Coventry; Saturday, 20 February, 2010

What should have been a relatively easy journey was turned into a near nightmare by chaos on the tube caused by something thinking it would be a good idea to close most lines at the same time for engineering work. By the time I finally got to Euston I only had 10 minutes to spare before my train left.

Thankfully the rest of my journey was utterly uneventful and the train pulled into Coventry on time an hour later. I walked the half mile across the city centre to the hotel to check in and dump my stuff.

From the hotel I walked the short distance (very short given that I had a view of it from my room) to the Cathedral. In fact there are two Cathedrals in Coventry. The Old Cathedral remains, captured in time, as it was after the November 1940 blitz which saw it reduced to a shell. Next door the modern Cathedral stands as a testament to the fighting spirit of the people of Coventry and to the ideas of a brave, modern late 20th century that the architects thought the rebuilding of Coventry would be the dawn of.

The main tower of the Old Cathedral is still standing and now houses both the tourist information centre and access to the best view in the city. I climbed the 180 or so steps to the top and what greeted me was surprising.

I had thought that virtually the whole of Coventry had been destroyed by the Nazi bombing raids, and yes there were large tracks of rebuilt city, but there were also large numbers of buildings that clearly pre-date the 20th century dotted around the place.

Having taken in the city from it’s highest point I descended back to the ruins of the old cathedral and had a look around before heading over to the new cathedral. Unfortunatly the new cathedral was had a service taking place and was closed to tourists. Just opposite the cathedral I spotted a museum, so with time to spare I thought I would have a look around

A long time later I emerged from the Herbert museum thoughrly impressed. By now it was getting dark so I wandered back over to the hotel to drop my camera and bag off and then walked back to the station to pick up pre-booked tickets for Tuesday and to purchase a ticket to Stratford-upon-Avon for the following day.

With that done I wandered back into the centre of town and grabbed some dinner before heading back for an early nights sleep