Sunday, 1st June TYSOE – WARWICK – GAYDON –
KENILWORTH – LEAMINGTON
Well, it’s the first day of the British summer! (Though
possibly not; according to Carol, the traditional date is June 21st.
But anyway, we are going with the Australian reckoning and calling it summer.)
To celebrate, the temperature got to 19 degrees.
We managed to sleep into 7.30 this morning, which was
glorious. During breakfast, we discussed our possible destinations for the day.
It was finally decided that Lex and I would head off north; Glen had to return
to Leighton Buzzard to work tomorrow (sad), so Carol stayed to take him to the
bus/train. We bid him farewell (will see him in about a fortnight in Scotland)
and headed off.
We split up for a lot of the day’s activities: Lex dropped
me off in the High Street of Warwick, then headed for Gaydon, where the British
Motor Museum is located on an old airfield. They only had cars made in the UK,
and he really enjoyed looking at all the historic vehicles.
Meanwhile, I headed into Lord Leycester Hospital, a wonderful set of buildings dating back 700 years. During the 1300s, the local Guilds set up a headquarters for their meetings, and in 1571, Robert Dudley, the Earl of Leicester, who was the great favourite of Queen Elizabeth 1, approached them to set up a ‘hospital’ for wounded soldiers. The buildings have been carefully renovated recently and it was so good to wander around them, marvelling at the crooked beams and wondering how they’ve stayed up so long! There is a lovely Tudor garden out the back, and I really enjoyed wandering through it, chatting to the volunteers (and Sandy on WhatsApp) and finding the Tudor fairies hidden throughout. I had morning tea in the banquet hall (now café) and altogether enjoyed a couple of hours there.
I was going to go to the museum next, but one of the guides told me it was closed on a Sunday, and suggested St Mary’s, where Robert Dudley and his second wife Lettice are buried. It was just around the corner, so I headed there next. Their graves and that of some of the Earls of Warwick are very impressive. Also very sad was the grave of Robert’s 3 year old son, the ‘noble impe’, poor love. I had a most enjoyable wander around the church.
After that, I walked down the hill to the castle entrance.
We visited Warwick Castle in 2006 and it’s awfully expensive to visit, so I
wasn’t going to go in, but I popped into the gift shop there for a look, and
discovered they have Zog (the dragon) merchandise. Danny adores Zog, so I
checked it out, but again it was eye-wateringly expensive (50 pounds for a Zog
toy – that’s over $100AUD…) I decided that Danny would be just as happy with a
Zog sew on patch to put on a t-shirt instead!
By now it was lunchtime, and Lex was still at the museum, so I went into the Oken Tea Rooms. It’s in the house, right by the castle walls, where Thomas Oken and his family lived in the 1500s. I was familiar with Thomas already, as he was one of the Warwick great and good associated with the hospital. I had a lovely, if somewhat unusual lunch – the soup of the day was pear & broccoli! The young man serving assured me that most people liked it, so I thought what the heck. It was interesting – I couldn’t quite decide if it was sweet or savoury. After lunch, I had a wander around the shops until Lex arrived to pick me up.
Then we headed for Kenilworth Castle, which we’d also visited, in 2014. At the time, they had just finished a system of steps throughout the royal apartments, but I was so disappointed because they weren’t yet open. Well, today I got to follow in the royal footsteps of Queen Elizabeth and Dudley, and explore the (now ruined) apartments he built especially for her. Despite all of this, of course, she never would agree to marry him. There were some stunning views from the top floors.
I also went down into the Privy Garden he built for her, which was rebuilt from Tudor plans about 12 years ago, and it was brand new last time we were here. Sadly, it’s not wearing well. They obviously didn’t use good quality wood, as the railings, newels and the aviary are all deteriorating badly already. The gardens themselves look lovely, but it’s sad that they didn’t use a decent hardwood. Anyway, I did enjoy seeing it all again and especially being able to explore the buildings.
At about 4, Lex picked me up from the carpark. He’d been to Leamington,
a beautiful regency city nearby, and suggested we go home via there so I could
see it. In Georgian days it was a very popular spa town, and it has some
amazing Regency buildings – whole streets of them. We enjoyed a drive around
there, then decided to head back to Carol’s place, just over half an hour away.
Since then, Carol and I have cooked tea (spag bol), and we are doing a quick load of washing, as our next few accommodations won’t have a machine. We have one more day here before heading off for Norfolk on Tuesday. It’s nearly half past nine, and still light, but my plan is to hang out the washing and go to bed!
No comments:
Post a Comment