The reason I chose to stop at Ludlow on our way to Wales was because I remember the name of the town from an MMORPG (massively multi-player online role-playing game) called Dark Age of Camelot, which I played 12 years ago.

A lifetime ago!

It’s a strange and beautiful feeling to read a fantasy book or play a fantasy game based on locations in England and then years or decades later visit the very same places for real.

Of course, the real town looks very different from the game town since the game is set in the 6th Century where 90% of the world is basically vegetation and dirt paths.

Today, Ludlow is a smallish market town with a large number of Tudor-style buildings nestled among more modern buildings, lining the sides of gravel roads.

 

 

Here, I found a screenshot of the Ludlow in the game (from this website) so you can make a comparison!

 

 

Tudor houses!

Gosh, the nostalgia. Some people think I’ve wasted my entire life being addicted to computer games and it’s true I could have done a lot of useful things in the time I was playing games but I don’t regret it one bit. My most treasured memories are of my gaming adventures. The worlds may be virtual but you’re interacting with very real people who make you laugh and cry, and I have made many, many good friends through gaming.

Okay, back to the present.

Because we were on our way to Wales, all we had time for was a quick zip through the streets, heading straight for Ludlow Castle since that seemed to be the most obvious landmark, then 30 minutes to look inside (at £5 a pop).

Fortunately, the castle wasn’t very big, and most of it was in ruins anyway, so 30 minutes was quite enough. Photos now!

 

 

A panoramic view of the courtyard, taken from the top of a tower. The round building on the left was the chapel:

 

 

The entrance to the castle. Doesn’t look so grand with the crumbly bits!

 

 

Steps leading to the main wing of the castle:

 

 

Some mouldy castle walls. Piers was controlling my camera through his phone via Wifi but it was a mess and the camera kept snapping when it wasn’t supposed to:

 

 

A view of the top of the castle walls and some scenery beyond:

 

 

More scenery beyond:

 

 

Me feeling a bit stressed because our 30 minutes were nearly up and we were on metered parking:

 

Sorry the photos are quite small but I can’t help it since my blog has a fixed width of 500 pixels to make reading text easier. But hope you like them anyway.

Well, I don’t know if all gamers have the same kind of great memories as I do or whether they feel as strongly about them. If you do, let me know!