Stratford and Warwick Castle

A quick update:

The weeks seem to be falling into a more structured routine now, which I think is good for everyone. It also means that there is frequently not much to report on a day-to-day basis, other than - "we got up this morning, and when I went to work, everyone else stayed home. The kids played and Michelle did laundry. When I came home, we ate dinner." I did manage to finish Sense and Sensibility, so I'm now on Pride and Prejudice. So, while there are still adjustments to be made, the fact that we are getting into a routine is both a good thing (for us), and possibly a not-so-good thing for anyone out there yearning for news of us on a more frequent basis. (Of course, I'd never know that there were any such persons, given the distinct lack of comments/responses, despite my very open prodding.)

That said, this past weekend, we rented a car in order to avail ourselves of the free night that I had earned with Marriott. We basically had to plan our time around what was actually available, due to my waiting to the last minute to book the hotel, but as we were able to do things we wanted to do anyway, it wasn't really a hardship. We left on Saturday morning and drove around the M25 and then out to Stratford-on-Avon. While I think the M25 bothered Mich a bit, I didn't find it to be that difficult to drive. The kids put up with my little journey into Shakespeare Country quite well, all things considered, and got to learn a bit about my favorite playwright. We went to Shakespeare's birthplace, and "New Place" - the house he built once he had made his fortune, except that "New Place" is now No Place, as it was taken apart several hundred years ago. I did find it rather interesting that Shakespeare's birthplace was actually a tourist attraction a mere 100 years after his birth.

On Sunday, we did something decidedly more kid-centric - Warwick Castle. Parts of the castle date back to 1086, as I recall, and it has several exhibits, including a recreation of several period rooms for the 1890's, some of which are truly exquisite, the Great Hall, with numerous examples of swords, shields, and armor, and the Dungeon. They also fire a trebuchet (catapult), have bowmen exhibitions, and exhibitions on falconry, which included a North American bald eagle who swooped down only inches above our heads. So, us grown up kids had great fun as well.

That evening, I wanted to try to see part of the Cotswolds, and we did make it into a couple of villages, although, more than anything, it just piqued my interest to go back, drive around some more, and get out and walk in some of these places. The Cotswolds are an area in the Midlands where there are several villages in which the houses are made out of limestone. Some of these villages have retained their character even after a couple hundred years, and have several stone houses and stores. There's a few pictures below, and if a picture is worth a thousand words, then hopefully you'll be able to see how truly beautiful some of these little towns are.