On our quest to see more of England than the people who live here, we ventured out for another weekend trip, this time to Warwick (this post) and Stratford Upon Avon (next post). We realized we've been here for three months and hadn't really made it to enough proper castles (we have been to the Tower of London, which is a very proper castle). So we took our first car road trip, tried our best to understand road signs to towns that mean nothing to us, mostly didn't get lost, and navigated all round-a-bouts like naturals. We headed south a couple hours to a beautiful youth hostel in Stratford Upon Avon, out in the countryside in an old estate.
Our first day out was to Warwick Castle and we had a fantastic time. The weather was bordering on rain the whole time, and partly due to the weather and just playing tourist in November, there weren't many people visiting the castle, which was a welcome change from some of the crazy crowds during out London visit last month.
The castle was beautiful, both inside and out and we all loved just being at an actual castle.
Inside many of the castle rooms were displays of one kind or another that told the story of the castle and its inhabitants and we enjoyed imagining what life was like. We went on a tour about castle defense systems, which was really interesting as well.
Tala and Noah tested out the security apparatus, and afterward, they and Mindy went on a dungeon tour that was like a Halloween scare scene. Blood, and darkness, and fake executions left them a bit freaked out. Nissa and I chose to visit the river and an old water mill.
The surrounding countryside was beautiful as well.
And at the end of the day, we returned to the youth hostel and snuggled together in a common room to watch X Factor, the local American Idol show that we have embraced in order to be conversant with our new countrymen and women. Thankfully, Jedward got voted off finally.
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