Kenilworth Castle
With good weather today, we brushed aside our idea of visiting Coventry’s Transport Museum but instead opted to do things that were a little more outdoor.
We grabbed brunch at a nearby chain-bakery called Greggs before taking a quick look at Coventry Cathedral from the outside.
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- Coventry Cathedral.
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- St Michael victory over the devil.
We then left the city centre for Kenilworth Castle, with origins from around 1120. As with many others, there had been destruction and reconstruction along the way.
It is famous for being owned by Robert Dudley who hosted his lover Queen Elizabeth I on several occasions. The guardhouse is well-restored whereas the main keep, great hall and tower which accommodated the Queen were in ruins.
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- At Kenilworth castle.
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- At Kenilworth castle.
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- The gatehouse has been well-restored.
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- The stables are now tea-rooms.
Midlands Air Museum
Next, we backtracked to near Coventry’s airport to visit the Midlands Air Museum. Here, we struck it lucky as the Vulcan bomber was open for visits. A kind gentleman led us up the ladder into the cockpit which held 5 crew (two pilots, engineer, navigator and another).
The two most impressive things for me were:
- The monstrous proportions of the aircraft. It looked like a fighter jet in shape but was the scale was several times larger.
- The development timeframe to first flight was only 3 years and that was achieved without computers!
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- Look at how small I am compared to the aircraft.
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- The cockpit.
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- Sitting in the area behind the pilots near the positions of the other crew.
Back at our car, I noticed that we had received a scrape to the front left wheel arch with traces of white paint. That was despite taking precautions to park nowhere near anyone else! This is going to cost!
[Edit: As the car had an accident insurance excess of GBP1280, he found a good cheap painter to paint the panel while he waited for just GBP100 while he had a cuppa tea. This is the first time we’ve painted a rental car! ]
We called past our local supermarket called Hebron to pickup some dessert and was surprised at the low prices. It wasn’t a normal supermarket but one that sold things that didn’t move elsewhere.