Derby and Coventry

After a short delay in departing Munich, we flew into the East Midand Airport Wednesday night to a Christmas pantomine-like welcome of no boarding steps, a half mile trudge through ice, snow and freezing torrents to the "international" arrivals hall where Malcolm had to dive through the dividing curtains to rescue his bag on the jammed luggage belt system. It was a great relief to finally see my brother Mike there to greet us. We drove back to their place and had a lovely family dinner with Becky, Ben, Pat and Mike. It was great to see them all again. 

Mike loaned us the car whilst he was at work so we got to travel around a bit.  On Thursday we went to Derby to see an Industrial Museum which was set in the  first factory in England that later was used by Rolls Royce.  We walked around the town and went into their beautiful Cathedral.  We then drove back through the backroads through the very pretty English countryside,

 

The next day, Christmas Eve, we headed to Coventry.  We first went to the Jaguar Heritage Museum and after driving around and around to find it, it was closed.  We then visited the canal basin which was frozen over and then walked into Coventry.  Everyone was bustling around getting ready for Christmas.  We headed for the Art Gallery and museum where we got to see a fantastic exhibition on the history of Coventry.  Then lunch in an English pub and we continued our walk around until it was just too cold to walk any more. Tonight it is going to get down to -18.

Canal Basin