Monthly Archives: September 2019

Tudor Tour of Coventry

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I was invited to join a historical walking tour of Coventry by Coventry Bloggers. This was a gifted experience, however all words and photos in this post are my own. I have kept the historical details on this post deliberately vague, so as not to spoil the tour for anyone.

I have lived in Coventry for six years, and other than the blitz and Lady Godiva, I knew little about the history of the city. So when Coventry Bloggers asked if any local bloggers were interested in a historical tour of Coventry I was quite excited. Jen, who has a history degree, was a little bit jealous, however due to some cancellations, she was actually able to join us – after some last minute childcare arrangements were made. With two small children in the house, it is rare that we arrive anywhere early, but we made it to the meeting point – appropriately the Lady Godiva statue, ahead of the meeting time! Waiting for everyone else to arrive we did not know what to expect, but correctly guessed that the town crier walking towards the statue would be our guide – Paul.

When the group had assembled Paul started the tour in character as the town crier, ringing his bell and shouting “Oyez, Oyez, Oyez”, explaining about the tour and giving us some “on this day in history” facts. The tour started right at the beginning of the Tudor period – after Henry VII had defeated Richard III. Then as we moved to the Bull Yard, I learned that Coventry was once a walled city! I must have walked past the outline on the pavement of where the wall was scores of times without noticing it. Next we moved onto Christchurch Spire – aka the bar known as Inspire, a special place for Jen and I, as that is where we met on our first date! We learned about the monasteries in Coventry, including the Greyfriars who worshiped on that site. I was not aware that Coventry had monasteries, but once I heard the names they sounded familiar as they are still in use around Coventry today! In addition to his Tudor town crier tour, Paul also does tours as the Deep Fact Friar, which are more about the monasteries.

The next part of the tour saw us learning about the Black Prince and Mary Queen of Scots, ending up at some medieval buildings, including the gate that Queen Elizabeth I would have entered the city walls though. The stories were not just about royalty though – we also learned about a shoe repairman, and how the original cobbled streets were laid. From there it was under the ring road to the remains of Whitefriars Monastery – which I must have driven past hundreds of times, without noticing it. Sadly the only part of the building still standing, which dates from the fourteenth century, is now being used for storage, such a shame.

From the remains of the Whitefriars Monastery we walked back under the ring road to the remains of the cathedral, with Paul pointing out various details in the buildings and telling us their stories. I was surprised to hear that not only is there the ruins of the cathedral from the second world war, Priory Row adjacent to the ruins is built on top of the ruins of an even older cathedral. One which had some pretty significant royal visitors, as Paul explained whist we walked through Priory Place back to Broadgate and Lady Godiva where the tour ended.

I felt like I had learned so much about my hometown in a few short hours, but also that there is still a lot to learn! Both Jen and I thought this would be a great thing to do when we have people coming to visit us, as not only do you learn about the history of Coventry, you get to see a lot of the city centre too!

Paul’s tours usually run from May to September, starting at the Lady Godiva statue on Broadgate. Check out Paul Curtis Tours on Eventbrite, Twitter or Instagram for more information.

Move And Play Exhibition at Coventry Transport Museum

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Owen and I were invited to experience the Move And Play exhibition at Coventry Transport Museum by Coventry Bloggers. All words and photos in this post are my own.

As a family Coventry Transport Museum is one of our favourite visitor attractions in Coventry, so I jumped at the invitation to visit the new “Move And Play” exhibition, billed as “an immersive and interactive exhibition that gets people of all ages testing their senses, balance and fitness”. As much as I like looking at cars and bikes, interactive exhibits are much more fun, especially if you are three years old! Jen and Henry also joined us.

Vitruvian Owen

As soon as we walked into the big hall with the “Move And Play” exhibition Owen’s eyes lit up – there was so much for him to get involved in! First we compared him to Da Vinci’s Vetruvian Man – Owen still has some growing to do! Next to Vetruvian Man there was a thermal camera, which was funny to pose for. The Retro Tennis (Pong?) and Virtual Goalkeeping were a bit advanced for Owen, but Jen and I enjoyed them. I especially liked being a virtual goalkeeper, despite probably looking like a fool prancing around in front of the green screen.

Playing blow football

The next three exhibits were also football based, and Owen enjoyed them! The first was blow table football, with the blow coming from sitting down on the stools – easy for me, but less if you only weigh 16kg like Owen. We teamed up, with Owen aiming the jet of air whilst I provided the puff by pushing down on the seat. The other football games were measuring power and accuracy kicking balls into nets. I am not a footballer, in fact last time I played I ruptured my ACL, but found these particularly satisfying. Owen loved these – he struggled with the kicking accuracy, but enjoyed throwing the ball at the illuminated squares, really getting the hang of it!

The next exhibit was actually about throwing accuracy, throwing bean bags through illuminated holes, with the lights *mostly* going out when you threw the bean bag through. Owen was so pleased with himself when he switched off the lights. Next was a levitating beachball which you had to hit through a dangling hoop, which I found surprisingly hard – Jen did it on her first try!

