Overnight, there was a big thunderstorm that got Liz’s cycling clothes on the line outside wet again – thankfully I left my jersey inside. Katherine, the super nice proprietor of the Elmdon Lodge, spun the wet clothes for us so Liz could at least wear the pants again for the ride.
Again a big breakfast – cereal, and toast and beans for me, and yogurt with fruit and poached eggs on toast for Liz. We got on the road by 10.30 and had a shorter route ahead with about 60km and not much elevation. This was nice because the thunderstorm likelihood at around 16.00 was predicted to be 70%.
We got back on the canals, where the wet, muddy conditions on the at times rather narrow paths made me mentally go through steps of how to best recover a bike from the bottom of a canal. We rode slow and safe and stayed dry.
We are riding on what is called a towpath, which is used to move boats without motors from land (some of these canals are very old, most from the 18th century but some even dating back to the Roman occupation).
Then we left the canal to ride toward Kenilworth, where Anne and Reece had stayed the night at the time. Kenilworth had a festival going on and we ran into a performance of the Spa Strummers, a Ukulele big band. We listened to them playing Valerie by the Zutons, Count on Me by Bruno Mars, and Wagonwheel by Bob Dylan. Very nice!
Next we cycled on to the Kenilworth Castle and the Queen & Castle pub right opposite of it for an IPA and a cider. Anne and Reece had stayed at the Queen & Castle on their tour. But now it does not have guest rooms anymore and is a rather fancy gastropub.
On to the next castle in Warwick! Anne and Reece thought the tour of the castle was “one of the most interesting things we’ve seen. The rooms are all completely furnished with gorgeous furniture, old cabinets, clocks, tapestries, etc. from all over the world, and there are some beautiful original paintings by Van Dyke. One room had in it all this old armour worn by different knights and members of the Warwich family.” [Anne Stuart letter to family, Thurs. Sept. 2, 1948.] Admission at the time was 2 shilling and 6 pence (2/6), or 1/8 pounds, or $0.50 per person. Adjusting for inflation this should have still been less than $10 today, but instead the cheapest ticket (excluding dungeons and jousting) was a whopping 28 pounds ($37) per person, but for more like a medieval theme park than a museum. There were also tons of tourists so we decided to skip Warwick castle and try and beat the rain to our AirBnB in Stratford-upon-Avon.
On the final 24km to Stratford, we made very good time on the roads suggested by the NCN, except for when we had to wait for a cow herd to cross the road. 278 animals he has, the farmer mentioned, and he supplies milk to Asda.
From all the puddles and mud in the morning, our gears were making more noise than usual, and we need to do a proper cleaning/degreasing and lubrication tomorrow. On the front of my Raygun jersey (thanks Meredith!), it says “our gears we prize and our bikes we will maintain”. Amen.
Total distance/elevation to date: 851km/7624m
Day 11 Route and Stats
The 1948 Tour 
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