Read my Wakefield travellogue here.

What’s the hardest thing in the English language to say? Not squirrel or antidisestablishmentarianism, but Worcestershire sauce. A close second would be the actual city of Worcester.

And Worcester is the 25th city on my list to visit. You will find it in the West Midlands 130 miles north west of London.

Worcester ahs a simple enough etmyology. The cester refers to a Roman castle that once existed here. The “wor” refers to the Weogora tribe that once called this city their home.

This is actually my second trip to Worcester. When returning from Hereford, I was supposed to change at Worcester, but my train was cancelled, so instead I had to take the rail replacement bus to Worcester Shrub Hill and a train from there.

Today, I was travelling to Worcester Foregate Street. My journey began in Euston at 9.56 and I was preparing for a hellish experience, but it was unexpectedly serene. I could board the train half an hour before it left and I had no problem finding a seat. A far cry from when I went to Stoke. I even managed my connection at Bimingham New Street okay.

Despite that it was still a very long trip, I finally arrived at Worcester Foregate Street at 13.33. And unlike Shrub Hill, this station is right in the city centre.

My first stop, as usual, was the cathedral, but I took notice of a two potential lunch spots and I also visit just three of Worcester’s many charity shops – more on those later. In one of them, I bought the films Eastern Promises, my Left Foot and the Hours.

I arrived at the cathedral at 14.05

Like Gloucester, it was set up to Catholic guilt you into donating, but unlike Gloucester, I fought the guilt and didn’t donate.

It was an impressive building, far out-stripping Wakefield’s or Chelmsford’s cathedrals, dating back to St Wulfstan in the 11th century. They had an amazing organ and chapels galore including the curiously named Jesus chapel, but also a chapel memoralising fallen soldiers.

They also had artwork from locals school children including a spider and a half-naked lion. I wasn’t sure why they only decorated the head, but left the body bare.

And as I would have been returning home very, I ordered a TGTG bag for dinner that I could pick up at 15.00.

But, at that point, I was more worried about lunch then dinner, so I decided to eat in the church cafe. It was definitely more expensive than anything I had seen earlier, but I hadn’t eaten anything since breakfast, so I bought a bacon, brie and cranberry toastie serves with crisps and salad, as well as an apple juice for £13.29.

It was probably the most expensive thing I’ve eaten since that smoked salmon sandwich in Hereford, but I arguably got more for my money here. At 14.40, I had one last wander around the cathedral and wandered through their grounds to the picturesque River Severn.

I followed this back to the city centre which is when I discovered the amazing selection of charity shops that Worcester had to offer.

I counted at least sixteen but there must have been more. There was Age UK, BHF, Oxfam, Blue Cross, Barandos and many, many more. There was a massive Salvation Army, which had an incredible 10 DVDs for £1 offer, alas they did not have any films on my list. But they had a pair of jeans in my size for only £3, which was an absolute bargain.

I snatched those up quickly especially since men’s clothing is always limited in charity shops. I don’t know why, but women seem to donate to charity a lot more than men do. A message to men everywhere: start donating more. Preferably donate jeans size 33″ waist, 32″ leg to Wolverhampton charity shops by Monday 16th of June. While you’re at it, would you also donate copes of the films Up, Bonnie and Clyde, the Badlands and Dead Poet’s Society?

One charity shop even had its own cafe, which was naturally closed when I arrived. And they sold a bacon, brie and cranberry sandwich for almost half the price of what I paid at the cathedral, but perhaps that would have been without the side dishes.

I also bought a new hooded jacket from Cancer Research UK for £4.50, as well as the film The Piano. I’ve been looking for a new jacket for ages, so I’m very happy I’ve finally found one.

by now it was nearing 16:00 hours, so I went to pick up my TGTG bag from a cafe near Foregate Street station called Junction. Only when I arrived there, the bag had been cancelled as they didn’t have any surplus food. Devastation.

I continued onto the Worcester museum, but this was closed on Mondays. Alas, I was a bit stumped on what to do now. But my eye was caught by what I thought was St Mary’s church. But alas it was no longer a church, it had been turned into flats obviously taking a leaf out of Winchester’s book.

Here, I returned to the River Severn where I had the most pleasant riverside walk. It wasn’t particularly sunny today, but it was still lovely and warm. The swans agreed as they were out in force.

So were the rowers who were getting very competitive with each other. It was funny to see them racing with the cox yelling encouragement.

I followed the river as it intercepted with the Worcester and Birmingham canal and crossed over the Oil basin.

