Coventry

I went to the Coventry-Ipswich match on Saturday from London, as I normally go to football by train if I can. As I live near Newmarket, I often go to Ipswich by train from my local station.

On the one hand I found Coventry an interesting place to visit and on the other I found several small things disappointing.

Arriving at Ipswich on match days, the Police usually meet fans and those don’t know where to go are greeted with maps and instructions about food, drink and other shopping. I found the lack of any maps and help at Coventry station rather disappointing, as although I am nearly sixty, I have never actually visited Coventry before.

I did find the Cathedral fairly easily, as although there were quite a few signposts, the Cathedral was missing on some and there were no maps. It was not as I had expected, as I thought that the area had been completely devastated in the Second World War. It definitely is a magical place.

The bus service for the Ricoh worked, but have you ever tried finding out about it from outside Coventry. The football club doesn’t have it on their web site and the bus information phone line wasn’t that good either. Note that if you ring that from Cambridge, you get information on Cambridge buses. Eventually, I rang a friend in Coventry to find out about the service.

It all illustrates how you have a lot to see and do in Coventry, but they haven’t quite got the little things that make a visit enjoyable right.