Stratford Upon Avon

When we spent the night in Warwick, we were thinking we'd go over to Stratford Upon Avon the next day.  In the lobby of the Bed and Breakfast we stayed at, there was a display of brochures for local attractions.  Cambria saw the Butterfly Farm brochure, and asked if we could go.  One of the great things about living here is that we'll be able to go back and see all the historical sites. We're not too worried about seeing all the major sites in one day, so we said sure!

This was the third butterfly farm we'd been to, there's a small one at Six Flags in Vallejo, then we'd been to the one at Moody Gardens in Galveston, TX.  This one was not as new and fancy as the Moody Gardens one, but it was large and best of all, warm!  The admissions lady told us the ticket was for all day, so we could come back at the end of the day and warm up if we wished - we thought that was very nice.

I put arrows on the picture, otherwise it's hard to see the butterfly.  :) 

This was really neat, they had rows and rows of cocoons on these racks.  We were able to see 2 butterflies emerge from their cocoons while we watched.



It's a little freaky to have them land on you - Cambria was holding my hand for most of the time we were in there.  She liked it, but she was nervous too. 

The kids were using my camera, so I have dozens of butterfly photos, I'll only show you the best one.  They are butterflies, I'm sure y'all can imagine butterflies.  :)

They also had an insect and arachnid room, yuck.  Meridian is taunting a scorpion in this picture.

There was an iguana loose in the butterfly garden too, he was just hanging out on a hill.  His tail was about 3 feet long!

So after the Butterfly Farm, we made our way across the Avon river and started to look around.

They had canal boats in this docking area in between two locks.  The girls are looking at the ice on the surface, it was about half an inch thick.  There was a sandwich board out announcing that you could take a 45 minute tour for cheap - like £5 each, and that they had food and drink on board.  The girls wanted to go, and so we figured we'd catch the next one and have a snack and tour on the river.

While we were waiting for the next boat, we wandered around the square, trying not to slip on the frozen sidewalks, which were worse near the boat area.  We came upon a monument that was a group of statues, with Shakespeare at the top and four of his main characters surrounding him.  

Me and Lady Macbeth

When the canal boat came back, we got on board and ordered some drinks.  Hot Chocolate, Tea, and Mulled Wine, yum!

 

After we got our drinks, the captain came down and said that apparently they hit something on their last tour, and the propeller was bent.  They had to shut down for the day.  Then he said we could stay aboard while they went down the river and parked the boat for free, if we wanted to.  We were warm and our drinks were good, so we said that'd be fine.   So we got to go through a lock and onto the river at least, and they didn't even charge us for the drinks.  We'll have to use them again next time. 

We stopped into the Tourist Information center, and after lunch we ended up going over to the house where Shakespeare was born and grew up.  One ticket gets you into all 5 Shakespeare related houses for a year, so even though we didn't have time to see them all that day, we went ahead and bought the tickets.  It was nice because there weren't very many people touring that day, but you could tell from the way they move you through that the crowds get pretty big sometimes.  

 

You're not supposed to take pictures inside, so this is NOT the inside of Shakespeare's house, with the girls looking out the front window.  

The tour was interesting, there were docents along the way telling stories and answering questions.  We learned a bit about how life was back then.  It's also neat to see a list of all the famous people who have come to see Shakespeare's house - lots of famous authors, poets and actors included. 

The front of Shakespeare's birth house. Shakespeare's dad made leather gloves and sold them out their front window. 

Me and the girls in front of the house.

This is a view down the road the house is on in.  

Stratford Upon Avon (and yes, there is another Stratford in England, so you have to say Upon Avon) was a charming little town.  We are sure to be back in the Spring to see the other 4 houses.  Anne Hathaway's cottage particularly is supposed to be really pretty in the Spring. 

Warwick Castle (January 2, 2010)

Warwick (pronounced Worr-ik) Castle is about 45 minutes from our house in Bicester. We had heard good things (even though it's been owned since the 70's by the Tussauds group (the wax museum people)), so we decided to drive up and check it out. I had regretted not staying over in Woodstock when we went to Blenheim Palace (super cute little village), so we booked a bed and breakfast for one night in Warwick. We decided to buy the annual pass, since there are lots of things going on there in the summer.

On the way there, we took an "M" road for the first time since arriving from London... these are like freeways, with exits like in the US, though the exits lead often to massive roundabouts. So, we're driving along, and see this road sign.

Does it look odd to you? Notice that they're not in order, distance wise, or even alphabetically? We finally figured out that the one on top is the city at the end of the M road, then it's like a regular sign (this took us some time, and discussion... maybe we're slow). Weird, huh? OK, so one more thing about the freeways - there aren't any billboards. It's the weirdest thing - the whole drive, through towns and cities, is like driving through the middle of Nevada. Oh, and no street lights at all along the freeway either - it's very dark at night.

