Day 3 – Oxford, Stratford and Warrick Castle

The morning started out finally meeting my tour group. 7am for a continental breakfast then on the tour bus and out of town. Our guide is named Sam and our driver is named George. I’ve gotten a picture of George just yet. I’ll try to get a picture of the bus at some point.

Leaving London we headed to Oxford for a very short stay. The day was part of a two day Festival of St. Giles. We were only there for an hour and a half or so. After leaving Oxford we headed to Stratford. I tried to take a couple pictures from the window of the bus but it didn’t work out so well, so unless we’re stopped I’ll likely not bother anymore.

In Stratford you could visit the birthplace of Shakespeare, but it was a pay visit for a very small thing that I did the first time I was in England so I skipped on that. We had one and a half hours to run about Stratford. I found what claimed to be the oldest pub in the town, The Garrick, and had lunch there. Slow roasted lamb with new potatoes. It was decent, but we’re not expecting high cuisine from the Brits. As a side note, most of the tour appears to be Australian and in eating with some of the Australians yesterday I learned that they call the Brits Poms. I’ve never heard the term Pom before. They weren’t sure of the origin.

After Stratford I took the optional tour to Warwick (pronounced Warrick) Castle where two and a half hours wasn’t near enough time for me. It was a great place and if ever you’re going to the UK, make sure you can get in a visit. It is the second oldest inhabited castle in England according to the guide. I took about 200 pictures of the castle and that was limited by the time. I never got outside to see the gardens and I watched both presentations from the castle walls instead of the field you’re supposed to watch them from. At some point I’ll figure out a way to post the video I took of the trebuchet fighting (I learned not to quit my day job to become a professional cameraman, but it came out ok anyway).

After leaving the castle (last one to get on the bus), we rode to Coventry to stay the night in the Novotel Accor. Not as nice as the Jurys, but serviceable. I now met my roommate Anthony from Melbourne. The room is serviceable. It’s only one night worth though.

Images are finally located here.