’13 Sep: London and the English Countryside

Shakespeare’s grave. Other of his family members are here too.

September 10, Happy Birthday Sister!

This day was Windy’s birthday and we had some evening plans set up for months. At the last minute we decided to go out to the town of Warwick for the morning to enjoy their castle/attraction.

On their website http://www.warwick-castle.com, you can see a very interesting timeline tracking the history of the castle from 914 until the present.

“The Mighty Trebuchet. This is the largest working siege machine IN THE WORLD! The colossal catapult is an authentic recreation of one of the biggest and most deadly military machines of all time.”

They had a fun demonstration of the Mighty Trebuchet. My favorite is that guy in the foreground pointing with his sword.

There was a not-that-great birds of prey show. They do get a lot of flying in.

Many of the rooms were decked out in full display…

…with guides to answer questions and do demonstrations. The kids were in thrall to the arms and armor and that adorable man who did a great job. He even gave us his attention to answer as many questions as we could find to ask about all his stuff.

Sisters, out and about.

It was more fun than either of us expected.

We had a perfectly splendid dinner at Loxleys, a well regarded restaurant/gastro-pub establishment in Stratford-Upon-Avon.

I had made reservations ahead and told them of Windy’s birthday. We got the best seats in the house with a sweet Happy Birthday card decorating our table. We were both really happy.

Here is the home of the Royal Shakespeare Company. (The inset I got off the internet. We never made it for a river cruise what with one thing and another.)

Btw, the town is called Stratford-Upon-Avon while the district is called Stratford-On-Avon, and hence the confusion.

Where we saw As You Like It. (The big picture is not mine.) We were sitting right on the rail exactly in the center of the upper balcony.

Happy Birthday Sister! It’s been GREAT!