April 14

No internet access last night, so I wrote this and saved it until I could post it today.

We started off heading northward to Coventry this morning. Jan has been anxious to see the cathedral for years. Today she finally got there. It was a pretty awesome site to see the remains of a bombed out building with the steeple standing right beside it. The new cathedral that has been built is a pretty impressive, very modern looking structure. Other than the short trip earlier in the week, as we skirted London, this was the first major city we encountered, along with its increased volume of traffic and the multitude of freeways criss-crossing each other. We didn't have any problems, but it was an interesting time.





After Coventry, we drove back south to Warwick Castle, and spent a couple of hours wandering around the grounds. There were some very well-done audio-visual displays of the early days of the castle, and wax models depicting the royal visit in the early 1900's. I again climbed a million steps to get up to the top of the castle tower, to see the view, while Jan relaxed below. Every castle I've been to, I find it amazing that the medieval people built these huge castles, by hand mostly, and they are still standing today. We had lunch at the castle before we left, and realized as we were waiting for our food that the tables were set up in old stalls in what must have been the stables at some point in the past.





We then headed back to Stratford on Avon to finish off the visit there as we were rather late yesterday. We saw Anne Hathaway's cottage, The Nash house (Shakespeare lived here until 1616 when he died), and Mary Arden's home (his mother's family home).



Later on we drove through the outskirts of Birmingham and got caught in their 'rush-hour' traffic. That was fun. This was on our way to Himley to a place called "The Crooked House" where you can watch a ball roll seemingly uphill and the walls appear to be at odd angles to the vertical.





Our stay was at a nice B&B at a place called Much Wenlock, Shropshire. We met and chatted with a very nice couple who have been to Canada, drove from Prince Rupert, through Prince George, Jasper, The Icefields parkway to Calgary and knew quite a bit about our country unlike most Britons.