Tuesday 29 October 2019

The Lolas in Cheltenham

Statue of Gustav Holst conducting
Gustav Holst, October 2019
Eight months after her birthday, Lola II and I celebrated the passing of the years with a weekend in Cheltenham - we couldn't find an earlier date we were both free and other things kept getting in the way. It was, as usual, a triumph. We subsisted mainly on cake, with a few other meals when cake was unavailable or inappropriate - actually, I can't think of a situation where cake would be inappropriate so it must have just been unavailable.

As we are both working less than full time now, we started a bit earlier on Friday and arrived in time to have one of the best Japanese meals we have ever had, which is saying something considering how often we have Japanese food. If you're in Cheltenham you should visit Kibou, but you'll have to book - we were lucky to get in at lunchtime.

There was a lot of rain on Friday, but we sheltered in the Wilson Art Gallery and Museum, named after Dr Edward Wilson who was a doctor, naturalist and artist on two Antarctic expeditions including Scott's doomed trek to the South Pole, from which he didn't return. The museum had lots of lovely furniture along with the usual eclectic collection of artifacts that always find their way into local museums.

On Saturday the rain stopped and we joined a guided tour of the town, which is extremely similar to Leamington in its architecture. This is not surprising given that it was built at exactly the same time but with more money because George III and William IV enjoyed going there. It has wrought ironwork, a crescent smaller than Bath's but bigger than Leamington's, a Pump Room for events and drinking the spa water, public and private gardens, and a Promenade rather than a Parade.

Cheltenham is also the birthplace of Gustav Holst, so after an amazing Sri Lankan lunch we visited the museum installed in the house where he was born. They have collected some of his possessions from later in his life, and the attendant was very welcoming and let me try the piano he used to compose 'The Planets'. I think he was also quite pleased that we sat and watched the whole of a film about Holst; I got the impression that not many visitors do, but it was a welcome opportunity for us to sit down.

On Saturday night we had a choice of entertainment, and chose to see two of the male stars of Strictly Come Dancing (Ian and Vincent) who are touring with a show including two female dance partners and another chap who sang and danced. They had some scripted interludes with 'jokes' and audience participation, which were fine but not as good as the dancing and particularly the singing. Quite a lot of the banter was lost on me as I have never watched Strictly, but most others in the audience were clearly huge fans. I met one lady in the interval who had booked her tickets last December.

We thought about taking a bus trip on Sunday, but instead went for a walk through lovely parks to the Pump Room which was supposed to be closed but which was open, and then to a street market which was supposed to be open but which was closed, but there happened to be a handy cake shop there. After the fourth lot of cake in three days we were ready to go home.

No comments:

Post a Comment

Related Posts Plugin for WordPress, Blogger...