A night in Reading, England

Our flight arrived at Heathrow Airport at 4:30am, thanks to a very strong tailwind, according to the pilot.  By 5:30am we were through customs and out to the car rental area.  Rush hour was already in full stand still in an absolutely black misty, rainy morning.  It turns out that the sun doesn't rise in January until just before 8am!  So in the blackness, on the wrong side of the road, and without GPS we drove south instead of north off the M4 and turned a 30 minute journey into 2 1/2 hours.

Reading Abbey Ruins including the Prison

Abbey Chapel

Reading was once a very important Abbey town (according to the guide post).  The Abbey church and ruins date from 1100AD and are very striking Norman buildings in a checkerboard design of small blackish glossy Onyx stones with larger cut white limestone detail. 

There are two other churches still in use that also date from Norman times:  One is in the center of the old town next to the town hall.

Chruch next to the Town Hall

Reading Town Hall

 The other is St. Mary the Virgin which dates from 979AD.  It strikes me as odd that in the US we have a difficult time keeping buildings that are 100 years old maintained and in use, while here is a stunning example of a church over 1000 years old that still holds daily services - for parishioners not just tourists!

The rear of St Mary the Virgin Church from the cemetery.

The front of St Mary the Virgin church.

St. Mary the Virgin Church held its Millennium Celebration in 1979.  Amazing!

A close up of the onyx stones which make up the field of the walls between limestone blocks.

Of course, like all proper English towns, there are pubs!  We had a dinner of steak and ale pie and a pint of house ale while we were chatted up by the locals.  Lots of references to "a dodgy pie that" and in case we didn't understand, "there's better pie to be had at Sweeney Todd's."  There is actually a Sweeney & Todd's pub in town specializing in steak and kidney pie.  Dodgy, eh?

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Managed to find an ancestor in the pub!