Warwick Castle and Stratford-upon-Avon

As I exited the door to my building this morning, all the students started singing "happy birthday." They really surprised me. Julie Williams and some others gave me a box of Thornton's chocolates and had a birthday cake to share on the bus. It was so nice of them. Tony, our coach driver called and said he was caught in traffic and to meet him at Bedford Park so off we went. When he was able to get through the traffic, we headed for Warwick Castle.

Of course it was raining. After all, this is Tuesday and we were going on a walking tour. Tony said that it wasn't really raining, but that the clouds were on the ground and there was 100% humidity. Regardless, it was a good way to get wet. We toured the castle on our own and Ian went off with Aimee so I headed into Warwick. It is a beautiful little town and I want to come back someday for an entire day there. I raced back and made it to the coach for our 1:30 departure.

Tony drove us around Stratford-upon-Avon to show us some of the sites before letting us off. We had not planned a tour so we let everyone head for what they wanted to see. Many were Shakespeare buffs and wanted to get in as much as possible and hit the ground running. Keri had an agenda so Ian and I headed out on our adventure. We hunted for his bookmarks and found a couple. He has quite a collection now. We ate lunch at McDonalds (I know, I know, I am so ashamed, but I needed to find something Ian would eat.) We saved our chips (fries) and headed for the Avon to feed the ducks, geese and swans. Ian had them eating out of his hand. We window shopped and headed up and down back streets until it was time to meet the bus. Then it was back to London and the end of our England adventures.

One of the sad things about reaching the end of our time here is that we have to say goodbye to all of our new and old friends. Sunday was hard at Church and tonight we had to say goodbye to Tony, our Westbus Coach driver. He has been an absolutely perfect coach driver and really served as a tour guide as well. We now count him as one of our friends here in London and it was really hard to part.

Following our return to the flat, the doorbell rang and I opened to Jason, Erin, Jamie, Christina, Sarah and Kerri with a flaming candle decorated birthday cake. I'm surprised it didn't set off the smoke alarms in the building. It was so fun, and again, a wonderful surprise. What a great group! I can't believe we are parting in four days.