Leamington Spa; Tuesday, 17 August, 2010
I managed to time my visit almost perfectly and only had a couple of minutes to wait for the bus on into Stratford, where I changed onto exactly the same physical bus which has changed routes and headed out to the other main NT site round here, Coughton Court.
I spent quite a long time at Coughton and got back into Stratford a little after 3. I had been wondering what to do for the remainder of the afternoon. I’d been toying with catching the bus into Evesham to have a look around there, but in the end I decided to go on one of the Avon boat cruises that run from Stratford, and I’m glad I did. Not only was it a very interesting tour, it also meant that I was sitting inside a covered boat at the same time the massive storm that had been brewing for most of the afternoon broke. It would have coincided with about the same time I would have arrived in Evesham if I’d caught the bus!
The cruise got back to the landing stage almost exactly at the middle of the storm where it eased off a bit so I was able to dash from the boat to the lobby of the nearby hotel without getting that damp. Within seconds of getting under the shelter the main bulk of the storm hit, and the car park became a lake in seconds. People less than 100 meters away when the storm hit were absolutely soaked by the time they reached the lobby. By now I was very glad that I’d not gone to Evesham.
By the time the storm cleared there was just enough time to wander through the town to a Costa’s for a very late lunch (almost 5pm) before catching the bus back into Leamington.
After dropping my stuff off at the hotel I wandered back out and joined the evening free walking tour round the old part of the town. Bizarrely the tour ends in the lobby of the Travelodge so I took the opportunity to have a quick rest stop before heading back out for a light dinner then it was back to the hotel to finish off packing.
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