Monday 24th March: From Birmingham to Cheltenham: Kate and Dave Gegg

oday we're in for a change of location to the second of a series of Evie's friends and relatives in the Cotswolds. After breakfast Margaret took us to Coventry to catch our train and after grateful farewells for a very comfortable stay with her, we were off; first to the major city of Birmingham (pronounced with an "um" on the end rather than a "ham") where we then changed trains with all our luggage,for a quite short jaunt to Cheltenham (Cheltnum) where we were picked up by Dave and Kate, old friends of Evie's since 1969 before any of their respective children had been thought of!

Coventry to Birmingham to Cheltenham

We arrived in early afternoon in the middle of town and after parking, Kate directed us to a restaurant she had in mind for a nice pub lunch.  Dave is a music fan and mentioned a used CD store next door;  of course I was looking forward to seeing if there were any bargains to be had here. The place was tiny, more about vinyl than disc, but I did find a couple of things.  Dave recognized the owner as being from his old school years ago and they chatted for a bit.  After we stepped out and met Kate and Evie, I suddenly realized that one of the big buttons on my coat was missing!  I knew immediately why; due to  carrying a back pack (which was a bad idea) AND a shoulder bag, I'm sure that in taking one or the other off it must have caught on the button. My coat is the one I bought from a vintage clothing store in Tucson, AZ, so it comes from the 40's and I thought that finding a button would be impossible but Kate said that there was a "button shop" just around the corner and headed straight there via the pedestrian mall to the shop.

Pedestrian street in downtown Cheltenham

Park nearby

It was a sewing shop and they did indeed have a huge selection of buttons.  I couldn't find the exact button of course, but did find the same size, and Kate volunteered to sew all three front buttons on, so I bought 4 so I'd have one extra, all for a little over a pound.

The weather was cloudy but not raining as we headed to their house through some wider streets than we had experienced in Kenilworth; the streets were not really built for car traffic and the houses rarely have garages or driveways so cars are parked on both sides of the road with only room for one direction of traffic (even though it's a two way street). If someone is coming the other way you look for a space to pull over and let them by. 

Kate and Dave with Evelyn infront of their house in Cheltenham

We were lucky to be able to park just across the street from their house, carried luggage in and settled in. By now it was late afternoon, so no other trips today, it didn't bother me to just stay in and it was nice to just spend time together. Kate cooked up a nice meal for dinner and we sat in the living room and chatted for the entire evening, watched a little tele and then off to bed.  This bedroom and bathroom were fairly spacious, with a shower curtain like I am used to instead of glass at the hotels and a bathtub with an adjustable shower head so you don't have to stoop over to get your head wet! In England, and generally in Europe so I understand, the houses are smaller and the bedrooms fairly tiny compared with America; hence no one has a King size bed with the possible exception of maybe Kings and other royalty who reside in large palaces!