Month: May 2025

Beside Coventry’s bustling shopping district is the Cathedral District, at least that’s what I am calling it. It has a church, the cathedral, the cathedral ruins, and the old historic council chambers as well as cute narrow cobblestone streets. It was definitely our favorite part of Coventry and what we would highly recommend for a visit.

The first church we saw was Holy Trinity Church. A church stood on this site as early as 1113 but was destroyed by fire in 1257. The north porch survived but the rest of the existing church was rebuilt during the 14th century.

The next few photos deal with the old Cathedral, the new Cathedral, and the destruction of Coventry during World War II. I’ll just apologize now that my history will be incomplete and the photos don’t do justice to the ruins or the new cathedral. Bob and I were beyond impressed and also moved by the horrors of war and the resilience of the local people.

Here’s a thumbnail description of my understanding of the history of the Coventry Cathedral. The Church of St. Michael, the parish church of Coventry, dates from 1300 AD. It didn’t become designated a cathedral until 1918 and was mostly destroyed (except for the tower) during the 11 hour air raid on Coventry on November 14, 1940.

Currently, you can climb the tower that is connected to the ruins of the old cathedral. The new cathedral is attached to one of the walls of the old cathedral, creating an impressive courtyard which was hosting a car show today. There is an underground museum in which you can (and we did) watch a video detailing the events of November 14, 1940, and view artifacts from that period.

One final note on the Coventry bombing. The film noted that it was learned after the bombing that the Royal Air Force had been notified that Coventry was being targeted, but there is no evidence that the city was warned. One theory was that Churchill was willing to sacrifice Coventry so that the Germans wouldn’t know that England had broken their code. There is no proof that was the case either. The air raids on Coventry’s killed an estimated 568 people and injured another 1200.

Another great walkabout in another interesting city in England, and Coventry is officially a city, as recognized in its charter of 1345! With a population of a little over 345,000, it is the 10th largest city in England and the 13th largest in the UK. These are fun facts from Wikipedia, which also noted the city’s industrial importance in the manufacturing of bicycles and then of the British motor industry, which made it a target for the Germans during the Second World War. We learned a bit more about that and other parts of the city’s history during our walk.

This is the first of a two part post. The second part will focus on the cathedral area of Coventry and what happened to it during the war. I do have to note that while we had a lovely walk, much more interesting than we expected, there sadly appears to be a large unhoused population, and we did not feel comfortable going into one, otherwise lovely, park.

Also, beautiful weather today, mix of sun and clouds with temps in the 60s F.

Spon End is a diverse section of the city with a real mix of old and new, from medieval buildings to highrise buildings. It is the oldest surviving residential area in Coventry. We snapped some photos of the older buildings we liked.

There are a number of malls in the city centre. The Lower Precinct Mall also contains the Coventry Market, which has a range of stalls from food (produce, meats, seafood, spices, ethnic groceries) to fabrics, purses/wallets (Bob bought himself a new one.), perfumes, etc.

Bob and I are fascinated with the canal system in the UK and the narrow boats. We had to check out the canal basin when we saw it on the map. There were a few boats moored in the canal, and the canal side was lined with groceries and a couple cafes.

The cattle have been successfully herded and are now comfortably ensconced in their roomy motel room with a separate sitting and sleep area and plenty of sitting options. It was quite the traveling process and to throw in another metaphor we felt both shaken and stirred.

Long story short, two late, very crowded trains. I stood for the full 2+ hour journey in the entry area of both trains unable even to enter into the seating compartments due to no room for my bag and/or no room to sit. Bob was able to get a seat on the first train but had to hold his big but more flexible bag.

On the 2nd journey when we were both standing in the entry compartment with at least 4 others and their bag, one young man spent the entire trip talking loudly on his phone, including proving a username and password to something.

Once we finally arrived in Coventry, we had to search for a kiosk to print out our tickets for Sunday which will have us on both a train and then the tube to get to our hotel at Gatwick Airport.

A couple of views from our room on the 16th floor of the Ramada Inn in Coventry, which is part of another of our hotel programs (Wyndham).

