Thwarted plans

As my husband's visit drew to a close, we wanted to do one more fun trip.  The goal was Oxford.  We made it to the train station in plenty of time for the earliest train to Oxford, only to learn that the earliest train we could take wasn't until a couple of hours later.  Since the trip takes just under two hours, that didn't make sense for us, so we decided to regroup and come up with an alternative plan.  We hadn't had breakfast, so we decided to find a place for breakfast.

Unfortunately for us, we chose a place near the train station.  We both ordered traditional breakfast and then sat down.  As we looked around, we realized that we were among the only ones not consuming alcohol.  Others placing orders requested whiskey and bumps. That was our first clue that perhaps we had chosen unwisely.  Then our meals arrived.  Although we ate them, they were not particularly appetizing.  It's a blessing actually--it's put me off "traditional breakfast".  That's a good thing as traditional breakfast consists of bacon, sausage, egg, toast, mushrooms, baked beans, hash browns, and sometimes haggis or black pudding.  This is not exactly low calorie fare.

While we ate, we planned the rest of our day.  Going out of town was off the agenda, so we had to choose what to do IN town.  The restaurant where we ate was next door to the Worcester Museum.  It made sense to start there.  Both places are directly across the street from the movie theater which was playing a film we wanted to see, so that was our afternoon target.

After finishing our breakfast, we realized we were still too early for the museum,

so Jim cooled his heels while I decided to try and walk off the breakfast.  I walked a bit down Foregate, past the Courthouse

  with its wonderful statue of Queen Victoria.

 After a quick turn around the block, the Worcester City Art Gallery and Museum finally opened its doors.  We started in the Art Gallery which has an exhibit of paintings by Dame Laura Knight.  I had never heard of her, but I liked what I saw.  She had a number of themes, including the Cornwall coast, the Malverns, Gypsies, dancers, the circus and war images.  One of the paintings which caught my eye was of the Nuremberg trials. 

No sooner had I taken the picture then I was admonished not to do so.  I try to be respectful of the rules, and I have to say I didn't see a notice precluding photos.   I stopped, but there were a number of things I would have like to capture with my camera.  Knight's paintings were very evocative of the times in which she painted them.  I loved her Gypsy paintings; she clearly had an affinity with them and they with her.

The rest of the museum also had appeal.  Quoting the website, the museum "includes Natural History, Geology,  Ethnology, Archaeology and Social History,  Art, and items from the  Worcestershire Regiment and the Worcestershire Yeomanry Cavalry."  There's a mockup of a drug store and a display of Lea and Perrin's Worchestershire Sauce.  The military displays are quite thorough.  They've done a nice job of representing the region.

From the museum, we crossed the street to the movie theater where we saw the film "Argo". That in itself was a cultural experience.  The advertisements and previews seemed interminable.  It was beginning to seem as though the ads were going to last longer than the film.  That's not too much of an exaggeration.

We enjoyed the film in spite of the ads.  There was only one other couple in the theater, so unfortunately the film didn't seem to attract too much attention.

Once it was over, we headed back down the High Street to pick up our dinner from M & S.    Thwarted plans, but a nice day all the same.