So we arrived, and thank goodness the weather was clear, though very cold. Crossing the bridge as you come into Warwick, the castle looms up by the river. It's really amazing to think it was built in 1068 by William the Conqueror - who conquered England!   Remember him from the London blog? (or from your history book - whatever, show off!)  He built the White Tower, the first building in the Tower of London complex. Ah ha! It's coming together now...

This is right after the ticket gate, you walk around to the bridge (right over Meridian's head in the picture) to get into the castle.

Scott and me in the stocks, I don't know what Cambria is doing.  Maybe she's about to throw something at us? Nice.

Entrance to the castle, there was a guy in costume harassing people coming in, we deftly avoided him.

So like I said, it was cold, so we went straight for the main house in the castle, to take the tour. This was really neat, the great hall was set up for a wedding reception that was to be held later that day. There was a singer and a lute player performing some medieval music, it was very nice.

Close up of the spears, daggers and armor decorating the wall

We got to wander through the rooms, which were set in different time periods, with wax figures of different people who had lived or visited the castle. There was a room with Henry VIII, and all 6 of his wives, that was pretty cool. This picture is set in a lady's early 20th century dressing room.

They had a couple areas where you could try on armor or hats and jackets and I let Cambria try on the hat (though I was thinking about lice the whole time!!). It turned out ok. And she's super cute in the hat. :)

Meridian on the castle wall, pretending to fire an arrow!

I'm on a lower part of the castle wall than Scott and Cambria - see them?

Closer up shot looking up at them - and we're not even at the top yet. Lots of stairs at Warwick.

So what I didn't get was a good shot of the steps that were on the right of that staircase looking wall. They were just like in Lord of The Rings - The Two Towers... remember when they were defending Helm's Deep and fighting on the walls? They had stairs just like that, with no inside wall to them, just a drop off. I can't find a picture online, so I'll find it on the movies...ok, lame quality, but I'm sure you'll remember from the movies anyway. :)

Mmmm, by the way, Orlando Bloom has never looked better than when he was Legolas.

Moving on...

Cambria at the top of Guy's Tower - you can see the flag she's standing under in the first picture of the castle, above.

The top of this tower was surprising for a couple reasons. First, the top is rounded, like you're standing on a mound. Second, there are drains around the edges, that look normal until you look down through them and see that you're standing over air. A bit spooky!

Yes, that's ground, far, far away. Creepy.

This is looking down at the main house from Guy's tower. I had a hard time getting this close to the edge for a picture. Standing on a tall brick building built almost a thousand years ago, when I'm a girl from earthquake country, is not my happy place. Sweaty palms, feet itching... and what's worse, I have to act like everything's ok, trying not to pass on my irrational fear to my kids! :)

What you would see if you were defending the castle 500 years ago (mentally replace tourists with foreign armies)

In Caesar's tower, this will show how small the steps are. I know people were smaller then, and I have big feet, but come on! Teeny tiny little steps.

Back on solid ground, we stopped for a snack.  Mulled wine and a "pancake", which turned out to be a crepe that they made into a quesadilla.  Very tasty. While we were snacking some peacocks strolled by.

 

Also while we were snacking, we were approached by a knight, or maybe a sergeant or something... he reached for my mulled wine and thanked me for holding it for him.  He said, You drank some? and I said yes, and it was good.  He turned to Scott and he said, Well she IS a bit of a lush. (nice, thanks honey)  I acted offended and the Knight pulled out an ax (a dull one, lol) and held it to Scott's neck and asked if I wished him to avenge my honor!  LOL  I said, No, thank you, he provides for our family.  The knight backed off with a reluctant Very well, then.  What a fun encounter, I guess Tussauds has added something to the experience. 

  We headed over to the Princess Tower, where they told a little story about helping the Princess choose her wedding outfit, then the girls got to dress up.  Cambria was more excited about this than Meridian, but Meridian participated gamely to make her sister happy.  

 

After the dress up part, the girls got to write a wish in the wish book, and take a pea home to see if they could feel it under their mattresses.  Cambria was very pleased to tell us that she could!  :) 

Cambria's wish <3

Straight from being a princess to throwing a rat!  There was a hoop on a pole that the kids tried to throw rats through.  Funny!

For a couple pounds you could get a quick lesson and shoot some arrows.  I love archery, but I left this one to the kids and Scott. 

 

 

Look at that release!  Nice, yeah?

  

Scott's target - nice shooting hon!

 

 

We climbed up to where the original castle was built, we're standing in the doorway overlooking the courtyard below.  This is the gateway in the sunset picture below.

The sunset was so striking, I love this picture.  

 

View into the courtyard from the gate.  Pretty.

 

They had a Jester show, then a magical lighting of the Christmas tree, which included the jester breathing fire.  It was pretty neat, and entertaining.

As we walked out I noticed they had lights strung around the courtyard, very pretty. You can kind of see the stairs I was talking about earlier too, on the left.  On top is the flag I took Cam's picture with.

