W

hile we’re not suggesting that you whip off your clothes and jump on a horse for a trot round the city centre, a weekend in Coventry is still an eye-opening experience.

For those of you who are unfamiliar with this titillating folk tale, legend has it that Lady Godiva rode through the streets in her birthday suit in a bid to get her tyrannical husband, Leofric, to reduce the oppressive taxes imposed on the locals. It worked.

While much of the old city was bombed during WWII, if you keep your eyes peeled you’ll spot some interesting Lady Godiva tributes while you’re here (none of them involving nudity).

At Broadgate, in the centre of Coventry, for example, there’s a statue to the lady herself – and a mechanical clock nearby, where she appears through various doorways every hour, accompanied by ‘Peeping Tom’, who’s trying to get a glimpse.

But there’s a lot more to this city than naked equestrians. Close to Broadgate there’s the National Museum of Road Transport, the Herbert Art Gallery & Museum – which won the 2010 Guardian Family Friendly Museum award and has three galleries of sculpture and pieces by old masters including Giordiano’s masterpiece, Bachcus and Ariadne.

Why not make a weekend of it and stay at the nearby Coombe Abbey Hotel, a former 12th-century monastery surrounded by parkland?