Lewis caught the train from Stoke-on-Trent one bright and breezy Saturday morning: he was off to visit some of his special friends in Cheltenham.
Lewis arrives in Cheltenham
Cheltenham, which is in Gloucestershire, in the South-West of England is a city that oozes with elegance due to it’s grand Regency architecture. This was a style that was developed in the Regency period when George IV (or the Prince Regent as he was sometimes called) was on the throne in the early 19th century. It developed particularly in Cheltenham as it was a spa town and rich families would visit the town for their holidays.
Lewis loves the grand Regency style architecture
Do you know any other cities, towns or buildings in England that have some Regency architecture?
Lewis was very excited to be visiting Cheltenham as he always thought of it as a cultured sort of a place, with its annual Literature, Music, Jazz and Science festivals, not to mention its famous horse steeplechase race, The Gold Cup. However, most of all, Lewis the Lion was looking forward to seeing his special friend, Sienna who was 6 years old.
Sienna, Helen and Lewis the Lion
Sienna was so creative and was just fabulous at reading and writing stories. Lewis thought that she lived in the most perfect location ever for developing her talents with all this stimuli around her.
Wigwam fun!
Sienna had fun creating different photographic effects with Lewis the Lion too. Check out this kaleidoscope effect!
Lewis has the kaleidoscope effect
Sienna had a little baby sister called Scarlett who wasn’t even a year old! However, Sienna had the perfect audience for her wonderful stories as Scarlett would giggle and giggle and giggle and before you knew it, everybody in the room would be giggling: mums, dads, grandmas, grandads and all the grown-ups! What a happy place to be!
Lewis just loves baby Scarlett!
One of the other things that intrigued Lewis about Cheltenham was a strange doughnut-shaped building: the Government Communications Headquarters (GCHQ) which is a British Intelligence Agency. In it he imagined that there were spies beavering away decoding lots of secret messages: spies that worked there because they were able to speak a range of different languages and were talented at IT. He wondered how many fascinating stories they would have to tell…if only they weren’t sworn to secrecy?! He thought that maybe when he grew up how he would love to be a spy working for the British Government too? Maybe he could be a secret agent like one of his favourite fictional characters, Alex Rider?
Do you like spy stories? Have you ever read any books or seen any of the films about the character Alex Rider written by Anthony Horowitz? (For example, Storm Breaker, Point Blank and Skeleton Key?).
Maybe you could write your own spy story about what you think happens inside GCHQ? Or better still, maybe like Lewis, you too could study hard at languages and maybe one day you could end up working there as a translator, interpreter or even a double-agent? Now wouldn’t that be fun?!
We sure had fun saying goodbye to Lewis, we hope he has lots of fun and we look forward to hearing all about his many adventures when he returns to Cheltenham.
Thank you! He knows he’s going to miss you all but will look forward to seeing you all in a year’s time :). Big hugs, Lewis the Lion
It was lovely to spend a day with Lewis and Helen in cheltenham and I can’t wait to hear all about their adventures and travels. Bon Voyage, Love Bev xxx
Thank you, Bev. Lewis is going to miss you on his travels but knows that when he sees you again, even after a year has passed, it will be as if he just saw you yesterday. That’s what happens with true friends :). Lots of love and hugs, Lewis and Helen xxx