To Coventry and Back

It was a lot cooler when we left Hawkwsbury Junction this morning - I was still in shorts but it was a close call.

We just got going and who do we see but the fire brigade ... not another body I hear you say !  Nope they were practicing water rescues - seemingly rescuing a plastic bottle!


After filling with water and doing the other stuff, we set off to the start of the Coventry Canal and of course to the city of Coventry.

Santa either comes early or he is running late in these parts!

Passing by the terraces on the outskirts of Coventry ...

Through bridge No1 into the basin ...

James Brindley statue in the basin ...

Handy tattoo parlour in the Basin too!

It was easy to get a mooring.....

...as there were only three boats moored up.

The main reason for the trip to Coventry was because of this ... they don't call me 'transport boy' for nothing!

It was a fantastic museum.  I took a lot of shots but I have just included some of my favourites - this is a Rover Metro used by the metropolitan police until it was wrecked, then it was used on our all time favourite programme....The Bill!  

Another very nice cop car Triumph 2500 TC ...

A stack of Massey Ferguson tractors ...

This was a very interesting car - Monty's victory car, 60,000 miles in under 12 months!

Here are the details ...

The Triumph Stag, one of my all time favourites.  This car should have been a world beater, but it had a crap engine ... if only they had fitted the Rover 3500 V8! A friend of mine back in Sydney had a yellow stag, the engine exploded constantly, frightening many a small child!

The very first Dolly Sprint I very nearly bought one of these in 1976, but instead bought a 1973 Triumph TR6 which I had shipped to Australia when I emigrated in 1980.  I sold the car in Australia in 1990 for about 10 times what it cost me back in 1976, a great car.

This is a very special car, it was bought by Prince Charles for his girlfriend..... 

... Lady Di!
Cheapskate Charlie I reckon!

So after the museum it was back to the boat to grab Elaine and the dogs and off we went to see what else Coventry had to offer.

There was only one thing to see really....

.....and that was the Coventry Cathedral.  All that is left is the shell after it was bombed by the Luftwaffe in November 1940.

It was a very special place to visit.

I am not a religious person,

... but I just cant explain how it felt to be there.

Very moving.

Couldn't go to Coventry with out taking a pic of Lady Godiva ...

As for the rest of Coventry, what can I say but what a dump!  I know we don't stay long at these places and one day is a bit short to form an opinion, but all places get measured the same way, except the big cities where we stay longer. The worst place we have visited in the UK so far is Ellesmere Port, not the basin and museum but the town itself.  Iin my opinion Coventry gives it a good run for the money, it doesn't help that a lot of the residents give the appearance of drug dealing chavs!  (Oh, did I really say that out loud?)  As a result of this we decided not to stay the night - not that there is anything wrong with the basin, its fine - with all services laid on.

We fired up the boat and headed back to Hawkesbury Junction, with Elaine basking in the cratch dreaming that she was in Bali evidently!

Back at Hawkesbury Junction we went to the Greyhound for dinner and drinks..... fantastic....stuff the fast today !