Da Trip
Part One

Saturday, March 27
London, 4:20pm

blankWhat a nightmare! I spent last night and most of today looking for a place to stay, and FINALLY found one. But, of course, it took about 1.50 in phone calls, PLUS a call to Dad for advice. Oy.
blankI did find one, though. One of the hostels I tried had told me they were probably full, and could I call back - the reservation desk was busy. I'd put it down for full. When I called Dad, he suggested I try Gatwick Airport, Mom's friend Cecile (who lives outside London), and his pal Cecilia (who lives in Manchester) in that order.
blankI gathered the numbers, and was about to call Gatwick, when I thought I'd give that Hostel another try. That turned out to be a good thing, because they DID have a room!! It's a triple, but is only 17.50 a night. Oh, happy day! Even better, it's one leg of the Underground from the station I arrive in via rail from York. AND it's got a direct route via the Underground to Victoria station, which is serviced by the Gatwick Express.
blankPhew.
blankI'm now waiting for my train out of York.
blankI just hope I don't have too much trouble getting to Mom in the morning!

blankWell, I made it! I'm sharing a triple room with an American and a Netherlander, and one of their friends (a guy). The guy's just hanging out here on suffrance.
blankIt's an interesting place - but I'm ahead of myself.
blankI didn't have much trouble finding my way from the train to the Underground. The Underground reminds me of BART (note for non-SFBay-Area-folk: it's the Bay Area Rapid Transit system), but noiser and a bit shabbier. It was only a couple stations down the line to my stop.
blankI had to hunt around a bit to find the International Student House - even though it really is right across the street from the station, it isn't well-signed. When I registered, I found out that I had to hike quite a ways to my room - it's in a different building, about four blocks away!
blankTHEN I had to climb three flights. And now, here I am, exhausted. And it's only 8pm!
blankThat's good, though - not only do I have to get up EARLY, but tonight is the night all the clocks get set forward an hour! Gack. Barf. Etc.

Saturday, March 28
Stratford-Upon-Avon, 9ish

blankWhat a day!
blankAfter a lousy night's sleep (I kep waking up), I got up at 6:30 and was out before 7. London is actually quite pretty in the pre-dawn light. Not too many cars about, and that sort of quiet chill that makes the buildings seem at once mysterious and unthreatening.
blankCatching the underground and getting to Gatwick was a cinch and a half, but took a bit longer than I'd expected. Luckily, I'd also left early. So, rather than hitting Gatwick at 8 or 8:15 as originally planned, I got there right as Mom's plane was to land (8:25).
blankBUT her plane was delayed, then delayed again. I didn't actually see her 'til about 9:50. Geez.
blankWhen she got to the waiting area, we met up, got our BritRail passes validated, and took the Gatwick Express to Victoria Station, where we found the Tourist Information Centre. Since London was (a) full and (b) friggin' expensive anyway, we opted for Stratford-Upon-Avon, where the nice TIC lady found us a B&B for two nights.
blankWe took the Underground to Paddington Station (although it took longer than we'd hoped), where there's direct rail service to Stratford. Unfortunately, we missed the train we'd been aiming for, and so had two and a half hours to kill.

blankLunch in a local pub and some trip planning, followed by reading in the station took care of that, and we caught the 2:43 to Stratford, arriving here at ten before five. We found our B&B with no problem. It's a nice little place called Aidan House, and our room is quite pleasant, if a bit crowded. The proprietors are nice enough - a sweet old man who was working in the front garden when we came, and his wife.
blankIt was nice to set our stuff down and RELAX! Mom showed me some of the cool stuff she got in Ecuador (a gal who stayed with us a couple years ago as an exchange student got married, so Mom spent a week in Ecuador before coming to the UK), including a neat shirt for me! It has pirahnas on it. It's made out of a sort of light sweat shirt material, and ash grey. Very nifty.
blankWe went to dinner at a cool place on Sheep Street, called "The Opposition." I had "Breast of Corn Fed Chicken With Egg Noodles and Szechuan Vegetables" (which sounded more impressive than it was); Ma had soup and salad. It was okay. Mine would've been better with more veggies and less mushrooms.
blankWe wandered around a bit on our way back. Stratford's a neat place - it has that small-village feel, and plenty of great old buildings mixed in with modern tourist-oriented stuff. Tomorrow we tour it and hit Warwick castle!

Saturday, March 29
Stratford-Upon-Avon, 9:26pm

blankThis touristing is hard work! I ache all over. And I'm stun-burnt!! Only a little, but STILL!
blankWe started the day off right with a leisurely breakfast (served in the front parlor - our B&B is a converted house). Mom had the continental (cereal, tea/coffee, fruit, yoghurt, toast, and croissant), I had the Full English (cereal, tea/coffee, eggs, sausage, ham, mushrooms, tomato, and toast). Then we headed into town.

