A very pleasant day, quite mild and with plenty of sunshine and only occasional grey clouds. First, Mike spent a little while adding a further coat to the touch up of the stern door paintwork.
We opted to spend the morning visiting the cathedral and then doing a little amount of shopping on the way back. Hence we once again crossed the high footbridge over the Ringway.
There are not many really old buildings in he city centre as so many succumbed to the incendiary bombing of wartime, most famously, of course, the cathedral. the Lychgate Cottages date back to the early 15C.
This squirrel was really begging for food but soon discovered that we were not worth chasing. A little later a group of tourists came with some food for the birds - but the squirrel quickly made off with a morsel or two.
Christine was surprised by the appearance of the square outside the cathedral, especially the university building opposite. She later discovered that this new frontage is only about two years old.
In the bright sunshine the cathedral, standing alongside the ruins of the previous building (there had in fact been an even earlier one but that was lost in Henry VIII's dissolution)
We went inside and spent some time just wandering around. The main features are all well described but we will not attempt to summarise them here and leave the photos to speak for themselves. Many relate to the focus on the Ministry of Reconciliation which is a significant part of the work of the cathedral.
Sir Basil Spence's design for the new cathedral left as many of the ruins of the previous structure as they survived the disastrous fire in 1940.
Standing in the empty space is a powerful experience - as is in a different way the feeling inside the new cathedral.
We then walked back to the shops - here is another surviving old building. The plaque on the side of the building says that this "cottage built in about 1500 is the only remaining example of numerous medieval timber framed houses which stood in this area."
Back at the boat we moved onto the water point whilst preparing our lunches so that we could set off as soon as the tank was full. The journey back followed, of course, the same route as yesterday but it is surprising how often seeing things from the opposite direction reveals new details.
As we came round one bend and under a bridge we could see a moored boat that had come loose and was sitting right across the canal with its bow rope dangling in the water. a passing walked on the towpath tried to see if there was anyone on board but had no response.So, we came up very closely so that Christine could hook the rope over our front t-stud, allowing Mike to turn our boat so that both came into the bank. As he did so, a man emerged from the boat seemingly unconcerned and really did not want any further help! We heard later from another boat that they had a similar experience yesterday - except that they did not attempt to re-fix the mooring line.
As we approached the new housing development opposite the more northerly of the two former Courtaulds factories, we could see a very tall crane that we did not recognise from yesterday. As we came past it slowly lifted into place a prefabricated selection of a gable roof feature. We were very impressed by the speed and delicacy with which the operation was handled.
The Ricoh stadium is home to the Wasps rugby club as well as Coventry City. It stands on what was once a large gas works site.
After a brief elsan and rubbish stop at the service station we turned into the basin that marks the start of the Oxford Canal and we passed through the stop lock. Christine helped a hire boat ahead of us - they had only done one lock before this one in the opposite direction. The had started at Clifton and cruised up the Ashby and back, all lock free!
A house just after one of the next road bridges has a very large number of decaying vehicles in its garden, gradually being lost amongst the undergrowth! There must be at least two or three dozen.
Here is the junction with the Wyken Arm that we mentioned when we came the other way - this more clearly shows how the original alignment was to the right of the present one. The arm itself was substantially re-aligned when the motorway was built across it.
When you know what you are looking at, the other end of the original section can also be seen a couple of bridges further on.
Shortly after this we found a mooring for the night as we did not want to end up too closer to the next motorway.
8.6 Miles - 1 Lock
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