Wednesday

Up and out from our Peterborough hotel (which, by the way, was a welcome relief from our quite cramped London lodgings with unreliable wifi) promptly at 8:30. On to Coventry, where we arrived a couple of hours later. This city was heavily bombed by Germany in 1940, so there isn't much left of the old medieval fabric. Among the material losses was the medieval cathedral church of St Michael & All Angels. When the dust settled, instead of rebuilding, they constructed an entirely new edifice, in a very modern style, And ... they left the bombed out ruins standing, such that a visitor has to walk through them in order to get to the main entrance of the new cathedral. It is a stunning juxtaposition, and a deeply moving testament to the essential gospel ministry of reconciliation.

Right at noon, we got back in our familiar bus and drove another hour or so to the town of Warwick, in the West Midlands. We went our varioius ways for lunch in the area of the town square, and the reboarded for a brief drive up a nearby hill to the 11th century Warwick Castle, in use for most of its history, but now turned into a sort of theme park under the management of Madame Tussaud (of wax museum fame). It was a gorgoes day, and it was a beautiful place. I could have done with a little more historical information and a little less Disneyfication.

We pushed ahead for another couple of hours, through towns and over canals and streams and, for a while, following the path of an ancient Roman road, arriving at our hotel in Oxford at 7, with a pre-arranged banquet-style dinner in their restaurant. My only regret is that we won't be able to spend some actual viewing time in this incredibly imporatant city. We have an early departure tomorrow for Stonehenge and Salisbury.

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