July 29, 2007
All over England again
Today was another early day. Allie, Rebecca, and I left for the Coach Station a bit early, as we had to go to see if we could get Rebecca a ticket for the day’s tour (she was unable to book online the day before). Rebecca was able to get one, and we set off for Warwick Castle.
Warwick is my favorite of the castles I have been to so far, maybe ever. It is really old, yet really well preserved. It was purchased by Madame Tussaud many years ago, and so in addition to the rooms looking like they used to, they have wax figures all around the castle, so it feels almost like you are observing medieval life. After walking through the castle, I climbed up to the top of a tower with a beautiful view. I was excited because it said it was over five hundred steps, and I was a bit disappointed by St. Paul’s 424, but by the time I went up and down I realized that Warwick must have meant more than 500 steps in total, up and down. That was a small letdown, as I didn’t even feel like I had gotten a work out, but the view from the top of the tower was breathtaking nonetheless. After climbing, I walked around and saw some bird show on the castle grounds, then I went to check out Boat Island (on the castle grounds). After this, I ran into Rebecca and Allie and we took pictures in the castle stocks and then got back on the bus to go to our next destination…
Stratford-upon-Avon. We went through the museum and then toured the house that Shakespeare was born in. It was really cool, but unfortunately pictures were not allowed. The house was old and beautiful, with some neat gardens in the back. Shakespeare was born into a fairly wealthy family, something that I had not known. After seeing the house, we grabbed lunch at a baguette ship and I had a Red Thai Chicken Baguette that was delicious. People always look at me funny when I ask for my sandwiches without mayonnaise on them. The lady I ordered from asked me if I was sure, because my sandwich would be really dry and the chicken might fall out. I thought this was funny, but insisted on not having mayonnaise. Bits and pieces of chicken did end up falling out of my sandwich, but it was not that bad. Then we walked around Stratford, going into a print shop and a magic shop, which is supposively on the grounds of the oldest known potion and spell-making place in the world.
After leaving Stratford, we took a scenic drive through the Cotswolds, and I decided that I would love to have a winter cottage in the Cotswolds. The Cotswold stone and thatched roof is aesthetically pleasing, and the rolling hills, which look like a patchwork quilt because of the way the squares are separated, are utterly breathtaking. I was trying to picture what the Cotswolds would look like in the snow, and I liked what I saw. Kate Winslet, among many others, live in the Cotswolds.
When we were near Oxford, our next destination, we encountered an incident and were forced to take a detour. It provided for more scenic driving, but also meant that we had less than an hour at Oxford. This was fine with me, because I had been there the weekend before, but I think a lot of people were upset. Oxford was just as pretty the second time around. And the streets that I had walked on just a week prior looks so different in the sun than they did in the pouring rain. Not sure if I mentioned in my blog yet that I was in England for London’s rainiest day ever, with more than ten centimeters recorded in one hour.
We got back to London at around 7, and I decided to do a bit of work on my power point after making some (surprise, surprise) pasta.
1 comment:
All that rain in the UK made national news here. I don't know if you heard about that.
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