Happy 6th Wedding Anniversary to Us! Wow. Six years ago we ran off to Gretna Green. This trip is an appropriate way to celebrate, I think!

Today we went to Coventry to see two museums: The Museum of British Road Transport and the Herbert Art Gallery & Museum. (I’m on vacation, so I’m not providing links. Look ‘em up yourself!) The first was largely to see Ted Simon’s motorcycle that he rode around the world in the 1970s, although the old cars and the history of the bicycle were also interesting. So we wandered around there for quite a bit. We walked through town (it’s not big), by the bombed cathedral, and ate lunch in a small park next to an archway made out of 14th C timbers.

My interest in the second museum was mostly to see John Collier’s Pre-Raphaelite painting of Lady Godiva. We almost didn’t find the place because it was covered in scaffolding—thank goodness it was at least open! Downstairs they had a big history display, which was quite good. Except given that Coventry has been a fabric-producing area since the Middle Ages, and I wanted to see more weaving tools from that period, not just a pair of nippers and a thimble. In the early 19th C (I think; possibly earlier as well—but you know how vague we get once we’re out of SCA period) the area was known for silk weaving. What was scary was that some of the period trim they had on display was orange flowers that looked like stuff from the 1960s. I swear I’ve seen it in the Garment District. Anyway, they had a massage silk loom and a smaller jack loom, the latter on which visitors could weave. So I got lost in that for a while. Yoiks. There was also a copy of the Godiva painting to whet my appetite.

We went upstairs and found some temporary displays, then back downstairs, to discover that, um, there didn’t seem to be anything else. So we asked the ladies in the gift shop (which was the main area downstairs) where the Godiva was. Some of the rooms were closed off because of the construction, they said, but one of them snuck us upstairs behind the caution tape.

And we saw a blank wall with a sign that said “Lady Godiva”.

GodDAMmit!

At least it wasn’t a roomful of Pre-Raph paintings I was hoping to see, or something I would have trouble getting back to, or anything like that. I was disappointed, but not crushed. The ladies were extremely apologetic, though (especially since I pointed out that the museum website didn’t say what weren’t on display because of the construction), and, bless their hearts, gave me a big poster of the painting (which I was toying with buying anyway, as it was only £3) and a greeting card of the same picture, and even a poster tube. They were so damn sweet.

We walked through the ruined cathedral, which was magnificent, but it was weird to see modern buildings through the empty window (I’m used to Tintern Abbey and Llanthony Priory).

On the way back to the car, we stopped in a Virgin Megastore and I found the two-disc director’s cut of “The Wicker Man” for £7.99. It’s the only thing I was actually looking for, because Amanda mentioned she’d recently bought it. Score!

Then we headed down to Warwick. Now, I’d been to the castle before—17 years ago, in fact, on a rainy, early spring day. It’s very, very different now. It’s rather like a theme park. There are more wax displays (which are for the most part excellent, but more on that later), a multimedia ghost experience, and even a medieval faire going on. Not to mention the fact that it was a Saturday at the height of tourist season.

The medieval displays, which are new ones, are beautifully done and 95% of the details looked entirely correct to me. There were a few places where I wasn’t sure (so I can’t say they were wrong, just that I had questions). The main problem was that there were no signs or anything to explain what you’re looking at. Which would on one hand distract from the scene, I suppose, but on the other hand, if I’m looking at a bunch of dried herbs (and sniffing and poking at them to see how many I could identify), it would be nice to have a discreet note about what they are and what they were used for (and why the rosemary was next to the lavender).

So, it was a little too crowded for me, and there were a fair amount of stupid people, but overall, it was nice. There were long lines to see the dungeon (which I don’t remember being all that stunning, but I could be misremembering) and to walk the ramparts, which was too bad. The Victorian rose garden was pleasant.

Then we came back to ADG’s and ate a buffet supper of Mediterranean food: hummus, feta-stuffed olives, garlic-stuffed olives, tomatoes and basil, dolmades, and four types of fresh bread (olive, walnut, sun-dried tomato, and onion). Yum.

Afterwards, we watched “Bend It Like Beckham”, which was predictable but pleasant, and did have a few laugh-out-loud moments. Afterwards, as I perused their extensive collection to see if there was anything else I wanted to see, I discovered there’s an Eddie Izzard DVD we don’t have, and didn’t even know about! Ack! “Circle” came out in 2002. Huh. So we watched half of it last night, until Ken fell asleep on my shoulder and my eyes were drooping. Off to bed with us.