It doesn't get much better!

We caught the 25 bus into Centre of London to go to church. It's much more fun doing this trip by bus than tube.

We went to St Helens at Bishopgate again. Love worshipping here. The people are friendly, the worship uplifting and the sermon was clear and practical and challenging. And the building was very old!

Then we had a lovely Wetherspoons Roast dinner. Yummo!

And to top off a great day we spent the afternoon in the British Museum. It was soooo crowded. But it was good to see so many families and young people spending time there

We did an interesting tour of the Medieval room with a volunteer which was very interesting.

So much to see...so little time to see it.

 

 

Coventry

We spent the morning in Coventry in the rain.

First stop was the former Priory. I came back later for an Undercroft tour.

Then we went to see the remains of Coventry Cathedral which had been destroyed in the war.

It was an evocative reminder of the senselessness of war.

The theme of forgiveness was evident in the displays

We didn't go into the new cathedral which had been built next to the old one as it cost a lot and it didn't look too interesting.

Then we split forces. Geoff checked out the motor museum and I did a tour of the Undercroft of the priory.

Geoff found the motor museum amazing due to the number of inventions that came from Coventry such as the bicycle, the motor bike and lots of development in car design. From 1860's onwards Coventry was foremost in such development.

The Priory Visitor Centre is a visitor attraction built over the remains of Coventry's first Cathedral. Excavation work gave archaeologists the opportunity to uncover details of much of the original Cathedral and tell the story of this amazing part of Coventry's history.

The first chronicled event in the history of Coventry took place in 1016 when King Canute and his army of Danes were laying waste to many towns and villages in Warwickshire in a bid to take control of England, and on reaching the settlement of Coventry they destroyed the Saxon nunnery. Leofric, Earl of Mercia and his wife Lady Godiva rebuilt on the remains of the nunnery to found a Benedictine monastery in 1043 dedicated to St. Mary. The subsequent rebuilding and expansion of St. Mary's was completed about 125 years later.

When the monastery was founded Leofric gave the northern half of his estates in Coventry to the monks to support them. This was known as the "Prior's-half", and the other was called the "Earl's-half" which would later pass to the Earls of Chester, and explains the early division of Coventry into two parts.

Everyone agrees that Lady Godiva did exist and was a compassionate benefactor to the people of Coventry. Whether she rode naked through the town to get her husband to lift the enormous taxes or not is not clear but the statue of her is beautiful Geoff happened upon the clock striking midday which involves Lady Godiva coming out on her horse and Peeping Tom popping his head out of the window out to have a look. I missed it.

After Coventry we headed to London but decided to come off the motorway almost immediately to have a look at the map. We then happened upon the most beautiful little village called Stoneleigh full of very old houses. It turned out to be associated with Sir Henry Parkes as he was baptised there and went to school. There was a great exhibition about him in the church.

Some of the beautiful old houses and the old church.

Font in which Henry parkes was baptised and the school he went to.

We continued on our way after this and made a detour later at St Albans as it is Fish Friday at Wetherspoon's one of our favourite pubs. After tea we had a walk around the town. We have been here before and really like it.

We got back to Chopwell Close by 8.30. Incredibly easy trip back to London for once.

 

day of preparation

Nothing much happened today of interest as we spent the day deciding what to take to France and packing.

According to the weather app it is going to be warm to hot where we are going but it's hard to not take adequate warm stuff as well as it is quite cold stil here. But we have to fit everything into a backpack each as we have to be able to carry it back after the Battlefield Tour.

Bit homesick today. Miss the family and pussycat!

 

 

Half way back to London

Today we say goodbye to Wales and start our journey back to London. Love Wales and if we do come back would love to see more of this country.

First stop today was Oswestry Hill fort. Old Oswestry is one of Britain's most spectacular and impressive early and best preserved Hill forts.

Geoff was pretending he was Stuart the surveyor from Time Team as he wandered around the fort with his OS map. We think we found Watts Dyke running through a field.

We think this shows an ancient field pattern. From above, the darker rectangle in the field was quite distinct.

After all our exploring of the hill fort it was time to head off. We sat in the car trying to work out which way to go. We decided on a route to take back to London and then found accommodation halfway at A little village outside of Coventry.

 

Llangollen

A lovely breakfast at our luxury hotel. This is the lifestyle we were meant for!