One of the first things we saw was a really cool clock tower in the square; it's a Victorian monstrosity given to the town by an American philanthropist to celebrate Victoria's Jubilee. It's covered with ornate carvings and wonderful gargoyles. I could've spent a roll of film on it alone!
blankAfter taking plenty of photos, we went to the local Tourist Info Centre, where Mom turned the Tourist info gal loose on finding us lodging near London for Thursday through Saturday. I found out about trains to Warwick and back, and then we leapt on one of the Stratford tour buses.
blankThe buses all have a neat setup - You can get off and on any of 'em all day (there's one every twenty or thirty minutes), and they stop at all the major houses/sights.
blankWe started at "The Birthplace," Will Shakespeare's parents' house, where he was probably born. There we got a speciial ticket to get us into three of the five Houses, and checked out the Birthplace. It had a nifty exhibit about the Bard's family and life. The house (separate from the vistors' centre) has been partially furnished with period stuff, and had nead displays as well.
blankI got a great Richard III poster - it's done in watercolors, with Richard in the middle, and caricatures of four scenes around him. It's funny, and a great overview of the play.
blankUnfortunately, I had to lug it around (rolled in a plastic slipcover) for the rest of the day.
blankOur next stop was the Holy Trinity Church, where The Bard is buried - no photos allowed, so I got a postcard of his marker and took pix outside.
blankWe also went to Anne Hathaway's Cottage and Mary Arden's House. The latter has a working farm and falconry displays. They had all sorts of trained birds, including a couple of owls! The weather had been drizzling all morning, and was now actually raining, so the only bird stuff going on was a guy with a barn owl in (appropriately enough) the barn. We only found out about it because of a gal we ran into in the falconry area - she'd been working to get a kestrel down from the roof where it'd been perched for two hours, impervious to all atempts to call it down. She'd finally succeeded by offering it a live chick. It'd been a real pain having it up there, because they couldn't send any OTHER birds up until they got it down - hawks and falcons tend to think kestrels make nice snacks.
blankAnyway, the owl was amazing. The handler would send it flying to a rafter, then call it back and give it a treat. It was oldish (7 years), and very tame - he showed us how far its head could turn by turning it (which was very unnerving!), and brought it up to his face several times as if for a kiss. The best part was when Mom and I showed up, obviously interested (and also native speakers of English, unlike the French tourist group surrounding him), he asked if I'd like to call it! I leapt at the chance, of course, so he sent the owl to a rafter, and put the glove on my hand and tucked a treat into my fingers, then did his call-whistle while I held my hand up. When the owl flew to me, it was so gorgeous! Like a luxurious and elaborate dress on wings. It hardly weighed a thing, either, which was strange. The trainer said I could bring him in close, but I was a little nervous - I'm not used to birds.
blankAnyway, I got to do that twice, and Mom took photos. Then she got to do it, too, while I took pix. VERY cool.

blankAfter the tours were over, we hit a grocer for lunch and ate on the train to Warwick. We hiked up to the Castle (not too bad a walk, but having been on our feet all day, we were glad to get there!), paid 20 pounds for the two of us plus a guidebook, and went in. The displays are interesting (Madam Tussad's is the owner, and the wax people look great), but I really loved poking around the battlements and looking at the buildings. It's in very good condition, considering how old it is; but then, it was lived in until 1978 by the Earls of Warwick!

I love castles in general, but this one was really neat - it had a terribly picturesque segment of wall that ran over the top of a mound and was framed beautifully against the setting sun, and had great turrets. blankUnfortunately, we missed that it closed at five (we saw "6pm," and didn't realise that that's only April-October), and so missed a couple of the more interesting sounding exhibits. :(
blankBut we saw the gardens (which had a flock of peacocks, if that's the right term, including one which was an albino!) and towers, plus displays in the armoury, dungeon, and barbican, AND a thing on Richard Neville, Earl of Warwick, aka "The Kingmaker." It took you through the preparations for the battle at which Warwick was killed, and was pretty cool (although the "animated" horse was just as hokey as Let's Go said - "Look, it moved its tail! Oh, it did it again!" Oy). And Warwick's page (who was the narrator) was a bit too breathless and worshipful for me ("And they killed him! My Master! Earl of Warwick! KINGMAKER!" Ack). But the costumes were great, and the wax figres were pretty darned impressive.
blankThen we staggered back here, hunted down a box for Mom to ship some stuff home, ate at a pub called the Pen and Parchment, and here we are.
blankTomorrow: Bath!