Blogs from Warwickshire, England, United Kingdom, Europe

Yet another rainy night. They seem never ending. The rain dripping onto the van roof does however have a cathartic effect. Welcoming, warm inside with the heating running and soothing. However, despite enjoying the pitter patter of the rainfall it does dampen enthusiasm for sightseeing. Everywhere looks so much cleaner, tidier and brighter in the sunshine. We seem though to be having none of that lately. After breakfast we set off for the Park and Ride on the outskirts of Stratford. It had recently opened and provided a clean and modern site with ample parking for cars and a specialised area for motorhomes. We had hoped it would be as good as the older sites of Chester and Shrewsbury and it seemed better. The Warwickshire blurb on line told us that the buses ran frequently to ... read more

For a couple of days we pondered - should we go or should we stay? What was putting us off - well one or two things. Firstly the weather which was changeable to say the least. March is supposed to come in like a lion and go out like like a lamb. However, the wind did not arrive, instead we had heavy torrential rain, sleet and even a covering of snow which blanketed the ground and made the country look as if it had fallen into the depths of Winter again. This was followed by glorious sunshine which out did the weather in the south of France. The second thing that put us off was the impending petrol tanker drivers strike which could have left us without petrol for our first trip in the van to ... read more

This weekend, we rented a car with two of Mike's classmates from Singapore (Fuad and Aloysius - the same two we met at the Giant's Causeway), and headed out on the wrong side of the road (well, technically, it was the left side) to a region of England just 1.5 hours outside of London called the Cotswolds. The region is a range of limestone hills, which are dotted with picturesque villages that are made of limestone buildings. It's also a great region to do some hiking, which is what we planned on doing. We set off on Saturday morning to pick up the car at Heathrow airport. We had only gotten our acts together on Friday night to rent the car (didn't get around to booking a hotel though), so we arrived at the airport at ... read more

Off to Warwick Castle today, best preserved castle (but a little too much like a theme park now) in England. Very expensive but we spent about 4 hours there, walking again nonstop and the bonus of 550 steps! Did the dungeon tour as an add on, I was caught out a couple of times and screamed nice and loudly!!!!! Cooper was hauled in to court and in to the dock, found guilty for being Australian!!!!! Kasey ran every where,her favourite part was learning about how they used "bum waste" their term not mine, to defend the castle, throwing it at anyone trying to get in. Cooper liked the dungeons. greg like walking the wallls, I just loved the history. You may notice our clothes are starting to look the same day after day - yes I ... read more