Enjoying England

Above is the Oldest Gothic Church in the World, Mom and I at a "London phone Booth," Warwick Castle, and the Oxford College.



So…we didn’t get a chance to write yesterday because we didn’t get internet, so we are doing two days in one blog.

OXFORD-STRATFORD-AVON-WARWICK

Oxford: We visited the Oxford Colleges and they were really amazing! The architecture and the history of it is brilliant. They told us that “Harry Potter” was filmed at that college, so all you Harry Potter fans…be jealous! Then we saw the spot where the Bishop of Canterbury was burned to death, because Queen Mary sentenced him to death over religion. We also learned that King Henry burned over 70,000 people over religion, which was a bigger number than we thought. However, Queen Mary boiled and burned people. I told mom that “Henry may have burned more people, but Mary did it worse and way harsher.” Just goes to show when girls want something done we make sure that it’s done right. We also had some extra time to visit a museum with tons of artifacts from different cultures.
We learned that Hitler wanted to save Oxford and Windsor castle, because he wanted Oxford to be his main headquarters and he wanted to go to Windsor Castle for Christmas dinner. So those are two places in England that were untouched by him and his followers as far as destruction is concerned.



Avon: Avon means “river” and Stratford means “straight across.” The city means “straight across the river.”
Then we got to tour Shakesphere’s Birthplace, and where he attended school. We found a really small café and they had wonderful food. They had panini’s, soup, and scones. It was just the place we were looking for! It was filled with local flare. Then we went to Anne Hathoways house. We took a group photo in front of it. We also got to visit Winston Churchhills grave. There was a funeral going on, on the grounds so we made it a quick visit.

Then we just drove to through the country-side until we reached Warwick.

We learned that the English call the English channel a “Pond.” What a big pond that is!!!!

Warwick: This has been our favorite touring site yet! I can’t even explain how much fun we had at this site! When we first arrived we drove up a huge driveway. We entered the gates and there was a huge castle. We walked inside and walked 10 minutes to the River to see a jousting fight. Then we walked back up to the castle and went inside all of the rooms. They had actors role playing like we were castle guests and we were attending a ball at the castle later that night. They told mom “she must be available for dinner tonight with King Henry, because she was wearing red, and red meant that she was available.” We thought it was really neat. They had those clothes on and everything. Then we climbed the castle towers, which consisted of over 530 steps! We didn’t realize how many steps there were or we probably wouldn’t have climbed all of them! The majority of them were all up a spiral staircase, and the steps were smaller than our foot could grasp. By step 200 mom was on her hands and knees climbing the stairs due to shaky legs! The way down was not a to easy either!
At the end of the walk there were real people down in a dungeon and we got to feel the gear that the men fought in. The armor just around their chest was about 30 pounds. No wonder they had to be in good shape!
They also had people role -playing as servant girls and people in medieval gear eating lunch at a table.

At lunch Mom and I ordered “Lemonade” and we received “Sprite.” We asked the Australian ladies on the trip with us what they call Lemonade and they said Lemonade to them is Sprite also, and that they call it “Lemon Squash.” So….I tried order that today and I had no such luck. Apparently, they don’t have lemonade in England. They basically drink wine, beer, water, tea, and coffee. Barely any soda…no fruit punch or ice tea…and for sure no ice in any of their drinks! The one time I asked for ice in my drink they laughed at me and said “we don’t have any ice at this restaurant.” I have stopped asking! Hahah.

Then we got back to the hotel and had a nice dinner. We sat with the two Australian ladies and had a great chat with them about “Aussie.” It is two sisters who left their husbands for 12 days and it turned into a 7 week trip! Their husbands must think they will never return!

I got an amazing Ice cream out here as well. It is like the Alta Dena ice cream at the Pomona Fair only 10 times more creamy. It was literally like eating whip cream. Shannon would have loved it! I wanted to send her a cone through mail…guess it would melt a little ☹.

Another thing…toilets here are different. You have to pump the toilet to get it to flush. For the first two days mom and I thought that you could only pee once an hour for the toilet to flush, but then we realized when we called the front desk concerned about our toilet that it had to be pumped. After each pump and flush is a huge “eeeerrrrrrrrrrr” noise. It sounds like a cruise ship is about the leave dock! We could not stop laughing.

They have something here called “round-a-bouts” in the streets. They make us soooo sick! Its huge circles like every mile and you have to turn around the circle to get the street that you want. They are not our favorite, and we are for once happy about the streets in California.

COVENTRY-YORK

Coventry: In the morning we left for York but the tour guide decided to take us on an unscheduled journey. He took us to the town of Coventry where Lady Godiva rode naked through the streets. Supposedly she did this to make her husband stop charging the village people so many taxes. It worked! There is a clock in town somewhat like Small World at Disney where she rides out on a horse and then a second window opens and out pops “Peeping Tom” to ogle her.

It seems Hitler bombed this town to ruins during WWII so most of the buildings are very modern. There is one remaining ruin of a church built during the 1300’s that was burned but still regal. When we asked why they didn’t build the new one as beautiful I could tell they don’t appreciate the old building the way we do. They stated change is nice!


YORK: Love York!! This is what we wanted to see. The Duke of York built huge walls around his castle and today the city is built within those walls. The streets are cobblestone and maybe 10 feet wide. The shops are still standing from the 1300’s but today house restaurants and shops. We chose an authentic Italian restaurant run by Italians fresh off the boat. The pizza was great! Kayla was once again upset, NO ICE!!

There was special section called The Shambles, this is where the merchants within the castle walls worked such as the blacksmiths, leather makers, etc. The buildings were small, whitewashed, with wood planking and leaded windows. The doorways in the old buildings are maybe 6 feet high. We then took a Peter Pan type ride that took you through an authentic Viking settlement. The air was scented with all the smells of the period, such as cooking stew, fish, horse hay, fires burning etc. They also used real skulls from the 1100’s and recreated the wax figures so you could see there faces, (very bold and sharp features, blonde hair and blue eyes. The museum had dug up bones showing the battle wounds such as sword cuts, arrow punctures, and axe breaks. Skulls were smashed, legs broken and pelvic stab wounds really morbid but neat to see.

Finally, since it was Sunday (ha ha) I took Kayla to church. Actually we just wanted to see inside so we figured why not. The church was started in the 1000’s by the Normans and it took 250 years to build. It is the largest and oldest Gothic church in the world. It really did take our breath away. The service had choir boys singing and we expected to see Kate and William walk by. Privately we agree she chose the wrong church.

The wind was blowing so strong today it almost knocked us over and if you weren’t in the sun it was bitterly cold. I think we have walked 100 miles already.


It’s off to Durham and Edinburgh tomorrow.

Kayla and Sandy Ornelas