Sunday, September 18, 2005
First Weekend out of London....
Hey everyone,
Just got back from my first weekend trip outside of London. We went to Cotswold, Warwick, Stratford (on-avon), and Oxford.
Cotswold
We stopped here on Friday to get some lunch and shop around for a bit. They had a maze make of bushes and a small creek flowed through the town. I also found out the difference between what classifies as a town and a city (a city must have a cathedral). I went into a British Bakery, and they have some of the most Delicious things...i bought a piece of (something)-drip cake and it was great!. The bottom of it was soaked in honey and sugar and the top was just plain....it reminded me of a glaze donut, but much better!! The bakery was also playing a popular dance tune (DJ Tiesto-Silence) which I found exciting because it was on the radio!! Something you don't find here in the Us. In fact most of the shops play some kind of dance music that I've heard from the local Chicago scene...no one else in our group can really relate (being most are from Pella Iowa, Michigan, North Carolina, Texas, or New York). Oh how i LOVE it! After having hot chocolate at a tea shoppe with Peter, Katherine, Karla, and Emily (Eric's [the director] assistant), I broke off from the group and took a short walk out in the countryside. If you look in my pictures, you'll notice there are a few of the English Countryside...very beautiful!
Warwick
This town mainly consisted of the Castle and the lands surrounding it. They had numerous peacock's walking around the grounds...people were even petting them! Also they had an archery demonstration and a launching of the french catapult (theres a special name for it, but I can't remember what it was). I saw the collection of Royal bird they had chained by the leg on exhibit. Two owls, two bald eagles, one eagle, the largest vulture I've seen, and a hawk. Inside the main chambers of the castle, they had it decorated to be the 1800's with mannikin's dressed up such as it may have looked back then. Not bad living conditions at all for the time at all! After walking through the castle and other areas of the lands, we walked into town to find those grass tennis courts we spotted. Unfortunately, we did not find them within the 45 min.s we had to get back at the bus, so we just walked around the town a bit and sampled some wine and cheese from a market.
Stratford-on-Avon
The birthplace of William Shakespeare and the home to three theatre's for a city the size of roughly 26,000. I really enjoyed it due to the student discounts at the pubs (i had crabcakes for the first time and I like them!!). We stayed here 2 nights at a bed and breakfast with traditional English breakfast (one egg, toast, a sausage link [grainy tasting], a tiny cup of concentrated OJ, a piece of salted ham, and 1/2 of a hashbrown). We saw "A Midsummers Night's Dream" at the larger of the three theatre's downtown. It was nice because unlike the Globe, we actually got to sit down for the full three hours it lasted. The special effects were really good too...I didn't expect it after going from the Globe (classic play style) to this Theatre (modern style). Saturday night after the play we went to a unique pub. It was one long room, with three sections (sitting and chatting, drinking, dancing)--and each room seemed to follow the unwritten rules of the pub. Needless to say, I had a good time dancing to everything from Milk Inc., Special D, Outkast, Deep Dish (A British DJ who produces many mixed and own tracks). The nightlife in the town seemed very safe, and practically ALL the shops close at 5:30!! Luckily, the pub we found was open to 1, and many others from our group found their way there.
Oxford
We only got to spend 2 1/2 hours in Oxford today so I didn't get to see much other than the shops. The college's are very reserved and do not easily allow tourists to walk in their facilities. I did buy a sweatshirt and a dress'er shirt for 20 GBP (which is pretty good). Also from what I've noticed, what many Americans consider to be metro-sexual/gay clothing in the US (really tight shirts and jeans, perfect trousers, etc...) is what is considered fashionable over here. Interesting, but I kept my size at a Large...I don't want to blend in "too" much. Also, there are quite a few tourists and students around the city though...it was quite a bit larger than I had expected.
Just got back from my first weekend trip outside of London. We went to Cotswold, Warwick, Stratford (on-avon), and Oxford.
Cotswold
We stopped here on Friday to get some lunch and shop around for a bit. They had a maze make of bushes and a small creek flowed through the town. I also found out the difference between what classifies as a town and a city (a city must have a cathedral). I went into a British Bakery, and they have some of the most Delicious things...i bought a piece of (something)-drip cake and it was great!. The bottom of it was soaked in honey and sugar and the top was just plain....it reminded me of a glaze donut, but much better!! The bakery was also playing a popular dance tune (DJ Tiesto-Silence) which I found exciting because it was on the radio!! Something you don't find here in the Us. In fact most of the shops play some kind of dance music that I've heard from the local Chicago scene...no one else in our group can really relate (being most are from Pella Iowa, Michigan, North Carolina, Texas, or New York). Oh how i LOVE it! After having hot chocolate at a tea shoppe with Peter, Katherine, Karla, and Emily (Eric's [the director] assistant), I broke off from the group and took a short walk out in the countryside. If you look in my pictures, you'll notice there are a few of the English Countryside...very beautiful!
Warwick
This town mainly consisted of the Castle and the lands surrounding it. They had numerous peacock's walking around the grounds...people were even petting them! Also they had an archery demonstration and a launching of the french catapult (theres a special name for it, but I can't remember what it was). I saw the collection of Royal bird they had chained by the leg on exhibit. Two owls, two bald eagles, one eagle, the largest vulture I've seen, and a hawk. Inside the main chambers of the castle, they had it decorated to be the 1800's with mannikin's dressed up such as it may have looked back then. Not bad living conditions at all for the time at all! After walking through the castle and other areas of the lands, we walked into town to find those grass tennis courts we spotted. Unfortunately, we did not find them within the 45 min.s we had to get back at the bus, so we just walked around the town a bit and sampled some wine and cheese from a market.
Stratford-on-Avon
The birthplace of William Shakespeare and the home to three theatre's for a city the size of roughly 26,000. I really enjoyed it due to the student discounts at the pubs (i had crabcakes for the first time and I like them!!). We stayed here 2 nights at a bed and breakfast with traditional English breakfast (one egg, toast, a sausage link [grainy tasting], a tiny cup of concentrated OJ, a piece of salted ham, and 1/2 of a hashbrown). We saw "A Midsummers Night's Dream" at the larger of the three theatre's downtown. It was nice because unlike the Globe, we actually got to sit down for the full three hours it lasted. The special effects were really good too...I didn't expect it after going from the Globe (classic play style) to this Theatre (modern style). Saturday night after the play we went to a unique pub. It was one long room, with three sections (sitting and chatting, drinking, dancing)--and each room seemed to follow the unwritten rules of the pub. Needless to say, I had a good time dancing to everything from Milk Inc., Special D, Outkast, Deep Dish (A British DJ who produces many mixed and own tracks). The nightlife in the town seemed very safe, and practically ALL the shops close at 5:30!! Luckily, the pub we found was open to 1, and many others from our group found their way there.
Oxford
We only got to spend 2 1/2 hours in Oxford today so I didn't get to see much other than the shops. The college's are very reserved and do not easily allow tourists to walk in their facilities. I did buy a sweatshirt and a dress'er shirt for 20 GBP (which is pretty good). Also from what I've noticed, what many Americans consider to be metro-sexual/gay clothing in the US (really tight shirts and jeans, perfect trousers, etc...) is what is considered fashionable over here. Interesting, but I kept my size at a Large...I don't want to blend in "too" much. Also, there are quite a few tourists and students around the city though...it was quite a bit larger than I had expected.
# posted by Joseph Trapani @ Sunday, September 18, 2005 
