First – may I kindly ask the person who felt this was important enough to include on the cathedral’s Wikipedia page to marry me? Thank you. Now, for the actual visit. We’ll be stopping in on a Monday – the promise of a free (well, donation recommended, but that’s still preferable to a fixed ticket price) classical organ concert is too much for me to pass up. Even without that, though, the cathedral itself is certainly worth the trip. The ruins of St. Michael’s Cathedral – destroyed during the Blitz in November 1940 – remain as hallowed ground, with the new cathedral standing beside them. Images, of course, can say more than I can about the site and its history. This is particularly true given that, fascinated as I am by this period in English history, and much as I love historic places of worship, I know with a certainty that I’d spend at least a third of my time there attempting to determine the approximate former location of the bishop’s bird-stump.
After our visit to the Cathedral....it occurs to me that there’s not actually anything else in Coventry that I particularly care to see. I did, however, just learn that Coventry has a basketball team, and that England has a basketball league. This information is very exciting to me, as is the fact that there used to be a team called the Kings Lynn Fury (now the College of West Anglia Fury, which just doesn’t have quite the same ring to it). Given that I have never actually heard of any English basketball players, however, and wasn’t aware that they, um, even existed, I am rather dubious as to how well these teams would stack up against those of continental Europe. But, hey, I was beginning to wonder if Britain would have to rely solely upon the combined efforts of Luol Deng and Ben Gordon in the 2012 Olympics, so, this is good to hear.
Back to travel. Coventry may not be a booming tourist destination, but it is in close proximity to one slightly more popular location: Stratford-upon-Avon, birthplace of a man of great importance – John Harvard, he for whom the university was named. His house is open to the public, and—what's that you say? Him? But that’s such a cliche.
*sigh* Fine: Shakespeare’s home. Look at his birthplace! And his mom’s childhood home! And his daughter’s house! And his home from 1597-1616! Oh, but Anne Hathaway’s cottage is a special case for me; I’ve always been a defender of hers for some reason (I think I blame Shakespeare in Love, actually – ooh, Shakespeare finds real love with Gwyneth Paltrow, who’s way more interesting than his wife back home could ever be! Maybe she was busy raising your children, Will. Gee, perhaps you could have, say, not impregnated her when you were 18! Yeah, yeah, write your little tragedies bemoaning the marital state and your snotty wills bequeathing your “second-best bed.” I’m sure it was no picnic for her either, dude.)
Ahem. Anyway, it's lovely property:
In spite of my feelings regarding Shakespeare the husband and father, I am quite fond of Shakespeare the author, and to that end a visit to the Shakespeare Centre Library is in order. May as well take in a performance by the Royal Shakespeare Company, too -- Twelfth Night and Romeo and Juliet are both forthcoming, and A Midsummer Night's Dream is currently running! Three of my favorites! If they'd throw in Macbeth, we'd be golden.
And a trip to the theatre might be a good note on which to end our tour. Next time: some other random place in the United Kingdom!
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