I don't know how we got a room with such a view for half price but it is just glorious. This is the view from our window.

First stop of the day is Castel Dinas Bran. The first building placed at Dinas Brân was not the castle which now stands in ruins on top of the hill but an Iron Age hillfort built around 600 BC. The castle itself was built by the Welsh in the 13th century.

The walk up was very steep but the views were breathtaking.

An earthen rampart was constructed probably topped by a wooden palisade and this was further protected by a deep ditch on the shallower southern slope.

The ditch and ramparts are very distinct.

 

The walls of the hill fort encircled a village of roundhouses.

At the top we got talking to an older couple who were university lecturers in the Welsh language so we got to ask lots of questions about Wesh. They tried to teach us how to say goodbye in Welsh but that was quickly forgotten.

They also told us a bit of the history of the castle. The translation of the name means Castle fort of the Ravens. This was because after only a few decades in use it was destroyed by the Welsh themselves to keep it out of the hands of the advancing English. After this the main inhabitants were the Ravens and crows.

This was the road we had to come down after the castle. The drop on my side was very steep. It was a two way street.

The evocative ruins of Valle Crucis which lie in green fields beneath Llangollen's steep sided mountains was our next stop. In medieval times, this was a remote spot (ideal for austere Cistercian monks, who deliberately sought out wild and lonely places).

Their Abbey, founded in the 13th century and added to a century later, has fared better than many of its contemporaries against the ravages of time, history and neglect.

Many original features remain, including the glorious west front complete with an elaborate, richly carved doorway, beautiful rose window and 14th century inscription 'Abbot Adams carried out this work; may he rest in peace. Amen'.

Other well preserved features include the east end of the Abbey (which overlooks the monks' original fishpond) and lovely Chapter House with its striking rib-vaulted roof.

Close to the abbey is Eliseg’s pillar. This apparently is a monument of great importance, a rare link with a shadowy but crucial period of early Welsh history. It once stood some twenty feet high, surmounted by a cross which gave its name - ‘Valle Crucis’, ‘the vale of the cross’ - to this whole valley.

An inscription (now almost worn away but copied down three centuries ago) records that it was raised in the early 800s by Cyngen, last independent King of Powys, in memory of his great-grandfather King Eliseg ‘who recovered the land of Powys from the English with fire and sword’. This Eliseg, the inscription claims, was the direct descendent of Vortigern (Gwrtheyrn) ‘whom St. Germanus blessed’, and of the Emperor Magnus Maximus, one of he last Roman rulers of Britain in the late 4th century.

Whilst the pillar itself dates to the 9th century, the mound is thought to be significantly older, possibly prehistoric. Certainly the mound can be dated to the Bronze Age. It was subjected to excavation in recent years and it showed several stages of construction and contained a skeleton and evidence of burnt human bone, confirming its use as a burial site.

We then stopped for lunch in the abbey cafe which we regretted as it took nearly an hour to get served. The soup and the Welsh Rarebit however was rather delicious.

Afterwards we went looking for the Pontcysyllte Aqueduct and Canal. This is a feat of civil engineering of the Industrial Revolution, completed in the early years of the 19th century. Covering a difficult geographical setting, the building of the 18 km long canal required substantial, bold civil engineering solutions, especially as it was built without using locks. The aqueduct is a pioneering masterpiece of engineering and monumental metal architecture, conceived by the celebrated civil engineer Thomas Telford. The aqueduct over the river Dee is 38 metres high. The use of both cast and wrought iron in the aqueduct enabled the construction of arches that were light and strong.

Its purposes were to be a trunk route joining the three rivers, to provide an outlet of the coal and iron industries of Denbighshire, and to enable limestone to be distributed to fertilise the farmlands of north Shropshire.

Geoff and I walked over it. With the canal on one side you had to walk very close to the rail overlooking the valley. Geoff got halfway across and had a serious bout of vertigo and we had to go back with him gripping hand over hand on the rail.

This is where you walked next to the canal over the aqueduct 38 metres from the valley floor.

Views from the aqueduct.

We went walking trying to take some photos of the bridge from other vantage points.

 

This is called Trevor Basin and it is at the end of the canal and is the wharf that was used to load up the canal boats at the height of the Industrial Revolution.

Geoff holding up the bridge.