Inside courtyard of Warwick Castle
Well, as you might tell from my post title this day was filled with events. The weather was a little blustery but not raining in the morning. We did a short drive to Warwick Castle which was built by William the Conqueror in 1068 in wood and then rebuilt in stone in the 12th century. It is a wonderful example of a restored medieval castle but it was purchased by Madam Tussuad’s in 1978 so can be a little hokey. This weekend was a bank holiday weekend so there were a few too many folks and little kids. Everyone enjoyed the exhibits, the view from the top of the tower ramparts and the birds of prey show.
We got back on the motorway, had lunch at one of the roadside stops and made our way to the M1. After a ways on the M1 to York with alot of wind and rain coming down, the accelerator on the
Our minibus being towed in the rain near Midlands airport
mini-bus quit working. I managed to coast the beast over to the side of the motorway and call emergency services. They told us they would come in 60-90 minutes and that we should get out of the vehicle and wait by the side of the rode. I told the group this, but it was so wet and cold they each decided to wait in the vehicle and luckily they came in 30 minutes. In this time the highway police also arrived and told us the same thing. We limped off of the M1 to a layout with escort and the emergency(Arthur Jones) guy tried to look at it and repair it. He had it going a bit so we took the group to a services stop so they could unload and the mechanic could test it and work on it. After about another hour it was determined that it could not be fixed. ARGHHH we had to find a new mini-bus on a bank holiday weekend.
I think John (the pastor in our group) did his fair share of praying because low and behold they found a mini bus at the Midlands airport 1 mile from us that someone had dropped off early because they did not want it any more(perhaps a bit hard to drive?). How lucky is that?? We unloaded the luggage, a tow truck driver came(an hour later) and took me, Chris and the beast to the airport. After a bit of walking through the pouring rain(with wind) we got a new beast. I went back and picked everyone up at the services and we loaded up and headed for York. It was now dark and raining but everyone was doing o.k. and glad we were on our way. We got to York at 9:15(4 hours late). A few of us went to the corner pub for a bit and then just CRASHED into bed. What a day!! I have to say, my entire group were such troopers, not a complaint amongst them and all trying to help and make the best of it. Every one of the emergency folks(motorway police, emergency breakdown services, tow truck driver) were all very helpful and kind. I don’t know if they are like that all over Britain, but it was a much better experience than a breakdown on a major freeway in the US. The tow truck driver, however, did have to ask why in the world we were vacationing in the Midlands in the rain, don’t we have someplace sunny to go? I told him we were just passing through 
Front view of Blenheim Palace
So busy no time to write!! We drove from Bath to the Cotswolds but went out of the way a bit to visit the largest, grandest home in England not owned by the Queen - Blenheim Palace. The day was raining while we were driving but we got sun and wind when we arrived. Blenheim is located a little bit outside of Oxford in the little town of Woodstock. Built in 1705/1724 it was a gift to the first Duke of Marlborough from Queen Anne for thanks from a grateful nation for his military triumph against the French and Bavarians. My group missed out on the organized tour which is included because the woman’s voice was too irritating which is too bad. They tried the ghost tour which was silly and they left it early but loved the house and the gardens which are beautiful. Their main comment was “too big for one family”!
After the Blenheim visit, we headed up to the Cotswolds to the lovely little village of Broadway in the northern Cotswolds. We checked into one of my all time favorite B&B’s; The Olive Branch. I then took them out to dinner in a VERY tiny village down a one track lane called Kineton. I think there are 30 people max in this village but it has a local pub that serves the most incredible food. We had tender filets with mushrooms and onion rings, pork tenderloin with mushroom gravy, melted goat cheese starter with chutney and salad, etc along with home made lemon cheesecake for desert. YMNNN
Typical cottage with thatch in Chipping Camden
The next day is our little “toodle through the Cotswolds”. The weather is brilliant with blue sky and wind. If you have never been to the Cotswolds, just imagine yourself transported back in time with dozens of little villages with houses made of a cream colored stone and slate or thatched roofs with beautiful gardens. You want to just EAT THEM UP. We started off with a stop at Broadway Tower where we could see for miles over the valley; the entire group climbed to the top!!. Then we went to Chipping Camden with some time for thatched roofs, antique shopping and old church graveyards; hmnnn. Back in the bus to Lower and Upper Slaughter; two of the most picture perfect villages you will find anywhere and also an ice cream stop. Bev says YEHHH! The sign said orgasmic ice cream. Don’t know about that but it was good. We finished at Snowshill and Snowshill Manor, the home of the collection of Charles Wade(this is the weird museum). He was a bit of an eccentric but the British like their eccentrics I think. Samurai warrior costumes and old bikes all in one place! The afternoon was free for wandering and shopping in Broadway. We had some wine and cheese in the garden at the Olive Branch. Everyone had a fantastic day and I think that Suzanne was in BBC hog heaven.
