England Adventure 2013: Day 2 - Of Kings and Bards

Today was a very long day! First I had to run around getting pictures of sleeping Cambridge. I started a bit too early so was talking to the porter. I love the way English people speak - they are so funny - when it doesn't sound like they are speaking a foreign language. "That rubbish" and "the sweepings off the floor" were in reference to the Nescafe coffee they serve in our room. I laughed out loud when Starbucks asked me where my accent is from. Me, accent?!

Then back in the car for some more driving fun. I can't even walk right here so it's pretty scary that I'm driving! (When the light turned green, we walked across the street and a huge double decker bus went by yelling at us - mind the bus, or something.) Haven't hit anything yet but there's still time. Quite a few more points than bushes and curbs, bikes should really not ride near me ... dummies! I really don't know why the English like roundabouts so much. I thought they were to avoid stoplights (keep traffic flowing) but many of the roundabouts have stoplights! What is that about?!

We spent a good part of the day at a real castle - Warwick. It was very cool, very picturesque. Built in 1068, it was given to the Greville family in 1604. They owned it right up until 1978, when they sold it to Madame Tussaud's for a whopping $1.5 million. Single paintings inside are worth more than that alone! Now it is more of an amusement place than a historic one but that's ok because it gives you a much better sense of the way things were. It beats ruins or an empty castle. My favorite was climbing on the ramparts but the tours, trebuchet launch and peacocks were very good too.

Then we drove to our sleeping destination - The White Swan hotel in Stratford-Upon-Avon. I walked around to check out Shakespeare's birthplace as well as a beautiful walk along the river - that took me to the church where he is buried. Everything about the walk was perfect -the weather, boats, swans, weir, bridges... I can't believe no one else was out enjoying all of it!

Lastly we saw a play in the intimate Shakespearean Swan Theater. It was A Mad World, My Master - a comedy written by Middleton in 1605. All the Brits were in hysterics. Yes it was funny but mom and I didn't get all the humorous British references. It was worth the experience, but beastly tired, we were glad when it was over and we could walk back to our hotel!