Coventry, Hook Norton, Birmingham,

England has redeemed itself! A pub on every corner indeed. But before I get ahead of the story, allow me to tell a tale or two about the rest of our journeys in Warwickshire. On Tuesday, we visited the city of Coventry. We began our tour of the berg by departing the bus at Coventry Cathedral. We were then given the option of taking a guided tour of said cathedral or roaming Coventry. I chose the latter since you can only see so many old buildings and again hear things such as,

"...it had been a small Benedictine monastery (endowed by Earl Leofric and Lady Godiva in 1043), but shortly after this time rebuilding began and by the middle of the 13th century it was a cathedral of 425 feet in length..."

Instead, Joan, Michael and myself walked the city centre and found a space-age coffee shop in the midst of an indoor-outdoor mall type space to relax in and enjoy a smooth caffeineted beverage. But, before I leave the cathedral completely behind, I should mention that there was a very cool metal sculpture of St. Michael throwing down on Lucifer attached right outside the main entrance (see picture at left).

We then had a meal at a trendy restaurant/pub called Dogma. I dined on succulent chicken breast slices with a rich blue cheese dressing, fine beans, bacon crisps & toasted sesame seeds and a cool, frothy Guinness. The picture at left is of the taps at the Dogma bar.


Wednesday evening, we traveled to Hook Norton, a small town with predominately narrow streets and cute thatched roof cottages in the Cotswalds (said to be one of the most beautiful places in the world). We first visited the Hook Norton Brewery. Our tour guide dutifully told us about the whole beer making process and explained in detail each and every piece of equipment in the whole place. She then filled, re-filled and re-filled (ad infinitum) our beer cups in the sample room. I sampled several beers, but the Hooky Dark was magnificent. Alas, it is not available in the United States due to their quirky bottling guidelines. We then proceeded to the Sun Inn (one of something like 37 pubs in the small village of Hook Norton. Note to Ed: I think Hook Norton might be a expatriate Wisconsin City.) At the Sun Inn, we played Skittles - a kind of indoor bowling type game - right next to the table we dined at.

Thursday was our last evening in Warwickshire, and we again journeyed from the university by coach, this time to the city of Birmingham. In Birmingham we took a boat tour through some of the canals (Birmingham has several more miles of canals than Venice, and in fact you could travel much of England by canal if you had weeks and weeks with nothing to do.) After the boat ride, we had an hour or so before dinner, so several of us naturally found a pub....the Prince of Wales. (See picture - The Prince of Wales is most famous for hosting visits from J.R.R. Tolkein, who used to be a regular.) Here I tried the John Smith Ale. Not bad, but I still prefer Guinness. We then found our way to Strada - an Italian place - for dinner and wine.