I continued walking until I reached the Diglis suspension bridge.

It was 16.50 at this point and half of me wanted to go back and find inner, but the other half wanted me to go on exploring. By now, I had long left the city behind me and was truly in the wild now. I decided to keep exploring just for ten more minutes.

But as I kept exploring it quickly became clear that I wouldn’t be heading back in ten minutes. I followed this dirt path, down some rickety steps and across a fallen tree trunk over a little waterfall.

No doubt this was a dangerous thing to do. If I fell and hurt myself I would have been in big trouble as I was completely alone. Luckily, I didn’t fall in, but don’t do that at home kids.

After some more trekking through the woods, I returned to the path and found I was walking with the river Severn on my right side instead of the left. I kept walking assuming that not before long I would arrive back in Worcester. Instead, I arrived at a caravan park.

I had gone dreadfully wrong, and was probably following a different river, so I retraced my steps back to the Diglis Bridge, which I crossed over and continued walking back.

But on my walk back, I was treated to the best surprise ever. Cows! Just ready to be petted. Unlike the cows in Winchester, these ones were not afraid of people at all and they loved being petted. An absolute highlight of my trip.

I also saw this amazing waterfall designed to help salmon swim upriver. It was on par on what I saw in Exeter and Chester.

I was also happy to discover that a whole area of the Severn had been converted into a swan sanctuary in response to almost fifty swans dying of lead poisoning in the past. There was even information on the best things to feed them: they like kale, spinach and seedy bread.

I finally arrived back in Worcester at 18.00

I still had an hour and a half until my train home, so I had dinner in a fast food place: Pizza Milano. I had a burger, chips and drink for £8. The pizzeria was about as Italian as a frozen pizza and the meal was as about as tasty as that. The chips were overcooked. The burger was soggy. But you don’t go to places like that expecting Michelin star cuisine. It filled the gaping hole that was my stomach.

Now it was time to get my 19.24 train home, but this is when my nightmare trains began. Do you remember when I went to Stoke and I changed at Stafford, as it was cheaper than going direct. But my trains were either delayed or cancelled. Evidently, I did not learn my lesson, as I picked the cheapest possible tickets to Worcester which involved changing at Birmingham and Rugby.

That would been fine, but my train had been cancelled. The next train wasn’t until 20.40. When did we find out? 19.30. Mechanical failures apparently. This is the price you pay for being cheap. Perhaps I should have coughed up more money for a direct train to Paddington.

Anyway with an hour to suddenly kill, I went for a drink. My throat was dry. Surprisingly, I hadn’t stumbled upon the city’s Wetherspoons during my tour of the city. Instead, I went to a local pub called the Saracen’s Head. It was nice and quiet and I bought a pint of BFG ale, which was cool and refreshing

Time for take 2. And success. The 20.40 train helped me me complete stage one of my journey. I arrived into Birmingham New Street at 21.27 and naturally I had ling missed my connecting trains. Thankfully, the nice train people told me not to worry and to board the 21.36 train to London Euston. It was packed but I managed to get a seat. But my nightmare was far from over. And I would like to get your thoughts on something.

At 23.45 – half an hour before we were due to arrive in Euston, we were delayed at Hemel Hempstead. After almost thirty minutes in the dark, we were told this was because of a suicidal male on-track. When we were told this, everybody on the train who were all men, including me, groaned and swore and complained. Looking back, I feel quite guilty about this. This man tried to kill himself because he didn’t have any men in his life who cared about him. Judging by the reaction of that train, he was right. Men don’t care about each other and don’t show up for each other enough. Maybe we should. What do you think?

Despite this sad situation, it didn’t change that it was now 00.11 – the same time we were supposed to be arriving at London Euston. Just when I considered jumping off the train and getting an Uber home, we were moving again! The amazing, heroic train driver told us that, despite his shift being over, chose to drive us back to London instead of leaving us stranded at Hemel Hempstead. Now that is a man showing up for other men. I later emailed LNWR passing on my praise to that driver and asking that they approve his overtime. They responded that they would feature him in their company newsletter. Anyway, I eventually got back to London at 00.30 – over two hours than I should have done.

Yes my cheapskate ways backfired on me, but I enjoyed my time in Worcester. I got to pet little cow people and saw some great natural sights. Plus, I loved the plethora of charity shops. And that’s my day in Worcester: a day of nightmare trains, half-naked lions and a whole load of charity shops. Wolverhampton! You’re next. Although, unfortunately, I cheaped out on tickets again, so hopefully the third time’s the charm.