Today a shopping expedition was required to buy some last minute items for Rhiannon, who is off to Arnheim in Holland on Monday for a school exchange visit. We took the train there, rather than use the car or the bus, in order to use the restored rail passenger service on the branch line running from Coventry to Leamington, which was discontinued over fifty years ago. Over the past couple of years a completely new station has been constructed in Kenilworth. There's one train an hour, and so far just, one diesel railcar plying to and fro. It's ten minutes from Kenilworth to either Coventry or Leamington. It makes for a much quicker and more predictable access to mainline train services for commuters, so demand is expected to grow, and house prices set to rise, reflecting the convenience of the location.
Most of the route to Leamington passes through rolling green landscape. So nice to be able to gaze out of the window, and not having to concentrate on the road ahead. While the others went hunting for swimming costumes, I tracked down a nearby specialist camera shop in search of a protective bag for Rhiannon's camera, but there was nothing the right size, so I have ended up giving her my camera bag, in the hope that I can find something suitable as a replacement in Cardiff. Actually, her Song H400 is slightly bigger than my HX300 though much the same shape, and my donated bag fits her camera better than mine.
Before the return journey, we had a picnic lunch in a park over the road from the Leamington Spa Pump Room buildings. The elegantly decorated main hall has been restored and is used for a variety of cultural and social functions. Other large rooms within the building have been transformed into a small museum and art gallery, and a modern library extension has been added, a neat combination of repurposed historic Georgian with modern buildings, ensuring continued public use.
In the evening we accompanied Kath and Anto to a gig at Leamington's rugby club, which is located a mile or so across the A46 from Kenilworth. The 'Just Imagine Music Festival' was an all day music festival arranged by a supporters association for people with learning difficulties, with a stage and sound system set up on the patio outside the club-house. Grateful for the benefit of good weather, they performed for about an hour, so we were back in the house just after nine. Often they have more than a hour's journey to get to the gig venue, so this was an easy assignment for them. It wasn't easy either, working as a duo instead of the full Sonrisa band, as most of the audience were seated on the field below the patio, ten metres away from the stage. Here are some photos I took.
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