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Staying in painswick for the week before heading further southwest into Cornwall.
First question, bikes? Any stuff all four (kids 8 and 11) of us can ride, then proper stuff for a couple of cheeky mornings? Then usual family stuff? Was hoping to be closer to the coast but it was a last minute weeks extension to our cornish holiday and all that that brings.
Fire away....
You can ride from Painswick, into Cranham & Leckhampton one way or Edge, Standish and beyond the other, for guiding look on the Bigfoot MTB club website for rides and ask if they're willing.
For a Friday afternoon / evening of ale, head over to http://www.stroudbrewery.co.uk with the family, open from 3pm, pizza oven cooks from 6pm. Open Saturday pm too.
The Stroud canal path is all ridable for kids, out to the west its all easy going, heading East it gets more gates, but more fun and a lot nicer, set your destination as the Sapperton tunnel entrance, the cycle there along the tow path is great, nature has reclaimed the canal & locks, you could park at o/s Travis Perkins in Stroud, Noahs bike shop / Lavender cafe or Chalford playground and ride from there, Daneway pub is a great spot for refreshments.
Stroud is a town of two halves = organic & hippy / chavvy & pound shops, Tetbury is full of antique shops to wander round, Cirencester has a posh high street. Westonburt Arboritum can be worth a wander to look at & hug trees, they also host events.
http://www.wwt.org.uk/visit/slimbridge/
http://canalrivertrust.org.uk/gloucester-waterways-museum
and I know it's "shopping", but gloucester quays is a pretty good shopping centre for the likes of us as there's a Tresspass, Helly Hansen, SNow & Rock etc outlet stores with good deals on outdoor kit.
Avoid Gloucester.
pffftt. Gloucester = Curate's egg.
The Bigfoot ride on Saturday morning in the link above would be good, get in touch with them via the website, I'm sure you could tag along. Can you follow gps routes?
What week are you around wrightyson?
You could always pop down to Brizzle for the day. Do the Pirate tour. Take the kids on the ferry trip round the city. Visit the Matthew (if it's around). Do the Grommit hunt. Buy me lunch. 😀
Glos Quays will take any sane person about 5 mins. A shopping freak might enjoy M&S and all the usual crap that outlets have. Enjoy the empty units.
Actually its easy. Avoid Gloucester.
Approaching from the west you can smell the landfill. It says everything.
Painswick Beacon is good for riding with kids. Across the valley is Juniper which has a small disused quarry which is good riding for kids too, I spent most of my early summers there at least (on bing OS map it's South of Painswick off the track between Sheephouse and Slad).
Retro-Rides Gathering at Prescott hillclimb this Sunday if you are a bit of a Petrol head 😀
(we are heading down on Saturday and staying in the area for a few days too - no bikes sadly)