Day Six - Historic Sightseeing

We were up really early on Monday morning, had breakfast and were on the road by 8am. This was at the suggestion of our bus driver Darrin who wanted to add a stop to our itinerary. He did not feel our journey would be complete without a chance to wander through one of the quaint Cottsworld villages and he took us to the village of Great Tew. The Cottswold is an designated area of natural beauty and the homes and businesses in the village were a great example of the thatched roofs which once were found all over England.

Our next stop then was the town of Stratford on Avon, known as the birthplace of William Shakespeare. We toured the visitor center and then his home and garden.

Next up we went just outside of town to Anne Hathaway's Cottage, the birthplace of Shakespeare's wife.

For lunch we went back to Stratford and ended up altogether in a lovely English tea room at Andra's suggestion.

Our next stop on the tour was the town of Coventry, made famous by being the only town to lose its cathedral during the bombing of World War 2. Our first stop here was the town square with its large monument to Lady Godiva. Lady Godiva was an English noblewoman who lived in the early 11th century. She rode naked through town on horseback to protest her husband's heavy taxation of the people. Behind her on one of the buildings was a large clock that at a a certain time each day has a figure of Lady Godiva come out on horseback.

We also saw the ruins of the first cathedral here in Coventry, dating back to the time of Lady Godiva.

Finally we made our way to the ruins of the bombed out St. Michael's Cathedral that dated to the 1300s. There is so much preservation of the walls because it was an incendiary bomb that caught the timbers of the roof on fire and caused it to collapse unto the floor below.

Finally we were able to tour the new Coventry Cathedral, magnificent in its simplicity but also in its symbolism.

Back in Oxford we went shopping once again before dinner at Harris Manchester. Our final meal here was southern fried chicken (Oxford style) along with salad, new potatoes, zucchini, bread and a delicious fruit tart for dessert.

Daryl led the devotional in the evening on "love your neighbor" and we headed out as a group to one last pub experience in Oxford, this time near Blackwells. We finished the night up by packing in our room and skypeing with the kids. Thankfully since the weather had turned much warmer, we picked up the English version of a portable air conditioner at the front desk - you poured water into a huge reservoir which the fan blew air across and then out into our room.