6/18

We were going to go to Stratford today, but decided on Warwick Castle instead. Depending on the weather Saturday night, we may or may not stay overnight at Stonehenge, so we wanted to make sure we had something that Max would like to do for Sunday. So, if we don't make it to Stratford Sunday, Em & I will go next week.

So, the castle doesn't open until 10, and it's supposed to take about 45 minutes from here, so we took of at like 9:15. All was going well until this huge roundabout. Now, normally, I can look at Bruce (the GPS. We have it set on Australian.), then look at the roundabout, and visualize where I need to go. Bruce doesn't always know the road numbers, and all of the signs are in numbers. Luckily, there are signs, though. That's good. So, this roundabout. Friggin' huge. It's not your normal little roundabout. It goes over a freeway, and has like 6 exits. Plus, there's roadwork. Bruce tells me to take the 5th exit to Stratford Rd. The signs say nothing about Stratford Rd. They all have numbers. A this or M that. The only sign I see for Stratford goes back behind me. Of course, I don't see that until Bruce says, "Recalculating." "Recalculating" used to be Bruce's favorite thing to say. Now, it's "roundabout." Anyway, so, I get off on the wrong exit. Crap. OK, no problem, I have Bruce. He tells me how to get back on the road. I figure out that I want to take the A429, or something like that. Easier said than done. I swear, the sign says that exit is A429. Nope, Bruce says. Recalculating. Bastard. OK, merge onto the M40 and go 10 miles. OK, I can just take an exit off the M40. Nope. Merge onto the M something else. OK, will do. Take this exit. Now, enter roundabout, and go back. No friggin' way. My U-turn added 45 minutes to our ETA. Back to the roundabout. Only a few wrong turns left to make, but I make the right one this time. Our original ETA was 10:18. We got there a little before 11.

So, Warwick Castle is one of the oldest castles that is still in good repair. That's because it's owned by Tussauds. So, it's more of a historically accurate Ren Faire. Actually, it shows how the castle went from a medieval fortress to a Victorian mansion. So, there are lots of wax figures, and different parts of the castle are done up in different eras. It was pretty fun. In one part, there was a picture opportunity. Normally, the attendant will give you a hat and let you stand in the wax scene. Since there weren't many people at the time when Em & I got there, she also pulled out a tunic, and let us take pictures with the figures. Then, we had a yummy, yummy lunch. Em had ham, cauliflower, carrots, new potatoes, roasted potatoes, Yorkshirepudding & stuffing. I had about the same thing, but I had roast beef, and mine was smothered in gravy. It was really good.

We got to see a trebuchet demo, which was neat. It was huge.

We made it home in the scheduled 45 minutes. This time, I knew which exit I needed to take on that roundabout from hell, and we were OK. Now, I am extraordinarily tired. Max has been asleep for hours, but I know that if I go to sleep now, I'll never sleep all night. I'm about to get Em out of the tub, though, and we'll start reading time. Tomorrow is an easy day. I think we're just going to go to a local model village.

Night!