Back to London tonight.

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Robin Hood Country
Going to Sherwood Forest
Hope we don’t get robbed.

We started the day off with a really good English breakfast of sausage, bacon, beans, eggs, toast and cereal. We’ll basically have two major stops today. Our first stop will be at Sherwood Forest this morning. Our second stop will be in Stratford-Upon-Avon this afternoon before we head into London this evening.

We walked around Sherwood Forest for a bit and saw the huge oak tree that is something like 800 years old. The tree looks like it is falling apart and has so many supports holding up its limbs. Maria and Lindsay paid to do some archery and Lindsay got herself a bull’s-eye which earned her a certificate stating she was a forest bowman. We didn’t do much else but check out the souvenir gift shop. For fun the four of us decided to take on Robin Hood personalities. Lindsay became Robin Hood, Claire became Little John, Maria was Maid Marian and somehow I became Friar Tuck. LOL It was all in good fun.

We drove some more and eventually ended up in Stratford-Upon-Avon where we spent a couple of hours discovering the birthplace of Shakespeare. I wasn’t willing to shell out £10 to enter a museum/house showing some of Shakespeare’s stuff so we just took a picture outside. 😊 Maria did go inside so now she can say “tick” when someone asks her if she went to the birthplace of Shakespeare. Haha. Lindsay, Claire and I just wandered the streets and gift shops for a bit and picked up a few souvenirs. We were in one bookshop that of course had all things Shakespeare. I was so tempted to ask…”Do you have Charles Dickens ‘Tale of Two Cities’? What about Jane Austen’s ‘Pride and Prejudice’?” Okay so I can be a goof sometimes…well lots of times! 😊

We went down by the river and watched a busker do his escape from a straight jacket and also wandered the stalls at the markets. Nice stuff but in my opinion overpriced. A lot of stuff you could easily get in Asia. Lol

Now it’s off to London. Aaw! I just saw Melissa from my Scotland tour through the window! She is now on tour through Wales. Wait, what’s she doing in Stratford-Upon-Avon? Guess they’re on their way back to London as well, or perhaps on their way to Wales? I didn’t bother getting off the bus to find out…

Thinking about the last 48 hours, I’ve met three pretty cool people. It is interesting how sometimes you can just click almost “instantly” after meeting some people. First it was with Maria and the chance meeting in the hostel and then both Lindsay and Claire. I can’t wait for Lindsay to get that tour company in South Africa going. I really meant it when I said I’d go on a tour with her as a guide. She’s got the perfect personality for it and it seems like she has the passion and drive to one day make it happen. I can’t wait for her dream to come true. 😊 I can honestly say that spending the last 48 hours with these girls has been very enjoyable. Hopefully I’ll be able to catch up with Maria one more time while I’m in London in August…

It was pretty uneventful getting into London. I watched the sights along the motorway and as you can probably imagine there wasn’t much to see along the way so naturally I felt my eyelids get heavy and did not fight it! About ½ hour from London I woke up and fought the grogginess so that I’d be awake and alert for the ride on the Underground. I have a list of things to do. Repack. Shower. Make some phone calls. On that note…time to go!

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Photos

Shakespeare's Birthplace
That's me and Claire.