Last Day in London (Day 8)

We decided to take a bus tour up to Warwick Castle, Stratford-Upon-Avon, through the Cotswalds, and over to Oxford.

First stop was Warwick Castle. For those of you who haven't been there, it is a castle that is fully put together and furnished. My parents suggested we go here first before going to castle ruins, so we could see what they should look like. We had a lot of fun here! It was a tad overdone for Halloween, but it was definitely cool to see the castle. I think Sam's favorite part was definitely the Trebuchet. Warwick castle actually has the world's largest trebuchet! It was pretty cool. Because it was Halloween, they launched a pumpkin in it! It went pretty far!!

We toured the whole castle, except for the dungeon. Sam really wanted to go down and see all the torture implements, but that REALLY creeps me out. So he skipped it for me!

Next our bus headed to Stratford-Upon-Avon, which is Shakespeare's birthplace. We toured the home he grew up in then went to the park to have lunch. Sam and I had a few pasties (not to be confused with pastries). Pasties are definitely one of our favorite English foods! I think I am going to make them one of these days. If you've never had a pasty, they are DELICIOUS!! We had fun watching ducks take bread from people, then we started noticing a few seagulls posing as ducks so people would feed them too! It was pretty entertaining!

After leaving Stratford, our bus headed through the Cotswalds. I am in LOVE with those houses! We then arrived at Oxford College.

We toured a few of the different colleges, which was really interesting! SUCH a beautiful campus! It's been fun since then to notice the campus in some movies such as Golden Compass and the Harry Potters!

After finishing the bus tour, we had a pasta and salad buffet at our hotel. It was a monumental occasion for us, because it was the first time that salad was Sam's favorite part of the meal!