Today is the day I call 5000 years of British history. The rain has passed and we have wind, a few clouds and sunshine - glorious. Belinda, our Blue Badge guide meets us at the hotel and we head to Lacock. For
Lacock village
those that are BBC period television or movie fans, Jane Austen fans, etc. the village of Lacock is picture perfect and often used as a movie location because when you cover the pavement, it looks the same as it did 250 years ago. Harry Potter was filmed here, Pride and Prejudice, and the list goes on. The group was “ohh, awwwhhh, ” pretty much all morning long. Suzanne who is a bigger Anglophile than me was in “hog heaven” and rode up front in the van. We also found out from Belinda that Camilla lives very near Lacock and her daughter got married in the church. Everyone felt like we were in a postcard or BBC special. The negative photograph in the world was also taken here(the French argue this fact).
Avebury circle taken from on top of the henge
After a village wander it was back in the van and off to Avebury. Avebury is an ancient stone “henge”/circle that is older than Stonehenge and bigger but the stones are not shaped and many have fallen but you get to touch the stones and walk amongst them. I also have people try my divining rods to see if they are in “touch with mother earth”. Usually it does not work with the men but this time it did for a few so we had a few believers. The origins of these circles are around 5,000 years old. We know that the Romans visited them because we have records; kind of like a tourist attraction for them of an ancient people.
After Avebury we went to Salisbury cathedral. It is a gorgeous cathedral that is over 750 years old with the tallest medieval spire in Britain and contains on the original copies of the 1215 Magna Carta. it is an awesome church. We had lunch in the church also; munching on moussaka while staring straight up at the spire through the glass ceiling is awesome!
Stonehenge photos taken by Chris
We finished at Stonehenge. The weather held out even though windy and Belinda took the group around the stones. Everyone came back with huge smiles on their face. Often times I hear from groups that the stones are smaller than they thought that they would be. This group was just awestruck by them and were amazed at what these ancient people could do with nothing but wood, stone and animal horns for tools. The small blue stones in Stonehenge way 5-6 tons and come from Wales. Belinda said that during the millennium celebration and group of folks tried to get a 5 ton blue stone from Wales along the route that the builders of Stonehenge would have taken over 4,000 years ago. They did not even make it away from Wales, it sunk in the sea when they were floating it. Hmnnn, perhaps they had intergalactic help.
I am getting behind on my posts so I think I will have to skip the photos for this post and catch up with them when we have a big site day.
Today I picked up the mini-bus and we headed for Bath at 9:00. The traffic heading out of London was light and my GPS/Helga was on her best behavior. Helga is a Garmin Nuvi set to speak with an English accent. When she says “recalculating” five times in a row she still seems like she is yelling at me but just in a nicer voice. The drive even with a stop took less than 3 hours from door to door.
We arrived to our hotel around noon. We stay just across the Pultney Bridge in Bath in a lovely hotel called the Kennard. It is run by Mary and Giovanni and wonderful with a little garden in the back, very Georgian decorated rooms and on a quite little street across from a park.
I took everyone into the center of the city with the idea that they would take the free mayors walk around Bath to see its sites but the weather did not cooperate. It poured and we got a bit of wind with it; very English weather today. The locals say it was suppose to be left-overs from Hurricane Bill. Rather than the walk, most of my group went into the Roman Baths and had lunch. Suzanne went on the hop-on-hop-off bus tour around Bath and said it was very nice and recommended it for rainy days. The Roman Baths are FANTASTIC!! Everything in this city looks like something from a Jane Austen novel on the outside but when you go inside the baths you are transformed into Roman life and begin to get a feel for the incredible amount of history so easily visible in this part of England.
The group did their own thing for the afternoon and then we got together for dinner at Brown’s which is right across from the Bath Abbey. I booked a table early so we could get the early bird specials and basically allow the group to have some drinks and dessert as part of their included dinner. We had such FUN. The food was fantastic and the martinis were great(so I heard). Several folks even tried the Sticky Toffee pudding with clotted cream for desert - YUMMM. I had a 12-yr Highland Park as my throat was a bit scratchy; that is my story anyway. Off to bead and ready for the big day tomorrow.
I have gotten a bit behind on my posts but this one will be a short one. The third day on our tour is a completely free day for each member of the group to head out and do their own thing and see the sites they want to see armed with the travelcard I gave them to get around. We had a great deal of variety with this little group. They saw the Churchill museum and war rooms, the imperial war museum, some had prearranged tickets to see Parliament and some even inside of Buckingham Palace. Some folks wanted to go see Windsor Castle and Eaton so I helped them with that by taking them out on the train.
Bev, Katie, Chris and Suzanne in front of Windsor Castle
I love taking the trains in Britain(as all over Europe). I use www.thetrainline.co.uk for schedules and any pre-bookings I need. They are so easy and so comfortable I don’t know why anyone would take one of the tour buses out to Windsor. The round trip is 11GBP and goes every 30 minutes so you can spend as little or as much time as your want to tour the castle and wander around Windsor and Eaton. I took Chris, Katie, Bev and Suzanne out there and waited for and took Bev back. I spent the time in a Starbucks working on my computer.
Bev and I had to get back as we decided to get tickets to the west end musical The Jersey Boys which is the story and music of Frankie Valli and the Four Seasons as Mary and Eric were going to be there. It was fantastic!! We also had Lebanese food for dinner as we are staying near Edgeware Road. More hummus, grape leaves, tabbouleh, stuffed cabbage, etc. YUMMM.
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