Day 6-A blast from the past, and face to face with the bard

This morning was a normal morning, a bit earlier of a leave, but 8:30 was our departure time. We did awake to a different breakfast this morning. it was no longer the pampered service of room delivery, but we actually had to work for our breakfast. It required waking up and walking downstairs to the buffet room. Then we had to pick up our extremely hot plates, and load them up with blood pudding and other traditional English breakfast items. It was a scrumptious start to the day. THe other school didn't meet up with us till the end of the day, so we waved at them as they left early this morning.

We jumped on the bus at 8:30 for an hour and a half bus-ride to Warwick. The students once again capitalized on the opportunity to sleep. Some did stay awake though and continued to battle on their game boys. We arrived at our first destination, Warwick Castle. Warwick was a unique experience because live actors were placed throughout all of the castle grounds to give a more realistic approach. Activities that were offered included: Watching the trebuchet launch a pebble, A falcon show which some individuals thought they were going to be carried away by a bird aka they know who they are, walking along the castle walls, touring the grand halls of the castle, archery lessons, Climbing spiral staircases designed for a child at the age of 5, ye olde fashione gifte shoppe, the King Maker wax museum, squeezing through small staircases, buying snacks and cold drinks, did we mention a small spiral staircase? Cody was also up to his usual Cody antics, and Mr. Dutton, his chaperone, is coming to a boiling point. But it's Cody, so it'll all work when the whole group starts laughing. The weather and wind were not favorable, but we all bore through it, and carried on, because we came for England weather, not tanning weather.

We ran to the bus and scooted over to the nearby Stratford upon Avon. This was the place where the bard himself was born, raised, cornbread fed, and died. We started off inside the birthplace, not the mom's inside, but the actual house. It was very realistic, small, cold, crooked, and Robbie is under the belief that people were all shorter than 6 feet in earlier centuries (doorways are always problems). The house was awesome though, and it was cool to be in the same house as Shakespeare. We were given 2 hours to roam the city and find some grub. Some ate at a pub, a pasty place, a local sandwich shop, some ate Italian. After that, we all roamed the city like tourists, snatching deals and shopping at Poundland (the British Dollar Store). At 4:30 we jumped on the bus and met up with the other school. We took a 3 and half our bus ride up to Wales. The hotel is nice and quaint, and was actually requested by Mr. K.

Dinner was at 8, and we actually had options. Starters were a choice of: melon and fruit, cream of mushroom soup, and a salad. The main courses were: Cottage Pie, Battered Fried Fish, and a Spinach and Ricatto Tortellini. All were delicious, and the option to choose made it even better.

After dinner we all got to chill around the hotel, and now a "blizzard" is hitting the hotel. The snow is actually sticking on the ground, and it looks pretty awesome outside. Maybe if it stays up at this pace, in the morning we can have a snowball fight.

Tomorrow we leave for Ireland, and we look forward to the ferry ride. Pray we stay warm and don't have to get our fingers chopped off from numbness...as that would make blogging difficult.