Day 20

Grundy lent us his car today, a rather peppy VW golf, though I didn't open it up on the motorways as I was unsure of the speed limit! Anyways after 40 minutes we were in Stratford-upon-Avon, a cute small town thats main claim to fame is that it's where Shakespeare was from, he was a famous playwrite or something, never heard of him myself. Besides all that it was a really nice place to hang out for a couple of hours in the sunshine. The best pub feed we've had in the UK was consumed at the oldest pub in this town too (the Garrick Inn for those who are interested). After dragging Ruth out of a shop we were off to the town of Warwick, and the Warwick Castle. The castle was first built in 914 and was lived in right up to 1978, when it was turned into a sort of medievil theme park.It's a really good place for kids, so was right up my alley. They have all sorts of shows, bowman shooting arrows, jousting, birds of prey, fighting knights and the shooting of some giant catapault thing. Then there is the castle itself which has tours of the various towers, armoury, dungeons, and state rooms. We really enjoyed this place, the highlights being the castle itself, my form with the bow and arrow (5 out of 5), and a cheap thrill ghost experience where people just scare the shit out of you, in the dark, in one of the towers. Well worth a visit. We left here just as it started to rain and had the quitessential big city experience, sitting in rush hour traffic. That night we hit the piss in Birmingham at an area called the Mailbox, right on their re-vamped waterfront and seems to be the flasher type pubs, a large one was had drinking the giant beers they have over here, but not too late as had a big day tomorrow.