"My horse, my horse - my kingdom for a horse"

So - lets start with last night.  It's Thursday so it must be slimming world.  For the third week on the trot I lost weight - 1 1/2 pounds this time taking my total up to 20.5 pounds since June - the downward tide is turning!

So - onto  today.  We had a girlie day out planned to Leicester.  Its a 2.5 hours drive each way but we were determined to see both the King Richard III exhibition and tomb plus visit the Fabric Guild UK warehouse.  I would imagine that the reasoning behind the visit to the fabric shop is obvious but maybe not the visit to find out more about King Richard III. 

Between 1978 and 1982 I lived in Leicester as a student and, for two of those years, walked across this bridge every day.  On the bridge was a sign that said "Near here lies the remains of King Richard III".  I was fascinated by the idea that this King of England was just thrown into a river rather than being buried properly.  So when I found out that his body had been found in the now infamous car park and interred into Leicester Cathedral, I just had to visit.  Steph felt the same as me whilst Terry and Jean had little / no prior knowledge and so came to be informed.






The weather was glorious and we started our visit with a nice cup of coffee near the Cathedral before walking to the newly opened visitor centre.  No detail has been left unexplained from a video footage explaining Richard's early life to the dramatic conclusion at the Battle of Bosworth.  Upstairs was a loving recreation of the battle to find his remains and the difficulties met whilst excavating.  We were able to stand in the observation tower and get a sense of the boringly normal car park where he was found and really felt the kind of excitement that the archaeologists must have felt.  The last part of the centre was the actual car park itself.  The council have allowed them to put a glass floor over the actual burial area and you really feel as if you were there. 








Across from the visitor centre is the Cathedral and, of course, it was only right to pay our respects and visit his tomb.  It is a beautiful piece of sculpture and afforded due reverence (well apart from the idiot who took a selfie with the tomb - can you tell how disgusted I was!!  We did say something but she just said oh well I won't tell if you don't!)

All in all it was a fantastic experience and one that I would heartily recommend.  There weren't too many crowds (well except for the junior school party but they were being noisy completing their quiz as they went around) but the cathedral did say that they were now averaging 1000 visitors per day!  There are, of course, several opportunities for gifts - I restricted myself to a small tote bag - but it came in a very regal carrier bag!

 

 

 

After a naughty lunch of sandwich and a cake (the sandwich was too large so I am having the other half for tea) we moved onto the Fabric Guild warehouse.  It's an Aladdin's cave of good fabric sold cheaply so I make no excuses for coming home with more stash.  Although there were some impulse purchases I have also bought fabric for two different projects - some of them were £2 per metre so it would be rude not to!!