It was not all physical activities, next was “Sailing by Shouts” a game where you had to shout into a microphone to sail a virtual boat around an island –  not my forte either! Opposite was “Disco Donut” a wheelchair on a round illuminated floor, with the aim to roll yourself onto the lit up area before the light moved, which took quite some coordination – especially whilst balancing a wriggly toddler on your lap. However, these were followed by the most physical of the exhibits – a giant skipping machine! It looked intimidating with the rope spinning round really fast, but once you have the knack it is quite fun. Unless there is a small boy keeping his finger on the button to keep the rope spinning and shouting “jump Daddy”! I worked up quite a sweat on that one, but was proud I had conquered the skipping machine.

Tightrope walking

After I managed to escape from Owen and the skipping machine, the tight rope exhibit provided a welcome slowdown of pace! This was probably the exhibit we spent the most time on. Owen really has a thing for balancing on things at the moment, either on foot, or on his bike – pretending to be his hero Danny MacAskill. I was proud that I managed to make it across the tight rope, but even more proud of Owen making it across, albeit with a helping hand! He also liked rolling around on the crash mat and looking at the cityscape.

The next few exhibits did not get too much attention, as Owen had already decided his favourites, but I thought that he would have liked the stomping race game, especially as the three of us could race each other – Jen won! He was really good at the “Pulse Adventure” computer game where you had to control the character by raising or lowering your heart rate – he beat me comprehensively! There was also a set of scales that converted your weight in to animals, which got more fun the more people you added!

The final exhibit was a computer game on a giant screen where you had to team up with someone to control the two characters on the screen by holding hands and running left or right together. The aim of the game was to guide your characters to catch falling fruit, once we got the hang of it I felt that Owen and I did really well. Unlike the goalkeeping game this one was easy to spectate. After seeing all of the exhibits Henry was getting hungry, but Owen wanted to revisit his favourite exhibits – the three football ones, the skipping, the throwing and the tight rope. Even after another lap he still did not want to leave – a definite seal of approval from a three year old! We spent well over an hour in the exhibition and could have spent longer.

On our way out to meet Jen and Henry in the cafe we did a quick lap of the museum. Owen’s favourite sections are the bikes at the start, the Peugeots (inexplicably he is obsessed with spotting Peugeots, shouting “lion!!!” excitedly when he sees one), the trucks, and especially the toy car room! As entry to the museum is free for Coventry residents (or if not, your ticket is valid for a whole year), we do not feel like we need to take in every exhibit when we visit, working with Owen’s attention span. Whenever we visit there is something new to see, which keeps it interesting, however the “Move And Play” exhibition has been our favourite so far – even beating Father Christmas’s sleigh ride!

Strawberry waffle

Whenever we visit the Transport Museum we always seem to end up in Sprinkles Gelato in the old fire station across Millenium Place from the museum. I particularly like their waffles, with a side of gelato!

The “Move And Play” exhibition is at the Coventry Transport Museum until the 10th November 2019. Entry to the exhibition is included with your museum admission, which is free for Coventry residents with a GoCV card, or £14 for adults, £7 for juniors and free for under fives.

Race Report: Warwick Town Races

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Warwick Lanterne Rouge Cycling Club had organised a day of crit racing in the centre of Warwick – including pedal and balance bike races for kids under 6, in partnership with Peddlamaniacs and Warwick Castle. I entered Owen in the balance bike race as soon as I heard about the event from my favourite burger stand – The Flying Cows, who were one of the street food traders there.

We got to the race early, to get Owen signed in, grab a burger and watch some of the adult races, however they were running a bit late, so we got to watch plenty of the cat 4 race. By the time the shorter kids course was being set up on the market square the balance bikers were raring to go! Owen definitely looked the coolest rider there in his Little Rider Co jersey.

The track was a banana shaped loop, on a slight slope, with tricky hairpins at each end, probably a 120 metre lap. Michelle from Peddlamaniacs lined the racers up on the start line – the same start line as the adult races, before the Union Jack was waved to set them off.

Owen had a good start, but got caught up in a melee at the first hairpin, and using his initiative, he decided to turn round and ride the wrong way round the track. Fortunately there were plenty of marshals available to usher him (and the other kids following) back onto the correct side of the course. Owen definitely preferred the downhill section, he was freewheeling down and overtaking other riders, however he was less keen on the climb back up – definitely a mountain biker! He had to have a few rests towards the end of the race – he is more used to shorter BMX style races, than the ten minute format used for this race.

As far as I can tell there was no winner at the end of the ten minutes, all the children were awarded a prize and medal. Owen was particularly pleased with getting a water bottle, but I though the entry ticket for Warwick Castle was a nice touch! The prize giving was on the track, so on the way back to the car we snuck Owen onto the big podium for a photo. When we got home we watched the MTB Downhill World Championships and Owen was fired up to ride them and said he wanted to stand on the podium there too!