Sent to Coventry – 6 March 2011

The londonmidland train company ran a 'Great Escape' promotion, finishing on Sunday, when, for only £10, you could get a day-pass to travel to any destination on its line. We booked tickets for Sunday, and debated where to go. A long journey would leave us less time at the destination, so we decided on Coventry, two hours from home.

Coventry was featured in a war-time exhibition, when we recently visited the London Transport Museum. We were aware that they had suffered heavy bombing on 14th November 1940, due to the many factories in the city, aiding the war-effort. 500 aircraft dropped 30,000 incendiary bombs, damaging 111 factories and 2000 houses were damaged beyond repair. The loss of life was double that in the Christchurch earthquake, but the Christchurch disaster left five times as many houses needing demolition.

After seeing photos of the devastation in Coventry, we were surprised to find quite a significant number of original buildings when we did their town trail. A well designed walk takes in what was left of the old and highlights some of the innovative reconstruction.

Spon Street is a collection of picturesque old half-timbered buildings, moved and regrouped in one street, to give a feel for how parts of the city used to be. The centre of town was rebuilt as the world's first large scale pedestrainised shopping area. This model has of course been copied in many countries since then.

Coventry is well known for a number of things, one being the extremely modern cathedral, built next to the bombed out shell of the original cathedral. The new building is stark and extremely modern for its time. It did make us wonder what will be the shape of the new Christchurch Cathedral will be if they have to demolish the current one . They too will have the scope to radically reshape the look of their new city, and maybe in time (like Napier) it also will become a draw-card for visitors to marvel at the new look they have created.

The second thing that Coventry is famous for is Lady Godiva. The well known story is immortalised in a statue in the town square. She opposed her husband raising taxes, and he said he definitely would go ahead, unless she rode naked through the town. This is also where the expression 'Peeping Tom' comes from, as all the townsfolk hid indoors with their curtains closed, to give her privacy, except for Tom.

The next thing that springs to mind for Coventry is the British motor industry heritage. It was production home of Daimler, Jaguar, Humber, Triumph, Standard, Morris etc, in fact 120 motorbike and 130 vehicle manufactures have operated in this city. The museum has the largest display of British made vehicles in the UK.

It was a great day out, complemented by excellent food, thank you londonmidland for the great escape!

Walking into History – 26 & 27 February 2011

The British Museum has completed their 'History of the World in 100 Objects' project, and we were able to complete the 'treasure hunt' on Saturday. This time last year, we did part one, which was the first 30 objects, and they now have a self-guided tour for the entire 100 objects.

The overall concept is to get an overview of world history from prehistory to the present time. It must have been an exciting (and difficult) project to select the objects from the huge collections.

We planned to attend an auction at Lord's Cricket Pavilion on Sunday, so decided to take a tour of the Lords Cricket Ground in the morning.

As Lords is very close to Abbey Road, we took the opportunity to do another 'historical walk' . Although it was quite early on Sunday morning, we were not the only tourists there, taking photos on the iconic pedestrian crossing, just near the Abbey Road Studios. I wonder if the Beatles could have imagined that in 2010, this would become the only 'listed' pedestrian crossing in Britain!

The tour of Lords was interesting, starting in the museum, where we saw the original Ashes Urn and the current Waterford Crystal trophy; then the members room; dressing rooms; a walk through the stands; and finally the new Media Centre. This futuristic, spaceship-like building has, as you would expect, a commanding view of the sloping pitch.

Next time we see a test match on TV, we will be able to imagine the members enjoying the game, both in their members room or the stands, and the media beaming the game to us, from the very 21st century Media Centre.

Wren in London - 19-20 February 2011

Winter in London is the time to visit some of the excellent free Museums. This weekend we combined two museums with free London walks, available on the Web. These walks give clear instructions and very interesting historical information. Both walks featured buildings designed by Sir Christopher Wren, who was the architect who was responsible for rebuilding much of London after the great fire in 1666.

The Museum of London opened an exhibition of 'London Street Photography' today, and as we wanted to visit the Museum again and this seemed the ideal occasion. We decided to do a self guided walk around the area as well, starting at Tower Hill. This was an fascinating reminder of architectural treasures scattered inside the Square Mile. Lunch was at the Ye Olde Watling pub, built in 1668 by Christopher Wren, to house the workmen building the new St Paul's after the fire of London. The pub is apparently built out of ship timbers, and definitely worth a visit. We'll have to eat there again.

By the time we arrived at the Museum of London, the place was heaving with people. We have visited several times before, and always found it quiet and deserted. Perhaps the combination of school holidays and the 'London Street Photography' exhibition opening day, made the difference. We decided to return earlier in the day for the exhibition, when we discovered the queue was well past the one hour to go marker. The Museum has recently complete face-lift, so we fought the crowds to have a look.

The walk finished at St Paul's (Wren's greatest achievement), and we were able to visit the One New Change shopping centre opposite. The roof top terrace has wonderful views towards the London Eye, and will be great in summer when the roof top garden cafe is open.

Sunday was still bleak and cold, but we decided on a walk around Chelsea, having been very taken with the area last weekend. Another welcoming London pub made great lunch stop (our table was right beside the open fire), in the middle of our walk as we went past houses that had been home to prominent writers in the past.

Our Museum visit of the day was the Army Museum, which had really excellent displays. Unlike the London Museum yesterday, this Museum was quiet and easy to enjoy the very comprehensive history of British conflicts – mostly abroad. One of the current temporary exhibitions was 'The Road to Kabul' and the banner advertising it outside had a most interesting quote by Frederick Roberts in 1880 regarding the first Afghan War - 'I feel sure I am right when I say that the less the Afghans see of us, the less they will dislike us'. It could have been written in 2011.

