Her Majesty the Queen laid the foundation stone on 23 March 1965 and the building was consecrated on 25 May 1962, in her presence. The ruins remain hallowed ground and together the two create one living Cathedral.
It was beautiful to walk the ruins. We also visited St. Mary's Guildhall which has origins related to Kenry VI. The highlight is the Great Hall, and as Rick Steves says, "it's fun and spooky to explore the maze of tight old rooms." (I conked my noggin not once, but twice!)
Also near the Cathedral is the (free!) Herbert Art Gallery Museum. We enjoyed the kid-friendly town history section as well as their general collection. But most interesting was the section on Lady Godiva, a legend and possible true story from that city. (Click on her name for the story.) Loved seeing the 1897 original John Collier painting: stunning! We were not allowed to take pix, and even I obeyed.
We could have spent more time at Coventry. We didn't pay to go into the newer Cathedral. We did have a quick and affordable lunch at the "Godiva's in the Undercroft."
After Coventry we headed to Kenilworth Castle, just based on the fact that it was on the way and would be free with our "English Heritage" membership. Wow was it stunning under the blazing blue sky! This will be remembered as another fave site for sure.
We visited the cool English manner there and enjoyed reading about "The Virgin Queen" Elizabeth the First's relationship with the gentleman who lived there, Sir Robert Dudley. Afternoon coffee and treats were enjoyed in the cafe, we thought we'd squeeze one more sight in... oops. Not a good idea to even just grab a glimpse or Warwick Castle. It's the Disneyland of Castles. After a harrowing drive round and round to find the car park, only to find it's TEN POUNDS to park and we just wanted to walk around it a bit... You shall not pass! It's fully gated and commercialized. We should have read ol' RS more carefully. Thankfully we didn't have to retrace our crazy drive to get to the castle gates after finding out it was really not even worth it to go. Here's the one pic we were able to take as we drove away:
We arrived at The Chance B&B in just 30 min or so from Warwick. It's our fave so far! The outside is modest, but our room is so beautifully decorated and the bathroom is nice, too. Sally's a lovely host and the walk into town is simple and lovely.
After we settled in, we headed out to explore. We heard the church bells and headed straight for St. James' Church. We couldn't get in, but loved the grounds and spent quite a bit of time wandering the surrounding gravestones. We hope to see the inside tomorrow morning.
The bells never stopped as we walked through the town and to one of the most beautiful streets of thatched roof homes in the areas. We just took pic after pic of wonderfully classic English homes-- a beautiful evening!
Looking forward to returning to Stratford Upon Avon tomorrow, which we passed through to get to our B&B (no time to stop). Then our plan at this point is to head to Blenheim Palace, do a little village called Stow on the Wold, then come back to our cute room for one more night here at charming Chipping Campden. Maybe we'll see us some Hobbitses!?!
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