in just over a year. But if the inspectors don’t ask to see it, then maybe I could buying tickets without a rail card. If only I was ballsy enough for that.

Anyway, I arrived in Gloucester at 12.18 to a station covered in construction works, which was par the course for Gloucester really. Although at least it was nicely decorated with children’s drawings.

Afterwards I enacted my meticulously-planned agenda, right? Wrong. I turned right out of the station, spotted something church-like and headed there first. What did I find? If you said a mosque, you would be badly wrong, because I found St Peter’s Catholic church.

It was decidedly sedate. A very nice little oasis.

From here, I carried on wandering along the London Road, counter-productively walking away from the city centre, and further into the sticks of Gloucester. Sorry Gloucester. But it soon became clear that I had wandered into one of the student suburbs.

Instead of walking all the way back to London, I circled back around to the main shopping area of Gloucester. But it was less hustle-and-bustle and more the quiet, ever-present beeping of a Life-support machine. The first few shops I encountered were closed. However, the YMCA charity shop wasn’t. There, I ought DVDs of Lincoln, the Bourne Identity, Swordfish and Just ask for Diamond. The first two are on the top 1000 films of all time. I thought Swordfish was, but it wasn’t. And Just ask for Diamond definitely isn’t. However, it is an adaptation of Anthony Horowitz’ Diamond Brothers book series – some of my favourite books growing up.

Speaking of books, I also bought a self-help book: “Why you say yes instead of no,” and Karl Pilkington’s travel diaries for the Idiot Abroad documentary series that was produced by Ricky Gervais and Stephen Merchant. Watch it. It’s hilarious.

Anyway, it was approaching 1 by this time, so I decided to do the one thing I always do when visiting a city: attend the cathedral. From the outside it looked spectacular.

Plus, it was free entry. Or rather entry via donation. And it’s set up so you’re obliged to donate otherwise you’ll be inflicted with Catholic guilt.

Usually, I would be fine with Catholic guilt and I could have very well strode past the volunteers, but I felt bad, so I donated £5. Maybe I should have said no instead of yes.

I was bitter about that, but when I experienced the majesty of the cathedral, I was surprised that they didn’t charge anything at all. Seriously, it was on the level of Canterbury Cathedral. Pure magnificence. As well as being a filming location for the first Harry Potter film, it was just endless. Everytime I rounded he corner, there was something else to see: chapel upon chapel and beautiful stained-glass.

It was so impressive that I almost wanted to go back and donate more. Almost. Like I say, I’m okay with a little bit of Catholic guilt.

It was half-one at this point, so it was time for lunch. And I was glad to see I was entering a more vibrant part of the city. Hitherto, every other shop had been closed. And that applied to the eateries too.

That was until I went to the Eastgate shopping centre and found this little Indian street-food stall. Alas they didn’t have Vada Pav – a bombay burger, potato cake in a sweet bun with a masala. Instead, I bought the Panni Puri – a breaded shell filled with a mixture of potato, onions, peas and chickpeas, served with a mint and coriander sauce. And, of course, I also bought a mango lassi.

I’ve never had Puri before, so I didn’t know what to expect, but I didn’t think it would be cold. Anyway, it was still nice if not that filling. But the mango lassi was delicious while the market was half-closed, I did spot a few oddities.

I also saw an unmanned book exchange where I swapped Swordfish for Rebecca by Daphne du Maurier.

From here, I further wandered the city frequenting charity shops like PDSA where I bought the Abyss, Rio Bravo and Y Tu mama Tamblan. And then I found the CEX and, as per tradition, I bought some films from here including Elizabeth, The last Samurai and the Diving Bell and the Butterfly.

It was nearing three at this point, so I decided to go around this nature reserve near the river Severn. En route, I passed three museums: the museum of Gloucester, the Soldier’s museum and the National Waterways museum which were all closed on Mondays. And guess what day it was? Monday.

I have gone on about all the shops being closed, but I had just come on a bad day. At least I got to look around the Greyfriar’s priory.

Alas I could not get to the nature reserve, as the only bridge was closed, but I did have a little look around yet another priory. It was approaching four pm, so instead I went for a walk along the Gloucester and Sharpness canal, starting from the Victoria basin.

The path wasn’t always clear, sometimes taking me away from the canal, but I tried to stay true, even if that meant cutting through the woods.

It was also incredibly windy. At half 4 and a mile and a half later I headed back.

My train home was at 6.15 so I got some chips as a snack. You know what chips look like. You don’t need a picture. And the chips were chips. They filled a hole.

And my train was seven minutes late. Plus, the ticket inspector did ask to see my rail card, so maybe I won’t try to pull any tricks in the future.

My overall impressions of Gloucester? Definitely on the lower half of the ten cities I’ve visited so far. It doesn’t make me happy to be criticising a city, but I was expecting more. I thought it would be rich, pretty and affluent. A third of the city was under construction, another third was shut and the final third was on life support. I’m not sure I’ll be returning anytime soon. But the cathedral was absolutely amazing. Totally worth the £5 donation. Hereford. You’re next.