Next door to the Museum is the grand complex built by Sir Christopher Wren, as home to retired army personal, known as the Chelsea pensioners. This is the Royal Hospital Chelsea. The grounds are open to the public at certain times, as is the Great Hall and Chapel. It was like stepping back in time and visiting a village within London. Unfortunately the Chapel was closed, but the Great Hall is where the pensioners have their meals, and tables were being set for the evening meal. It is a very grand dining hall and it was easy to see the Wren look everywhere.

London Transport – 12-13 February 2011

The London transport system forms an integral part of life when living in London so this weekend we explored London with transport as the theme.

As we live on a joint Underground/Overground line, we decided to do a circuit of London on the Overground, incorporating the recently completed Overground extension. There are many well known names on the line, such as Whitechapel & Canada Water, with the line terminating at West Croydon.

From here the tramlink (installed 2000 and the only tram in London) took us to Wimbledon where the District Line brought us back to the Overground again. A side excursion (before re-boarding the Overground) took us to the Chelsea Physic Garden. This had a special winter opening for snowdrops. Rather than extensive areas of snowdrops, the snowdrop trail taught us all about snowdrops and the various varieties.

Sunday was the perfect day for indoor activities, so after a wonderful choral service at the historic Temple Church, we spent the afternoon at the London Transport Museum. They have a fascinating history of London transport with many vehicles on display, situated in the beautiful ex-flower market at Covent Garden. Currently, there is an exhibition on building the Overground extension, which was rather appropriate. Interestingly it incorporates the tunnel built under the Thames by Brunel – the first tunnel in the world to be built under a major city river and a bridge which took the largest crane in England to lift it into position.

Nearby the Museum, the Bafta awards were getting organised, but it was not a pleasant evening to be walking the red carpet nor to be a technician working on the outside broadcast trucks. It was amazing to see the miles and miles of cables snaking around the venue – all hidden from the camera view – all to beam it live to doting audiences around the world. Anyone would think it was important!

A railway ticket allows 2 for 1 entry into many attractions, so we used this to visit the Transport Museum and Chelsea Physic Gardens.

From Snowdrop Tea to Michelin Stars – 5-6 February 2011

Winter seems much shorter in the UK, as first it's the lead up to Christmas, and only a month after Christmas, the snowdrops are appearing, and give the hint of spring not far away.

February is snowdrop time again, and in contrast to the cold weather last weekend, we enjoyed a walk in the Chilterns on Saturday, which started in Watlington, and featured Swyncombe Church on the walk. The churchyard is smothered in snowdrops, and for the first three weekends in February, the local folk host a Snowdrop Tea in the churchyard. This 11th century Norman church was dedicated to 7thC St Botolph, whose casket rested in Swyncombe on it's journey to the Abbeys in Ely, Peterborough and Westminster. It was fascinating, as we have visited each of these grand Abbeys, to know the connection to this out of the way church hidden in a valley, down a drive-way off a side-road, off a minor road. However, at the time it was on a major “highway”, the Ridgeway, a long-distance trail that snakes across this part of England.

Our end point of Watlington is worth exploring as well. The town is full of 15th and 16th century buildings. The High Street has a lovely cafe, tempting cookware shops and an excellent delicatessen - impossible not to sample!

On Sunday we decided to celebrate our wedding anniversary at Waterside, a three Michelin star restaurant on the banks of the Thames in Bray, near Windsor.

Bray is another appealing village, which supports two three star restaurants. The head chef told us Waterside is fully booked every day for lunch and dinner, obviously the recession has not impacted the seriously good restaurants.

We and our car were taken care of when we stopped outside. I think we were passed from hand to hand through at least five staff members, from car to table. Each was courteous, attentive and wished us a good dining experience.

It goes without saying that this is an expensive experience, but worth it for a special occasion. What really made this special, was a tour of the kitchen. Alain Rous, the Chef Patron came to shake hands personally with each diner, and as we had read on the Web that guests were welcome to inspect the kitchens, we asked him if this would be possible. He stopped his hand-shaking tour at that point, and personally showed us round, and explained each part of the kitchen complex. It was fascinating to see items we had eaten in the preparation stage.

The kitchen has 24 chefs and supporting staff for the 75 covers (average) , the restaurant must have at least 20 waiting staff, so no wonder it all goes so smoothly, and we were made so welcome.

On leaving, the Restaurant manager said goodbye to us at the door, and when he learnt we had come to celebrate our anniversary, presented us with a copy of their dessert recipe book. This is an anniversary to be treasured, and hopefully remembered when back in NZ recreating delicious deserts!

Winter Wanders – 29 & 30 January 2011

London's Mayor generously paid for a wide selection of walks this weekend, so anyone could participate for free. I wonder how many other major cities could have such a large number of interesting walks.

The walk on Saturday afternoon called “ Spies and Spy-catchers” was led by a guide who used to work for MI2. Nearly 100 people joined the walk, which was really excellent. We walked past places in the St James area where the various Military Intelligence operations were run during the war, learnt about the notorious spies, Philby, Burgess, McLean & Blunt, as well as other really interesting historical happenings.

On Sunday morning we joined a walk called “Subterranean London”, with another very humorous guide. We learnt about what moves beneath London pavements, and underground history.

Just near the end of the morning walk, we came across the English Civil War Society, who were holding their annual remembrance of the execution of King Charles I.

The walk we joined on Sunday afternoon was “Hidden Treasures”. This should really have been called “a walk along the Thames”, but as it was a beautiful afternoon, we didn't mind learning about the various buildings that line the banks of the Thames between Waterloo and Tower Bridge.

The Winter Wanders were part of the Mayor's three seasons of sponsored walks. We'll have to look out for the spring walks.