A short English trip.

Not every trip needs to involve a flight, and this time we decided to stay in the UK and take Daddy Bunny to visit a few places of interest around London and South of England that he has always wanted to see.

Day One, to Stratford upon Avon and the home of Shakespeare. We only had a few hours to spare before needing to check into our hotel, so we wandered the old town of Stratford, just looking at the old buildings that still stand to this day from the time of Shakespeare himself. There are several museums we could have gone in, but personally we didn`t feel the need to pay the quite expensive entry fees. The town itself is interesting enough. We found the little market that sold some rather yummy marshmallow fluff in a jar, and Mr B took a shine to some pitted olives. Big B prefers to just look, but not spend.

Warwick Castle. A short drive away stands the magnificent and interesting Warwick Castle. This castle with its very central location in the heart of England, has changed hands many times, been visited by some fairly impressive Kings of England including Henry VIII and has undergone some extensive changes over time. Well worth a visit, and if time allows, go and take a look at the Bird Show. Despite its lack of seating the show itself earns brownie points for effort, even if Chunky Owl, (sorry Mr Owl, your actual species I have forgotten, but your character I have not) chose not to behave. For the brave at heart there are dungeons for an added entry fee, no idea what they house, as brave I am not. The wax figures portraying life at the Castle were excellent, very lifelike making the exhibits feel more realistic, rather than the awful plastic dummies you see at some places. With food prices a little too tasty for comfort, a self made picnic would have been a good call. For anyone with a head for heights, (non of us do) you can climb up, and walk along two sections of the castle walls. To access the highest point however, you need not to suffer claustrophobia as that first tower climb is a continual tight spiral staircase.

British Motor Museum. I didn`t think for one moment this museum would hold any interest for this Bunny, but it was actually very good. I have no idea where that museum found all the oldest ones, but there were cars on display going back to 1900. It was very interesting seeing how cars have changed over the years without us realising. Think back, when was the last time you saw a Sierra? Or a Mondeo? Not just cars either. We all found the old touring caravan a revelation. Land Rover. A 20 minute video showing the ever evolving Land Rover, Range Rover, Freelander and the list goes on. I always thought of them as Chelsea Tractors or Farmers field cars, quite impressive what goes on under the chassis or bonnet. Not a car I will take for granted anymore. Still think the wrong people drive them for the wrong reasons, but driven for a purpose? Yes, I get it now. There is also an overflow museum, less interesting I thought, but still housing a vast amount of cars, again many of which I had forgotten about. Old shaped Astra anyone?

Blenheim Palace.

Being the place where Sir Winston Churchill was born, this beautiful Palace was high on all our bucket lists of places to visit, I`ve seen it before, and was looking forward to seeing it again, the huge magnificent front facade with its.... What!! Wait!! Who put that scaffolding there!!!! Oh the disappointment!. Unbeknown to me when I booked, though it would be fair to admit that I failed to read any small print, and it may have been a p.s. I missed, but the Palace is in the throes of having a brand new roof fitted. Initially we were very disappointed, but the Palace clearly have the interests of the paying public in mind, and with hindsight, built that scaffolding to incorporate steps up to a large public viewing platform. How many people can say that have looked down on both the Palace, and its grounds? Even inside, they have reproduced the interior ceilings and walls with printed murals of same, so well reproduced that I had to look twice to realise I was looking at canvas, not the real thing. Apologies, but by the time this blog is published, the platform will have been taken down as stage two of the roof project starts elsewhere.

London. Here for one reason only. To see the superb stage show, Harry Potter and the Cursed Child. Like myself, Daddy B has read all the books, and seen the films. Mr B has only watched the films, so has no clue at all as to who for eg Winky is...lol. Mrs Bunny has read all the books several (hundred) times each, and has longed for the day to see the stage show once more. Ironically this 2 part stage show will be changing to a singular show from September onwards, a little sad I think, as there are not a lot of scenes that feel particularly unnecessary. The show, about which I am going to say very little, you need to see for yourself, was very much enjoyed by all. The audience behaved, and were very quiet, and the show, which I swear is very different to the first time I saw it, was just superb.

Accommodation in London is scarily expensive, so we stay at Watford, this time at the perfectly located Travelodge Watford Central, 5 mins into town, 15 mins to the railway station. From hotel to Show in less than 90 mins and around £15 pp. Not too shabby for London I thought.

Staying on the Harry Potter theme, the next day we went to the Studios. the Making of Harry Potter films. We love the film sets, the details, the changes to each visit. This time they had adapted the main Hall to depict the scenes from Goblet of Fire, in particular the scene where the Weasley brothers throw fireworks. Gringotts bank is just so impressive. The disney fans in us wanted to `turn right` at the top, ifykyk, ....but we didn`t, instead we waited for the dragon. We dug deep into our pockets to share a butterbeer ice cream, share being a good choice, far too expensive otherwise. The whole studio experience is excellent, and the staff well informed and helpful, everywhere except here at the Butterbeer stand. I try not to critisise people, as I firmly believe everyone tries hard, but the girl who served me? Not only could she not remember the order (all of three items) and checked it multiple times. She could not remember where items where stored, pacing from one end of the counter to the other. She quite clearly had no clue whether to serve the ice cream in an ordinary cup or the advertised (and ordered) souvenir cup. I pitied the poor people in the very long queue behind me.

Bury St Edmunds, odd choice you may think, not for me! After 4 long years of waiting, I finally got to see my best friend in person again. Packing both the boys off to a snooker hall, Jelly Bean and I put the world to rights for the rest of the afternoon. Afternoon tea at the Angel, so good, followed by a lovely walk around a town that has quickly become a favourite place of mine. There have been very few places around the world, where my heart and head have agreed that this would be a nice place to put down roots. Redcliffe in Australia was one, Queenstown in New Zealand another, and now BSE in England, who would have thought?

A really nice trip, just the three older bunnies driving around Southern England. A trip to be repeated with the same dynamic, different countries, later this year.