Yesterday afternoon we went back out to find the two sites we had wanted to see but didn’t in the morning — Shrewsbury Castle and Laura’s Tower. The entrance to both was directly across from the library which we had been at in the morning, but we had gone back to walk up the Castle Gate which actually took us away from the castle. Ah well, it was better weather yesterday afternoon anyway.

We have had a great trip to Shrewsbury and would definitely recommend it as a stop on a visit to the UK. We are having a leisurely morning today waiting on our 12:30 train that will take us to Coventry once we change trains in Wolverhampton. We should arrive in Coventry about 2:30 this afternoon. Since we had a bit of time, we went out for breakfast to a cute cafe called House Coffee, another place we would recommend.

Bob had an avocado sandwich, and I had a grilled halloumi sandwich with a side salad and an Americano coffee. Bob had already had his coffee in the room while I was running.

Our only complaint with our stay in Shrewsbury is the poor Wi-Fi service in the Premier Inn Hotel and our inability to open a window or get any kind of real air flow in the room. We don’t stay in these hotels very often and wouldn’t recommend this one. The location is great but staff have been nonexistent or rude (likely a shortage of them) as well as the other issues.

Onward through the walkabout. The next stop was the very unusual St. Chad’s Church. It’s circular, inspired by the Tour Magne mausoleum in Nimes, France. It was built by George Steurt and opened in 1792. Also, although I’ve never heard of St. Chad, he was apparently a prominent 7th century Anglo-Saxon monk.

Directly across from St. Chad’s Church is Quarry Park, a 29 acre parkland which has been Shrewsbury’s most important site for recreation since the 16th century. The most beautiful part of the park is the hedge-encircled Dingle Garden designed by Percy Thrower. The following are photos from the Dingle Garden.

From the park, we headed towards the Porthill Footbridge over the river.

One big difference between Wrexham and Shrewsbury (besides the country of course) is that it is easy to find useful maps of Shrewsbury to help plan your visit. We used the map today to plan our walkabout to see the local sites.

It was an easy two hour walk as everything is very close, but it means lots of photos over what will be at least two posts. Technical issues with some photos, not currently understood by Bob or me, will determine whether a third post is completed or not.

The first stop was a Tribute to Local Heroes sculpture in a pocket park almost directly across from our hotel.

Next, we were off to see the impressive Castle Gate Library with a statue of Charles Darwin out front. The structure was originally Shrewsbury School, founded by King Edward VI in 1552. Charles Darwin, among many others, was educated here.

We attempted to find Laura’s Tower by the castle but went up the Castle Gate path by mistake. This didn’t get us to the Castle Grounds, but we did get a good view and saw the prison, which hadn’t been on the original plan.

We then walked across the English Bridge (where our boat tour had ended yesterday) to reach the Abbey.

We crossed back over the English Bridge on the other sign and saw this stone marker depicting the former geographical division between local parishes.

Then we headed along the old town walls towards Shrewsbury Cathedral.

The building of the Catholic Cathedral was funded by Bertram Talbot and was opened with a mass on November 29, 1856.

Directly up the road from the Shrewsbury Cathedral is the

First, all good on the car front. Our car has not been towed, and we’re in coordination with the manager of the parking lot as to how to fix the license snafu. Good people exist in the US despite what our current leadership may indicate.

Now on to the vibrant Shrewsbury. We arrived about 11:15 this morning and were able to check into our Premier Inn as Bob had paid for an early check in. We had a bit of a walkabout in the city center and bought tickets for a boat tour at 3:00 pm. The city was hopping. Lots of foot traffic.

Things to know about Shrewsbury. It is a market town in Shropshire, England, sited along the River Severn (the longest River in the UK). It has a population of about 77,000 and is located 9 miles east of the England-Wales border. It is also the birthplace of Charles Darwin.

Some photos of the historic city center.

We also checked out Shrewsbury’s Market Hall with its range of local vendors.

And then we have photos from our boat ride.

