September 18th, 2016; London, England
On the fifth day, of our visit we took a day trip. We decided on Warrick Castle, Stratford upon Avon, and Oxford. The tour guide was quite good and knowledgeable about the sites and London. She explained a lot about the locations before arriving so there was little need to read the information at the sites. That meant we could enjoy the sites as they stood.
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| Warrick Castle |
Warrick Castle is quite old, but was updated in the Victorian era and maintained. Inside the castle, it is a cute park for families and kids. It is a little like a renaissance festival. The castle has lance fighting, haunted tunnels and shows. We climbed the walls to walk around those. From the walls there was a great view of the country and the castle!
Then, we went to the peacock garden for a refresher and a small bite. The garden was so pretty! On our way back to the bus we also got some ice cream.
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| Shakespeare's birthplace, with a performance! |
From the castle, we went to the birthplace and hometown of Shakespeare! It was quite a poppin' town. We toured the birth home, which thanks to Charles Dickens and his contemporaries was preserved. Shakespeare was pretty wealthy for his time with schooling and a nice home. He was wealthy enough that he owned at least two beds! It was much nicer than old homes in the wild west. As an adult, he bought a bigger home still nearby. That house was not on the tour.
The town, as I said, was busy. It was filled with shops and cafe's. I guess a lot of people visit the birthplace. We walked around and grabbed pastries and some chocolates.
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| Oxford! |
Once we were on our way, I read and Kelsi tried to nap! We drove through the Cotswolds, but after Ireland and Scotland the land was a bit redundant! We didn't stop in this area driving straight thru to Oxford. We did the walking tour at the school which was very informative. It also happened that a show was being filmed, so we were able to see a bit of the filming.
It was so cool to see the Oxford reading room which is iconic. The school also boosts some famous students and loads of stories. So there were lots of knickknacks from them, like Alice in Wonderland, Lord of the Rings and Harry Potter. So I bought souvenirs from the school and some Harry Potter themed items. It was much cheaper than buying merchandise from US universities!
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| Hospital Wing |
After shopping we stopped at a cafe as we were leaving Kelsi got fudge and I got a milkshake. Then, we were back on the bus towards London.
We spent the end of the night near Trafalgar Square. We ate Italian food, I had rigatoni and Kelsi had pesto. We also had desserts. Then we walked over the Jubliee bridge and down to Blackfriars and back to our room.
The next day, was the day we do not speak of (travelling home day) so that day will not have a blog post.
