Monday/Rāhina
We chilled in the morning at Forest of Arden. It is a great place to hang, with great breakfasts and a great coffee shop, gym and pool.
We found out more about the Forest of Arden Country Club. "In the Middle Ages it was a priory. The Forest of Arden is the setting for Shakespeare's play As You Like It. In 1729 it was an estate with deer and oak trees. During the war there were extensive huts used by thousands from the British Forces scattered on the property. There are four trout lakes for fishing. In 1975 a golf course was put on the property. It became a country hotel with 274 rooms in 1989 and a further 9 holes were added." (We did not play golf, but we did walk a few holes of the course.) Talking to the staff I learnt there were lots of corporate functions, and lots of weddings. With the NEC Exhibition Center not too far away it was always busy. Bill said it was not too expensive either. We loved our time here.
We went to a sports bar at the NEC to watch the last day of the cricket. It didn't last long. The report from the Telegraph: "Australia have won the first Ashes Test, beating England by 251 runs at Edgbaston having been in big trouble on day one. England resumed on day five with all ten wickets intact in the theoretical pursuit of 398. However, four wickets before lunch ensured that it would be only a matter of time on the final day . . . Cummins then removed Jos Buttler and Jonny Bairstow and Lyon shifted last realistic hope Ben Stokes in a dispiriting first half hour after lunch." It was all over soon after.
On this, our last night here, we went to a nearby village called Meriden for a pub dinner. The photo below is the view from the pub.
Meriden was the centre of England up until 2000 when it was discovered it wasn't. From Wikipedia: "Meriden is a village and civil parish in the Metropolitan Borough of Solihull, West Midlands, England. Historically part of Warwickshire, Meriden lies between the cities of Birmingham and Coventry, in a green belt of countryside known as the Meriden Gap. Known formerly as Alspath in the 1066 Doomsday Book, it was historically thought to be the geographical centre of England until the early 2000s after analysis by Ordnance Survey. This is commemorated in the village with the Sandstone Monument; it is also home to the National Cyclists War Memorial."