Of course, we could not come to Wrexham without visiting the Turf, as it is as close to being in the stadium as we can get, and we feel like we know it from the show. Unfortunately, no sighting of Ryan, Rob, Wayne (the owner of The Turf), or anyone else that we recognized, at least not in person. Still, an enjoyable visit with mostly locals, including a couple of families with children. It must be nicer for the locals to have a relaxing night at the pub when there is not all the game day hoopla or bus loads of tourists.

Now, we’re on our way to Shrewsbury for the next leg of our break between sits. It’s a short, direct 39 minute ride.

Bob and I are having a bit of a lazy day amid a little bit of traveling drama, more on the last bit later. The weather was clear this morning for my run but started raining before we headed out and promises to continue for most of the day. It’s not a bad or blowing rain just steady enough that you seem to get wet even with the rain gear.

As mentioned yesterday, we had to get over to see what we could of the football stadium, given that the season is over so no games nor stadium tours. While our interest in the Wrexham football began with its purchase by the American actors and subsequent documentary, the history of this club is much more impressive than that.

Per their website, Wrexham AFC was founded in 1864, making it Wales’ oldest football club and the third oldest in the world. It was founded by members of the Wrexham Cricket Club at a meeting at the Turf Hotel (a pub of the same name is now next to the stadium) to find a sport to fill the winter months and also in part by a local social club wanting to increase the enrichment opportunities for Wrexham’s young men.

The club has been promoted three times under the current ownership. We have watched the three seasons of “We are Wrexham” and are awaiting access to the fourth.

There is, of course, more to Wrexham than football, so we snapped a photo of St. Mary’s Cathedral on our walk back into the city center.

The Wrexham Museum will be significantly enhanced and a Football Museum for Wales is either being created or being moved here.

I have been needing new running shoes, a regular rain jacket, and a rain jacket for running. We had spotted a store yesterday which looked as if it might carry all three, and it did. We caught some good sales, and I am now completely rekitted.

Finally, for some really unwanted drama. When we started this leg of our travels, we parked our car in the bus lot in my hometown, which we have successfully done before. The only change this time is instead of paying ahead of time for the number of days needed, everything was to be done online.

You enter your license, which they have a photo of from when you entered, and pay for a maximum of 19 days. If you need longer than that, you add money as you go. Bob noted that our payments (2 so far — the initial and the next installment) have been pending but the expiration date has moved out. He was confused by this and upon further inspection noticed that he had entered our license plate with the incorrect last digit. So now we are waiting word as to whether or car has been towed and/or how best to resolve this issue. More to follow when we know more.

Wrexham is a city of about 45,000 in the northeast of Wales. It is the 3rd city in Wales that we’ve visited after Hawarden and Cardiff. Our interest in visiting is mostly due to our following of the documentary on the Wrexham football team after the purchase of the team by the US actors, Ryan Reynolds and Rob McElhenney. The team has improved (moved up a league) over the past few years and the team is now in the Championship League, but more on the football team tomorrow after we see the stadium and visit the next door pub.

Today, we walked around the city center, visited a local National Trust site, and viewed the parish church. First, some photos of the city center, which was not busy due to it being a bank holiday here, as in US but more stores seem closed.

We walked about 45 minutes to Erddig, a large estate, home, and garden, which is a National Trust site. These sites tend to be historical heritage sites or other places of interest or natural beauty which are cared for by the National Trust, a UK conservation charity.

The grounds of Erddig are open to the public daily for no charge. You can pay to see either both the house and gardens or just the gardens. We chose to just go into the gardens, although we ended up seeing the exterior of the house as well as a bit of the 1,200 acre estate.

The following photos are from the gardens that we paid to enter.

Finally, we headed to St. Giles Parish Church back near the city center. There has been a church on the current site since the 11th century, but the current structure dates to the late 15th and early 16th century. The impressive tower, completed in 1525, is a well known landmark. Two other fun facts, Elihu Yale, founder of Yale University is buried in the churchyard. Also, St. Giles’ steeple is one of the 7 wonders of Wales listed in a children’s rhyme, where it’s referred to as Wrexham steeple.