Day Ten - Oxford, Statford & Warrick
Aug. 12th, 2003 10:26 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
wolfsbrideWoke up at 6am. We're going to Oxford, Statford & Warrick today. The tour leaves at 8am so we have to be off early. Left without breakfast at 7am and too the tube to Victoria Station. By the time we got to the pickup point, it was 7:40am.
The tour bus arrived late. Was surprised. It arrived at 8:10am and was MUCH smaller than the pervious tour's bus. Oh joy. Our tour guide's name is Heather and the bus driver's name is Micheal. They're both cute :)
The day continues...
WB
Heather seems to be having a lot of trouble with her microphone. Fortunately, Micheal was prepared and had spares. She had to change it three times. This one seems to be working right. Hopefully, it will be okay now.
Our first stop is Warrick. Personally I think that's a mistake as that's the most impressive of the three stops and it would have given us something to look forward to. Oh well.
Apparently part of Warrick was rebuilt. You can tell quite clearly which section is which. On the older part the stones are all weathered and rough and on the newer part it looks like concrete masquerading as stone.
Warrick doesn't look like the stereotypical castle. It has no high turrets. You can see where the moat would have been but the double door entrance is not the traditional drawbridge. Instead it moves up and down vertically.
As usual there were many oportunities to spend money. I suppose it makes financial sense but it does take away from the essence of the castle to have shops at every turn.
ACK!!!! Have just found out that Warrick Castle was bought by Madam Tussauds!!! That explains the crass commericialism. HAWK SPIT!!! Damn it all.
Our next stop is Stratford upon Avon, which sounds like it's describing an incredibly slashy moment but is in fact the name of Shakespeare's birthplace. Stratford is quite a tiny village. Much like Bath.
They have a little exhibition that talks about Shakespeare's parents, his early life and such. It's quite interesting. I wonder if Shakespeare's parents were like...
"A playwright??? You wanna spend your life writing plays??? That's gratitude for ya! We work and slave to provide a roof over your head and you turn up your nose at the family business!"
Err... I'll just... yeh.
Statford is very quaint but I wonder if it gets annoying for the people who live here to be visited by millions of tourists all the time. Hopefully the money makes up for it.
After Statford, we journeyed onto Oxford where apparently parts of Harry Potter was filmed. Viccy is squeeing again. She took pictures of the dining room which is where they filmed the Great Hall scenes.
They must have used CGI or camera angles though because it's no where near the size of the Great Hall in the movie. She also took pictures of the staircase since it's where they filmed Professor McGonagall standing as she talks to the students.
Basically Oxford is a college built by someone or the other historical figure. We had a nice custodian give us a tour. His name was James and he was very knowledgeable about the place.
Too bad I didn't retain anything he talked about. Pooh. Later, Heather told us he was more like a guard for the place since someone said rather loudly that he seemed to know a lot for a janitor.
After leaving Oxford, we went to a restaurant called the Mitre and had a glass of champagne. Then we set out for home. Had the urge to sing one million bottles of beer on the wall. My champagne must have been spiked. EH HEM...
Our well prepared bus driver, Micheal, had a dvd of MIB2. We watched that on the way home. Was fun since I'd never seen it before. Tommy Lee Jones has cute legs and those two are SO married :)
When we got home we went to Mimos for dinner. All hail Mimos!
::bows down::
The tour bus arrived late. Was surprised. It arrived at 8:10am and was MUCH smaller than the pervious tour's bus. Oh joy. Our tour guide's name is Heather and the bus driver's name is Micheal. They're both cute :)
The day continues...
WB
Heather seems to be having a lot of trouble with her microphone. Fortunately, Micheal was prepared and had spares. She had to change it three times. This one seems to be working right. Hopefully, it will be okay now.
Our first stop is Warrick. Personally I think that's a mistake as that's the most impressive of the three stops and it would have given us something to look forward to. Oh well.
Apparently part of Warrick was rebuilt. You can tell quite clearly which section is which. On the older part the stones are all weathered and rough and on the newer part it looks like concrete masquerading as stone.
Warrick doesn't look like the stereotypical castle. It has no high turrets. You can see where the moat would have been but the double door entrance is not the traditional drawbridge. Instead it moves up and down vertically.
As usual there were many oportunities to spend money. I suppose it makes financial sense but it does take away from the essence of the castle to have shops at every turn.
ACK!!!! Have just found out that Warrick Castle was bought by Madam Tussauds!!! That explains the crass commericialism. HAWK SPIT!!! Damn it all.
Our next stop is Stratford upon Avon, which sounds like it's describing an incredibly slashy moment but is in fact the name of Shakespeare's birthplace. Stratford is quite a tiny village. Much like Bath.
They have a little exhibition that talks about Shakespeare's parents, his early life and such. It's quite interesting. I wonder if Shakespeare's parents were like...
"A playwright??? You wanna spend your life writing plays??? That's gratitude for ya! We work and slave to provide a roof over your head and you turn up your nose at the family business!"
Err... I'll just... yeh.
Statford is very quaint but I wonder if it gets annoying for the people who live here to be visited by millions of tourists all the time. Hopefully the money makes up for it.
After Statford, we journeyed onto Oxford where apparently parts of Harry Potter was filmed. Viccy is squeeing again. She took pictures of the dining room which is where they filmed the Great Hall scenes.
They must have used CGI or camera angles though because it's no where near the size of the Great Hall in the movie. She also took pictures of the staircase since it's where they filmed Professor McGonagall standing as she talks to the students.
Basically Oxford is a college built by someone or the other historical figure. We had a nice custodian give us a tour. His name was James and he was very knowledgeable about the place.
Too bad I didn't retain anything he talked about. Pooh. Later, Heather told us he was more like a guard for the place since someone said rather loudly that he seemed to know a lot for a janitor.
After leaving Oxford, we went to a restaurant called the Mitre and had a glass of champagne. Then we set out for home. Had the urge to sing one million bottles of beer on the wall. My champagne must have been spiked. EH HEM...
Our well prepared bus driver, Micheal, had a dvd of MIB2. We watched that on the way home. Was fun since I'd never seen it before. Tommy Lee Jones has cute legs and those two are SO married :)
When we got home we went to Mimos for dinner. All hail Mimos!
::bows down::
