Lord Leycester Hospital

Leg muscles pretty much stretched real nice today. Desiree (photo credit for today's entry) and I cycled around Leam and Warwick to visit two key attractions. Main attraction was Lord Leycester Hospital and additional trip to Collegiate Church of St Mary happened afterwards. I think I may have visited all places/buildings that has some relation to Robert Dudley (Kenilworth Castle, Church of St Mary, Warwick Castle, Lord Leycester Hospital). Yeah!

Lord Leycester Hospital (as seen from the street in Extra Photos) was amazingly old! One of the few medieval places that Ive been where you really get the ancient feel to the place. The walls were bending and the floors were uneven. It was almost like how J.K. Rowling described the Shrieking Shack in Harry Potter. Anyway, this "hospital" is however not a medical establishment. It uses the term hospital however in its ancient sense which means "a charitable institution for the housing and maintenance of the needy, infirm and aged." Now the hospital provides self-contained flats for 8 ex-servicemen (they call themselves brothers and together they are called the brethren) and their wives and run by a Master who is a retired officer of the Armed Forces.

Desiree and I also went around Warwick's High Street and the Collegiate Church of St Mary (Extra photos). I honestly could not believe I havent been to these areas even when I have cycled to Warwick several times over the past years. Inside the church I saw Robert Dudley's tomb among others.

We finished off the day by sitting on the grass beside the River Avon while watching the Warwick Regatta 2015. We didnt know who to support and so we randomly cheered for the Stratford Team instead :)