Castles, Shakespeare, and Harry Potter!

Our second day in England: castles, Shakespeare, and Harry potter!

We woke up very very early and headed to the coach station for our day trip to Warwick castle, Shakespeare's birthplace, and Oxford. The bus ride was awesome because we pretty much had it to ourselves. We got to Warwick just as the sky had cleared and got a great view with all of the beautiful fall colored trees. The first place we looked at were all of the state apartments which were unreal. So beautiful and frozen in time that I felt like it was the actual 1500's. My favorite room was called the Blue Room and almost looked like something Marie Antoinette would have died over! I can't wait to post those pictures. Another cool room was one dedicated to Henry the 8th, and if you know my obsession...I was a little more than excited to see it. They had wax figures of him and all 6 wives: divorced, beheaded, died, divided, beheaded, survived.

The gardens at Warwick are so different than anything we have seen before. Understated but gorgeous nonetheless. The whole castle has peacocks running around and an exhibit with many different owls, a bald eagle, and a hawk. Very cool! It was so cute because a school trip was there and all of the little girls were dressed like princesses! It got us talking a lot about kids.

The next stop was a tourist trap uh I mean, Shakespeare's birth place. Don't get me wrong, the town was charming and the sandwiches were super good and cheap but basically we went all the way out there to see some room he was born in. Eh.

We drove for another hour through the Cotswolds which are a type of house in the small mountain range in England. The name refers to the roof that they all have and by law, they have to keep them a certain way. To repair your roof on one of those houses cost 60,000 pounds! Ouch! When we arrived to Oxford, we went straight to the College of Christ Church which was home to the man who wrote Alice in Wonderland. In fact, all over the college they have small references to it and how he came up with the characters. The white rabbit was based on the dean who would sneak out a secret passage from the dining hall. Alice was his daughter, and the cat was hers who liked to sun bathe by the library. We got to see the stairs they used for filming in Harry Potter along with the great dining hall. It is so small in person! I guess to film there they would have had to remove the roof, so they made a replica with a little change...four tables instead of three.

It was such an exhausting day but so fun and such a great way to see more than must London! Ryan loved the castle and I of course loved Oxford. Especially after I got to see the brick where J.K. Rowling got the inspiration for the lighting bolt scar!