Europe 2007: Day 7 (London/Oxford/Stratford/Warwick)
The bus picked us up at our hotel just after 8am and we departed Victoria with our group of 13 (led by Leslie and driver Pat) at 9am. The drive to Warwick Castle took about two hours but Leslie gave us a lot of history as we watched fields of sheep pass by.
We arrived to Warwick Castle around 11am and spent 90 minutes enjoying the beautiful castle. It was bought by Madame Tussaud's and they've filled the castle with wax figures. They're amazing to look at - very lifelike. Since we didn't take the time (or money - it's almost $50 each) to go to the Madame Tussaud's Wax Museum in London, this was a nice way to view some of their work. We viewed several areas within the castle before climbing the mound at the far end for the view of the grounds. It was stunning.
Our group opted to spend our extra time for lunch in Stratford-upon-Avon so as soon as we arrived there, we toured Shakespeare's birthplace. The tiny rooms in his family home were well-preserved. Mike had visited there when he spent his summer studying abroad nine years ago but crowds made it difficult for him to enjoy. No crowds this time of year! Afterwards, we found a cafe for lunch - hot sandwiches and wine - before heading back to the bus.
The bus then drove through the area known as the Cotswolds and while it was beautiful countryside, I feel like I might've missed exactly what we were supposed to be seeing. Maybe because my full belly, combined with the wine and warm bus, made it almost impossible for me to stay awake. This resulted in me missing most of Leslie's information about Oxford University. Once at Oxford, she led us around for about 30 minutes pointing out buildings and landmarks before cutting us loose to shop and have coffee.
Traffic back into London wasn't as bad as they were expecting considering Sunday night is usually a bad time to be returning to the city. We arrived around 6:20pm and took the advice of Peter, our hotel concierge, to try the nearby Hereford Arms pub for fish and chips. Excellent advice as dinner was great. I think this was Mike's third or fourth serving of fish and chips but only my first. And it was a good one. We then took the laptop downstairs in the hotel to use the internet connection for planning our next day.
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