Day 5 - Heading North

Our fifth day in the UK meant our big driving day as we headed northward. We had a quick breakfast in Horley and then began our tour of the M roads from London to York. First stop was a (relatively) quick drive through Oxford. No stops or pictures, just a drive through and chance to say that we had driven through Oxford. Despite looking over every pedestrian quite carefully, Denise did not spot 19 year old hot guy Rob Lowe (both a cheesy 80s movie and annoying recent commercial reference at once). We then were back on the highway to get to our first major destination of the day, Warwick Castle.

Warwick is a bit of a 'Disney-fied' castle, with a lot of entertainment options throughout, recreations in the majority of rooms (wax figures), and shows throughout the day. Initially, we were going to go to the Princess Tower which features a story and interactive activity for kids where you rescue the Princess Felice. Once there and aware that it was geared to girls ages 3-8, we moved on! And just in case you were worried Denise did not need any saving. So we visited the Time Tower which uses video and projection technology to tell the story of the history of Warwick. Then it was over to the State rooms which (as the story goes) they are preparing for a large banquet with many guests staying over.

As you go through the rooms, there are wax figures of the serving staff preparing the rooms and audio to go along which sounded like an episode of Downton Abbey. The other half of the state rooms are far more historical, with recreations of events that actually occurred and people who really visited or stayed in the castle. Then it was outside to walk through the mill and watch the trebuchet (really huge catapult) display. Again, a great story was told of the attack on the castle (funny because the actors in the show are speaking of their impending victory when we knew from the history that they were going to lose). Then it was further around the back to the Peacock Garden with many hedges shaped like peacocks and quite a few wandering around, including this guy...

Then we walked through the Horrible Histories display area (basically signs and a couple actors describing all the uses of excrement during the middle ages) and took some silly pictures. Then a short walk through the rose garden, which at this time of year was more of a stump garden. Once we had finished our touring of Warwick, it was just a short drive over to Stratford-Upon-Avon, the birthplace of Shakespeare. We had already chosen not to do the actual building tours of Shakespeare's family homes and where he was born and his grave - we were just going to walk the area and see the homes from the outside and stop off for lunch. And that is just what we did! There was a little bit of drizzle around, so we dodged raindrops into quite a few little shops and took a few pictures and walked through the lobby of the Royal Shakespeare Theatre (a show was on, so we could not really enter). While the outside of this house below may look somewhat nondescript, it is the house where Shakespeare was born and just to the left is a huge museum/tourist mecca for those willing to sacrifice their well earned pounds.

Once full of food and a little touristed out, we headed to Kenilworth Castle and Gardens.

 This is one I have some memories of from my youth and I was quite excited to visit it again. And it did not disappoint. We got the audio tour guides and walked through the ruins while hearing the stories of the castles history. It was quite magnificent at one point and hosted quite a few very important people. The ruins are still very impressive and we really enjoyed the tour. Margaret in particular liked the children's audio tour as it had some interactive activities for her to do while touring. Here are just a few of the many pictures that I took while there. We definitely hope to return to this one again some day and have more time (and better weather).



Once done there, it was time for another couple hours of driving to get to York, where we were going to spend the night. Of course, our longest drive of the trip had to coincide with our first real traffic of the trip, so three hours later, we finally got to our B&B in York and checked in. It was just about 9pm, so we took a quick walk to the first place with food that was open and Denise and I got a pizza and Margaret got some chips (fries). And then, at long last...we got to sleep.