Bartimaeus

As Lesley and Ian took their leave, we didn't even stop. We came through a narrow point at the junction where they could get off and carried straight on. The visit hadn't slowed us down, as we possibly wouldn't have started as early if we hadn't been trying to meet up with them. We set off along the Coventry canal, with them and waved as they crossed the bridge and into the car park.

Nye, having enjoyed nature, now got the urban experience of mystery scraping on the bottom of the boat (trolley or bike?) As we approached a large visible object we considered sofa or armchair, then possibly a bed base. When we got closer we found both guesses were right as it was a sofabed. 

We reached the basin but could see  nowhere to moor so turned round in the winding hole. This was made slightly harder by people in canoes going through the space. After the turn Nye surprised me by taking the helm. He had driven earlier in the trip but the bridge was a particularly narrow and low arch, which slightly deviated its line. He managed through without a bump, then brought us to the side for mooring a short distance along. 

We went into town for an explore. We had seen many things before and I wasn't sure which would be his favourites. Everything would be new to him, so he enjoyed just following his nose through town and finding interesting things round each corner. He found a building I hadn't remembered at all from previous visit. 

Another timbered building was not far away and a man exiting it saw us admiring it and told us it sold his beer. As we lined up to take a picture he offered to take the picture with us in it. I was just having difficulty getting the building in at all as there was a concentration of other buildings round it but it was nice if him to offer.

Nye wasn't tempted by beer. We headed out of town a little and told him this was the way to the station. He liked a statue entitled Phoenix and I explained that Coventry had been badly bombed in the war.

We were now thirsty and headed back into the centre looking for ice cream. Right in the square we found somewhere selling ice lollies. It was nearly time for the clock to strike and we wondered if the Godiva carousel would be working. It might have stopped altogether and there was no sign of a crowd gathering. We sat on a bench opposite it eating our ice creams so it wasn't a disappointing wait if nothing happened. Lo and behold, the doors opened and Godiva on horseback appeared. There was no juddering halt. The doors above opened and out came Peeping Tom and then both receded and the doors closed. 

We checked out opening hours of various places to make sure we didn't miss anything and decided the museum the next day was a good slot as it wasn't open on Monday and it was due to rain the next day.

Turtle Bay hit the spot for Nye for dinner. He and I shared the two for the price of one cocktails and and the biggest problem was choosing what to have as the were so many things he liked. 

I thought it would be nice to do a cathedral per day so we went to the oldest first. Nye was interested in the view from above, but as I went to go down into the ruins we saw a rat. I decided not to go down the stairs there. Nye said he was not afraid of the rat. It wasn't going to stop us exploring. We went in from the other side. Arriving at a beautiful display of lavender, popular with the bees.

There was a mixture of remains of pillars and artist's work. Sometimes the two were combined.

It rained overnight. We headed in to town. On the way to the main museum we popped into the second cathedral. It had dried up well but there was a pool of water under the model cathedral in the hands of the bishop.

It is a magnificent shell and it stands as testament to the destruction of war. A small museum of the blitz was below it. This had not been open when we went before as it is only open at weekends. Friendly volunteers chatted to us all the way through. 

Coventry was a centre of industry and it was chosen to damage the ammunition factories and also to demoralise the enemy.  Nearly one thousand people died and many were made homeless and the city lost almost all it's power supply.

None the less the city pulled together. An urn was built and brought to where there was power, so that tea was made and sandwiches given out to all the homeless.

One last look around the cathedral shell, and we noticed some windows were intact but most were missing but the spires were still in place. The roof and interior had burned. 

We made our way to the other museum, having taken in that extra museum on the way, we started by going straight into the cafe. I remembered the ribbon making machine. in the foyer. I hadn't expected a dinosaur there too. There was an extra paid exhibition. It was clearly aimed at children so we just went to the main museum.

Then we went to the Lady Godiva Room. Nye revealed that he hadn't heard of the Lady Godiva story so it was all news to him. He had only heard the name in the song by Queen, which gave him no context, it appeared to him as though it was the name of a car or driver. " I'm a racing car, passing by like Lady Godiva". 

I went round the Peace and Justice Centre and when I emerged Nye was beckoning me over. He had noticed an undercroft could be viewed if you asked at the information desk, but was otherwise not open. A member of staff came over with explanatory leaflets then unlocked a door telling us not to close it or we wouldn't get out! We went down and found that though it was an undercroft there had been some light in, though a wall had now been built against it.

He pointed out recessed shelves and a door in the roof where goods could be lowered in from the street entrance. 

We had definitely missed this on our last visit and Nye was pleased to have noticed it.