WARWICK CASTLE

Monday, March 3rd, 1997 Bourton on the Water, (Cotswolds), England

Started the day at about 8:30 am with breakfast in the dining room. Waitress was quite chatty compared to yesterday. Don’t know if it was the good tip we left yesterday or less people in the dining room. We talked a lot about church going habits and why the church had mostly young children and older adults attending the Mass. Jim left early to go for a walk and came back with the news that he’d found a blue sports coat he wanted to buy. Patti still needed to go to the dress shop we’d seen yesterday to buy the coat for her granddaughter which had a label by “Pat Perkins” her maiden name.

Everyone got their baggage out of their rooms and Randy went for the car. We spent some time taking photos of all the luggage and still no Randy. Finally, Patti went to watch for him at the end of the street that we knew he had to come up to get to the hotel. Then Jim went to look at something. In the meantime, the clerk from the hotel comes out and asks if we are waiting for one of our men to bring up the car. We said yes and he said he thought he’d seen him driving around the city as he was bringing up another car.

We decided to give it some more time. Soon we spotted Randy walking back towards us. He’d been stymied by one way streets and workers and finally returned the car to the parking lot. So we arranged for the hotel to bring the car up. Then Jim returned and he and I went off to buy the blazer and look for Patti.

When they found Patti she had gone off to the dress shop instead of returning to the hotel (because she knew Jim was off to buy his coat). Then Barbara went off while we were waiting for Patti and found a dog statute for her son Kevin. Patti returned with the coat and a dress. Jim returned with his coat and we were finally on the road to the Cotswolds and Warwick Castle.

Warwick Castle was marvelous. It is now owned by the Wax Museum people of London and has wonderful figures depicting the scenes of the early years of the castle. One of the most enjoyable castles any of us has ever seen. Randy and I had the audio tour and spoke too loud because of the headphones but loved the full story. We had lunch before we began and then spent several hours touring the castle and grounds.

Back on the road to Bourton on the Water we finally figured out the directions. Barbara had told us it was Bourbon on the Water and no one knew where that was when we asked for directions. But we finally figured it out and found our way. There was a slight variation in the spelling of the two words!

We had reservations at a lovely hotel called the Dial Hotel which Barbara has stayed at before. At dinner we had two women from Virginia and two other English couples. Had a wonderful dinner and then coffee in the drawing room with the two couples. Very delightful evening. Off to the room about 11 pm and then AOL here we come. Both Barbara and Patti received messages as well as one for myself from clients and family. Finally getting the hang of hooking up to the Internet through the telephone lines and it's well worth the time and trouble. Time to hit the hay….it’s now after midnight as we also downloaded Pointcast for Jim. Took 14 minutes but now he knows what his stocks are doing. Gotta keep them happy.......