Where was Bertie? He spent Thursday night in a surprisingly quiet car park in Royal Leamington Spa where it cost £7 for a 24-hour ticket. We also paid £2.60 for an additional 2 hours on Friday morning.
Weather: Thursday – sunny and mid-twenties; Friday – sunny and hot, topping out at 30 degrees.
Thursday
We left Stow-on-the-Wold before breakfast on Thursday, as our intended first stop was only 5 miles along the road in Moreton-in-the-Marsh – better to get there and get parked before the car park got too busy, we thought. A fine plan, thwarted by the car park not being Bertie-friendly, so Moreton was scratched from the agenda and onwards to Royal Leamington Spa we went (which had been our end-of-day destination).
No problem parking in Leamington, with our chosen car park being almost empty. Breakfast filled the time until the museum, in the old pump rooms, opened and a walk along the river and through the pump room gardens took us there. It was a worthwhile visit and kept us entertained for the rest of the morning – particularly good value, being free.
We might have stayed longer and ventured up to the first floor of the museum, but our stomachs were demanding attention, so we wandered into town for some lunch, before taking a circuitous route back to the pump rooms to do the 'Discover Old Leamington' self-guided walking tour, per a leaflet I’d picked up in the Information Office.
We’ve done a lot of walking tours, mainly in Spain and Germany, and this one was far and away the worst ever. In fact, it was so bad that its badness became an entertaining quality of its own. Early on it told us to look for the Spar and Post Office, telling us they were on the site of the oldest hotel in Leamington. My expectation: these new businesses (which, incidentally, are now closed down anyway) had been established in the building of that old hotel; reality: a semi-modern monstrosity of a building. All we were looking at was where there was once a different building that is now long gone. With the tour continuing in the same vein, I was almost ready to abandon it after three (of 15) points of interest, yet by then I was intrigued by whether there was anything of merit included.
Of the (alleged) points of interest on the tour, this was one of the 3 I could argue had some merit. It had a blue plaque! John Ruskin once stayed here.
A prime example of the quality of the tour – we were taken down a dead-end side street to see Frank Whittle Mews. What has this modern building, with no aesthetic merit, got to do with Frank Whittle? Absolutely nothing, other than being named after him.
Fortunately, before we started the tour, I’d taken a diversion to the other side of town to have a look at Lansdowne Crescent – a crescent of town houses built in the heyday of the Spa town, in the same style of those seen in Bath…
…and we’d also walked through the town where there were historic buildings of (it seemed to us) more historic interest than those included in the tour.
The day was hot by the time we got back to Bertie, which was a little unfortunate from the point of view of my need to go for a run. I set out at gone 5pm in the end, leaving Mick to make tea (salad – too hot for anything cooked), and went and sweated up and down the river and Grand Union Canal.
Fountain of the Day – The Hitchman Fountain, erected in 1869.
Home for the night, but as car parks within a few minutes’ walk of a town go, this one was surprisingly underused and perfectly quiet overnight.
Friday
A sweaty start to the day with runs along the Grand Union Canal to the east of Leamington…
A good brood!
…then showers and breakfast before driving 1.5 miles to take advantage of the free parking at Tesco just outside Warwick (I’d assumed there would be a 3-hour parking limit, but
there wasn’t, so we could have moved there first thing, rather than paying for more parking in Leamington Spa) for a quick look at Warwick.
I went on a school trip to Warwick Castle somewhere in the region of 40 years ago, but otherwise neither of us knew anything about the town other than that it’s ‘historic’ (a fact known because we’ve countless times driven past the sign on the motorway that advertises ‘Historic Warwick’).
Yep, it is historic!
Entrance to the castle, which is as far as we went on this occasion
I would like, one day, to return to the castle, but this wasn’t the day for it, so we made do with looking at the entrance courtyard as we explored some of the town’s side streets.
Another quick lunch out (this last week has been like a veritable holiday; seldom do we eat out so much), then it was a brisk walk in the heat of the day back to Bertie and the drive home – a slow and frustrating journey on a Friday afternoon.
We’re not due to be here very long before we’re off again for another trip-ette.
Weather: Thursday – sunny and mid-twenties; Friday – sunny and hot, topping out at 30 degrees.
Thursday
We left Stow-on-the-Wold before breakfast on Thursday, as our intended first stop was only 5 miles along the road in Moreton-in-the-Marsh – better to get there and get parked before the car park got too busy, we thought. A fine plan, thwarted by the car park not being Bertie-friendly, so Moreton was scratched from the agenda and onwards to Royal Leamington Spa we went (which had been our end-of-day destination).
No problem parking in Leamington, with our chosen car park being almost empty. Breakfast filled the time until the museum, in the old pump rooms, opened and a walk along the river and through the pump room gardens took us there. It was a worthwhile visit and kept us entertained for the rest of the morning – particularly good value, being free.
We might have stayed longer and ventured up to the first floor of the museum, but our stomachs were demanding attention, so we wandered into town for some lunch, before taking a circuitous route back to the pump rooms to do the 'Discover Old Leamington' self-guided walking tour, per a leaflet I’d picked up in the Information Office.
We’ve done a lot of walking tours, mainly in Spain and Germany, and this one was far and away the worst ever. In fact, it was so bad that its badness became an entertaining quality of its own. Early on it told us to look for the Spar and Post Office, telling us they were on the site of the oldest hotel in Leamington. My expectation: these new businesses (which, incidentally, are now closed down anyway) had been established in the building of that old hotel; reality: a semi-modern monstrosity of a building. All we were looking at was where there was once a different building that is now long gone. With the tour continuing in the same vein, I was almost ready to abandon it after three (of 15) points of interest, yet by then I was intrigued by whether there was anything of merit included.
Fortunately, before we started the tour, I’d taken a diversion to the other side of town to have a look at Lansdowne Crescent – a crescent of town houses built in the heyday of the Spa town, in the same style of those seen in Bath…
The day was hot by the time we got back to Bertie, which was a little unfortunate from the point of view of my need to go for a run. I set out at gone 5pm in the end, leaving Mick to make tea (salad – too hot for anything cooked), and went and sweated up and down the river and Grand Union Canal.
Friday
A sweaty start to the day with runs along the Grand Union Canal to the east of Leamington…
…then showers and breakfast before driving 1.5 miles to take advantage of the free parking at Tesco just outside Warwick (I’d assumed there would be a 3-hour parking limit, but
there wasn’t, so we could have moved there first thing, rather than paying for more parking in Leamington Spa) for a quick look at Warwick.
I went on a school trip to Warwick Castle somewhere in the region of 40 years ago, but otherwise neither of us knew anything about the town other than that it’s ‘historic’ (a fact known because we’ve countless times driven past the sign on the motorway that advertises ‘Historic Warwick’).
I would like, one day, to return to the castle, but this wasn’t the day for it, so we made do with looking at the entrance courtyard as we explored some of the town’s side streets.
Another quick lunch out (this last week has been like a veritable holiday; seldom do we eat out so much), then it was a brisk walk in the heat of the day back to Bertie and the drive home – a slow and frustrating journey on a Friday afternoon.
We’re not due to be here very long before we’re off again for another trip-ette.
Ruskin has had a bit of a bashing recently from both of us. Mine, coincidentally on a post titled "A not so good walk" where you joined in with relevant comments.
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