A (nearly) White Christmas

As the Airbus banked over southern England it afforded us a glimpse of the snow-covered countryside – white meadows with dark hedgerow borders sliced by black highways infested with glistening speeding cars like beetles on a caffeine high. London itself was a lumpy sea of white covered rooftops. But we weren’t to explore the riches of London just yet. My daughter met us at Heathrow and soon we were barreling towards her hometown of Leamington Spa in Warwick.

Royal Leamington Spa (the Royal is because the Queen Victoria visited there) is a beautiful spa town which Victorians would visit and “take the waters”.

Our first walk into Leamington Spa on a frosty morning was on icy white crunchy pavements that led us past the town fountains frozen into cones of ice a metre high that spouted water. Then past the magnificent gothic All Saints cathedral. To our delight the bells were pealing a delightful din. The church is thought to have started life in the 12th century but the existing building was built between 1843 and 1860.

Our next foray was into Birmingham for the Birmingham Frankfurt Christmas market. The city centre is filled with wooden German replica stalls selling gluwein, beer (of course!) schnapps and a hundred different sorts of German street food as well as a plethora of german crafty products.

Next… London (where else!) to take in a Panto at the Palladium (Jack and the Beanstalk with Dawn French, Julian Clary and Nigel Havers) and then a day at the British Museum walking amongst Egyptian mummies, ancient Persian artifacts not hundreds but thousands of years old and the fascinating history of the mechanical marvel – the clock!

An overnight train trip to Edinburgh to experience the Hogmanay spirit of Scotland and a day at Edinburgh Castle which was repeatedly lost and retaken by the Scots followed by a bus trip through the Highlands, Glencoe and to Loch Ness was our New Years’ experience.

Lastly to the City of Spires – Oxford. My daughter had organized a walking tour/treasure trail ala Inspector Morse around Oxford which, needless to say, involved an unscheduled stop at an 800 year old pub, The Turf Tavern whose motto is “an education in intoxication” which had seen Richard Burton and Elizabeth Taylor on sneaky secret dates!

STAN WILSON