With pick-ups from outside the Temple Bar (at 7.30am), Mark's, David's, and the Memorial Hall (with its large car park), most people did not have far to take their luggage to the coach. We left Ewyas Harold just before 8am. It was an early start but that took pressure off the rest of the day and enabled us to get to the first stop, at Corley Service Station, just before several other coaches. We had about 45 minutes there, enough time for many of us to grab some breakfast, and then we headed on to our first main stop of the trip - a visit to the Shuttleworth Collection (SG18 9EP) which is just a few miles south-east of Bedford.

Few on board knew anything about The Shuttleworth Collection but it was certainly worth the visit and several amongst us took note of the place for the future. It is renowned for having one of the largest collection of old aircraft in the world, most of which can still fly, and a large collection of old cars and motorcycles. It also has a very interesting well-landscaped 'Swiss Garden', inspired by the foothills in Switzerland, and a very-acceptable restaurant (where we had lunch) and shop. We had a guided tour of the Collection, split into 2 groups each of which was led by one of their enthusiastic volunteers (Ken & Bob) both of whom were much appreciated by their groups. For more information about Shuttleworth see here (for its web site) or here (for the Wikipedia article on it).

We left Shuttleworth at about 4.30pm and headed on to the hotel: The Holiday Inn, Abbotts Lane, Eight Ash Green, CO6 3QL, about 4 miles west of the centre of Colchester. [Web site here.] We got there about 6.30pm and, after a fresh-up in our bedrooms, enjoyed our first meal in the hotel. Our stay was half-board so breakfasts (cooked or continental) and 3-course dinners were included in the price, all meals being buffet. The reception had a lounge area where we met after dinner for tea/coffee and a chat.

Reference	Description	Images : maximum size : 600 pixels in either direction
E17L1A	Our journey from Ewyas Harold (A) via Corley Services on the M6 (B) and the Shuttleworth Collection (C) to The Holiday Inn just west of Colchester (E). The route for the last leg of the journey chosen by Jon, the coach driver, went past Brentwood (D). In total, the journey was about 260 miles and took something like 5½ hours, the legs being roughly 2, 1½ & 2 hours.
E17L1B	The layout of the buildings & garden at Shuttleworth. [Picture taken off the web site.]
E17L1C	As mentioned above, for our tour of the Shuttleworth Collection we split into 2 groups. Although it had been anticipated that one of the groups would be designated 'modest pace' and the other 'slower pace', in practice the split was somewhat arbitrary. Nevertheless, one of the groups went around slower than the other so that, whilst the faster one saw the hangars containing the old cars and motorcycles, the slower one did not. That was not so much because it was slower walking as because it was longer talking! [Photos: Martin & Dianne.]
E17L1D	Our first garden-visit in the tour was to the Swiss Garden at Shuttleworth. According to Shuttleworth's web site, it is "an outstanding example of the Regency fashion for creating landscapes in a picturesque alpine style". We thought so too. There were a number of 'hidden gems' to find, including the grotto (pictured bottom right). [Photos: Martin by Dianne, others off the web site.]
E17L1E	As can be seen from the photos, The Holiday Inn was quite modern. Even so, its bedrooms had been refurbished in 2015 and other rooms in 2016. To our knowledge, all of the bedrooms offered baths with showers (preferred by most) except for those which had walk-in showers (preferred by some). Having all of the accommodation on the ground floor was welcomed by many. The coach could pick us up in the car park by the front door, just past a circular pull-in drive which was a bit small for the coach, so that was convenient for the set-downs and pick-ups. The hotel staff helped us with the luggage on the first & last days and were helpful & friendly throughout our stay. The hotel was a good advert for the hotel chain. [Pictures taken from the hotel's web site.]

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