Anyways, we've visited a lot of small towns over the past two days. Yesterday, we went to Lacock, where some scenes from the Harry Potter movies and Pride and Prejudice were filmed. The town is truly how I imagine the old English countryside. The streets are lined with ramshackle houses and wisteria. Honestly, if it weren't for the cars, I would have readily believed that I'd stepped back in time. Alternately, there wasn't much to do in the tiny town, so we continued on to our next major stop, Blenheim Palace. This is perhaps one of my favorite sights thus far.
The land on which the palace is built was given to John Churchill in commemoration of his military victories over the French. He built the palace and gardens, and honestly, I'd compare it to a British Versailles. The house is largely decorated in French style and the grounds are impressive and meticulously maintained. The palace tours focus largely on the family history, but there are some interesting Winston Churchill exhibits as well. The palace may also appeal to me because it hosts a major equestrian competition every Autumn.
Blenheim Palace and the gardens.
After Blenheim, we drove through a couple small Cotswolds towns, Burford and Stow-on-the-Wold. We stopped briefly to take a couple pictures, but there wasn't a lot to see in either place and neither was as picturesque as Lacock.
Our B&B is in a Cotswolds town called Broadway. The B&B was absolutely lovely with clean and spacious rooms… and Internet! Anyways, we got in a little before dinner and met up with Mom's coworker for drinks at the Fleece Inn, a really nice pub a couple towns over. It was a great evening, but we didn't really get to see the town of Broadway, just the outskirts.
The next morning, we toured a couple other small Cotswolds towns, Northleach and Chipping Campden. Northleach reminded me of the Doctor Who dream episode, where the elderly people live so long because their bodies are inhabited by aliens of some sort. It was a small hamlet filled with old people. We walked around and took some pictures, but we didn't stay long. Chipping Campden was a much nicer town but much busier, so we didn't stay long there as well.
We drove on to Stratford-upon-Avon to see the Shakespeare sights. Stratford is incredibly touristy, but it was very, very hard to find any parking. We drove around for about 40 minutes before we found a lot. Street parking was "pay and display" for a maximum of one hour (and you couldn't return for another two).
We went to Shakespeare's Birthplace museum. The beginning of the museum was a little dubious. We got shuffled through a bunch of darkened rooms where some animatronics and recordings told us a bit about Shakespeare, but after that, it was pretty pleasant. The house itself was really cool, and there were guides who explained a bit about the time and the history of the room. All the talks were really interesting and informative… although it's amazing how little we actually know about Shakespeare. In the garden, a few actors were milling about to entertain us. Mostly, they were pretending to be rehearsing for various Shakespeare plays and would run scenes every few minutes.
In front of Shakespeare's birthplace.
Our next Shakespeare stop was Anne Hathaway's cottage, but we got there very close to closing time so we didn't stay long. We toured the house in a similar fashion to that of Shakespeare's birthplace and wandered the gardens a bit as well.
In the evening, we went to see the town of Broadway, which we all agreed was the most charming towns we'd seen thus far. It was much less crowded than the other towns, and it was just beautiful.
An adorable side street in Broadway.
The next morning, we left for Warwick (pronounced Warrick, apparently) to see the castle there. The whole experience kind of had the feel of Disneyland. There were a bunch of school groups running around, there were costumed actors to evoke the time period, and several exhibits that were more entertaining than informative. One exhibit was meant to recreate a 19th century party being hosted at the castle. We were received at the door by a woman dressed as a maid, and she brought us into the parlor room where we were formally announced and our "hostess" greeted us. There were wax figures with prerecorded messages standing in for the other guests. Each room represented activities of the party. In one room, (fake) tea was being served; in the study, the men were smoke and gambling. In fact, an upstairs bedroom displayed a canopy bed, curtains drawn, from which prerecorded male and female giggling noises were playing.
Hoping for a tour of the dungeons, we'd purchased tickets for the "Castle Dungeons", which turned out to be more like a haunted house that enterprised on the horrors of Medieval times. Actually, it was an awful lot like the London Dungeons, where people in gruesome costumes jump out at you in the dark, but the Castle Dungeons really wanted to gross us out.
Dad and I climbed the tower and ramparts. I always thought that my fear of heights eclipsed Mom's, but she couldn't handle the ramparts. We didn't spend much more time in the exhibits. I was hoping to see some jousting (I kind of wish this sport still existed) but ended up at a Bird of Prey show instead. The show was incredibly well done and interesting, definitely better than any I've seen in the States.
The view of the castle from the ramparts.
At that point, it was later in the afternoon (and none of us had eaten), so we just did the Peacock Garden and left. I probably took more photos of birds than of the castle itself.
One of MANY peacock pictures... This is AFTER it discovered I had a biscuit.
One of my favorite bird photos.
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