A German in Coventry Part 2

I was off since Thurs cos CK came over and spent a lovely weekend with us. We'd a tight schedule to keep up with :-).

As soon as she got down off the train, I whisked her to my favourite Noodle Bar. It was full house but we got a table upstairs. I'd my usual and CK had a hard time choosing hers. Must try the Fried Shanghai Noodles with bean sprouts which she had the next time I'm here. We exchanged news, laughs and gossips.

After lunch, I showed CK what Coventry has to offer. It's not a city of concrete, as most people think. There are treasures scattered around. You just need to know where to look.

We spent nearly 3 hours walking and taking photographs. Both of us are avid photographers with a penchant for old buildings.

We started from Ford Hospital to the Guildhall then onto the Cathedral, to the Priory and Swanswell city gate where we strolled across the Millennium Place past the Arch on the Sky Blues footbridge, Old Bablake School, Bond's Hospital, and finally onto Medieval Spon Street. It was nice being with someone who was viewing these places with a fresh pair of   eyes .

The highlight was climbing up the 180 stone steps/250feet of St.  Michael's Tower. It was very narrow, dark, winding and cold. What were we thinking!!! It was also very windy but the breathtaking views of Coventry compensated everything. We snapped different angles of the city. We were laughing like crazy cos our feet were like jelly, when we reached the ground floor we had to sit among the ruins to get them working properly.

For dinner, we'd fish and chips from our favourite fish bar . CK nearly fainted when she saw the size of the fish (it's a mini whale) and the huge scoop of chips. It lasted us 2 days.

The next day, we checked out our favourite playground. Brandon  Marsh's choir was still on full volume. The highlight was when we spotted this. One of the grebe's chicks (there were 4) was refusing to budge from it's Mummy's back.

CK wanted to experience the robin feeding from her hand. On cue, Mr. Hood made himself heard. I put some mealworms on my palms and he came flying to feed. CK did the same and she was grinning from ear to ear. It was lovely.

We also checked out Coombe Abbey. They have cut back a lot of the undergrowth. We headed for the heronry. As usual, the cormorants were nesting on the tree tops and we managed to spot fuzzy heron chicks down below. A couple of herons were resting by the river bank like hunched old men (CK's words) and undertakers (Kevin's words).

On the bird's tables were flurries of activities. There were great, yellow and coal tits, dunnocks, wood-pigeons, pheasants and a rat (?).

Before boarding the train back to Aberystwyth, we went for lunch at Wing Wah. Luckily, I made  reservations yesterday cos it was heaving. There was long queues everywhere. We started and ended our meal with soup. I'd the crab and sweet corn soup while CK had the Foo-Yoon (bean curd) soup and vise versa. Since the starter queue was way too long, we went for the main meal. More choice than before but the starters was more to my taste. I loaded my plate with fish, prawn and squid balls, mussels with loads of vegs and udon. Delish... washed down with pots of steaming tea,

CC's backpack was loaded with Maggi noodles, a spotting binoculars and more books from Borders. She brought us a lovely black and white framed photograph which she developed herself and Welshcakes. Danke.

We hoped you enjoyed your stay and we hoped to see you again in Aberystwyth during the coming spring bank holiday.