So we left the castle, found our bed and breakfast, (which was ok) and went to a pub for dinner, (which was ok).  We wanted to walk to dinner and it was cold, so we chose the first one that allowed kids in... it was a nice old building, but the food was meh.  We should have kept walking to the place our innkeeper had recommended.  Lessons learned.  :) 

Unexpected differences (part 2)

So apart from driving and minor language differences, which actually can be a bother when you're trying to communicate (our Greece travel info recommends we pack a torch, but no lighter fluid for some reason, lol), there are some other things that are surprisingly different here.

First, let's take the restroom.  Now, what do you do when you are ready to flush, and see this (it's only about 1.5 inches across) on the top of the water cistern:

OK, so you choose to push one side.  The button sinks an inch!  But nothing happens.  You think, ok, this is ok, and push the other side.  Nothing happens.  Both?  Nothing.  Finally, some random-seeming combination of the two causes a flush.  This is at the bowling alley on base, and I still haven't figured it out.

So, at our house, we have this mounted on the wall in the restroom:

Guess what!  It flushes the toilet!!  The cistern (that holds the water) is built into the wall.  I finally looked up the difference between the buttons, and it's intuitive - the big button is for a big flush, the smaller is for a smaller flush.  Ha!  

Speaking of household items, check this out:

This is our clothes washer, I'm pretty sure the numbers are temperature settings, since there's a digital display that shows how long the cycle you have it set on will take.  It took me a bit to realize it was showing the length of time, since it said things like 212 and 238, but yes, some wash cycles take over 2 hours to run!  If you hit the "quick wash" button, it only takes an hour.  And the load is small, maybe 5 bath towels.  Crazy!  We are learning to re-wear our sweaters and what not.  :)

Same washer, left hand side.  I'm still wondering why you would want to change the spin speed.  It DOES sound like it's getting ready for lift off at the end of the cycle, but what good could come of under-spinning your wet clothes? 

Just to complete the picture, this is where the soap (oh, such a small amount!!) and fabric softener go in.  :)

Now for the dryer:

I'm still trying to figure out the difference between Cupboard Dry and Ready to Wear, though in practice Ready to Wear seems to get the clothes dryer.  Which makes little sense to me, since wearing damp clothes is better than folding them up for storage.  Go figure. 

Oh, and I mentioned this on FB, look, this is the cartridge that holds the water that the dryer gets out of the clothes!!  You have to dump it out each time, and it collects at least a quart from most loads.  Crazy!

Ah, the appliances.  This is the control for my oven:

You push the knob and it pops out so you can spin it.  But to what?  I get "light"... then broiler and half broiler?  Oven with fan, and without?  And what's the difference between the symbols at 5 o'clock and 9 o'clock?  I don't really know.  I use the "fan oven" most often, and so far, so good.  :)

Above is part of the oven controls... I don't understand them at all.   I think the one on the right may be a timer, but it might set the oven to turn on at a certain time, so I'm not messing with it.  :)  Oh, and this picture doesn't show it, but lots of the clocks here are 24 hour clocks, and business hours are often listed that way, like 0800-1700.  We're getting used to that too. 

Above is one of our wall radiators, with it's knob control.  Now, there IS a thermostat, AND a timer system, but every radiator except the one in the hall has the knob too.  Apparently, we're supposed to turn them each down or off and close the door when we're not in a room.  As I understand it, there's a boiler in our pantry, and it pumps hot water through the radiators in the house.  This occasionally sounds like mice running around, and freaked me out for the first few days.  But, listening carefully and following the sound, I figured it out.  :)

Now, a word about food.  Thank goodness Jason and Shelly warned us that "bacon" here is a thick, wide slice of ham, but I'm still surprised when I order a bacon cheeseburger off base and get a slice of ham on my burger.  Weird.  On base, we have plenty of crispy bacon, so no worries.  :)

But the weird difference in food here is two fold.  First, we have the military weird stuff:

Apparently the US Forces in Europe have a dairy.  I'm sure this is old news to lots of you, but I still get a giggle when I buy my US Forces whipping cream.  BTW, I am generally against "light" anything, but that was all they had in stock that day.  The commissary here is much more hit and miss than Winco.  :)

Then, there's the produce we buy in town. BTW, I was talking about the difference I'm about to describe with a British spouse at Scott's work Christmas party, and apparently "produce" is not what they call it.  He was like, What?  Anyway, it's all wrapped in plastic (you get a full package, even if you didn't want that many), and check out where it comes from!

This picture is just of the lid, the strawberries didn't last long.  :)

 

These eggs are from the commissary, off base not only are eggs sold only in 6 packs, they are also sold on the regular shelves, not the refrigerated section.  This has made it hard to find eggs in the stores, I can't figure out what they usually are sold next to here... pasta?  I need to figure that out. 

I know it makes sense that a bunch of produce would come from Europe, but I still think it's cool that my strawberries are from Egypt.  :)