WEDNESDAY: Yesterday we woke up early and loaded up on a bus that was going to Oxford University, Stratford Upon Avon, and Warwick Castle. We were one of the last little families on the bus, so we were all divided up, but Callie ended up with a nice lady and I ended up with a pleasant computer engineer that lives with her parents, it was great!
Oxford was BEAUTIFUL. Such gorgeous architecture. We got to see the dining hall that inspired the dining hall in Harry Potter, as well as the grand staircase that they used when the students arrive at the school. It started to pour after we were there for a little bit, but it was still great. When we went to get on the bus, everyone had shuffled seats.. primarily because of the little Asian group that was with us. They didn't speak a lick of English, which had to have made the tour a little difficult for them, and they decided they wanted to shuffle seats instead of just sticking with the same ones. No big deal for now, but that comes into play later.
Next we headed to Stratford upon Avon, which was such a cute little town, I almost couldn't take it. There were adorable little stores and cafe's all down the street, and we went to Shakespeare's birth house. We were forced to watch some movies about him.. they were kind of awful. Also, one of the Asian ladies, which soon became fondly known as little green lady in our group, was HILARIOUS. She had no concept of anyone being around her, or personal space bubbles, for that matter. She used mom's shoulder to steady her hand to take a picture, dad's shoulder to give her a boost so she could see better, and a few times Callie and I looked over to see her standing so close it was shocking. Good laughs over that gem. After it was time to get back on the bus, the drama unfolded. Callie reclaimed her previously stolen seat, another group reclaimed their seats, and the Egyptian ladies freaked out that their seats were taken. They headed to the back where we had been sitting, and we were forced to take the last row where a Greek family was sitting (a rather rude Greek family, if I do say so myself.), and they pitched a fit when they got back on!! They demanded their seat back, thus leaving us seatless and even more dispersed throughout the bus than before! We finally got it all worked out, but not before Dad got cussed at in Egyptian by the crazy ladies.
After a beautiful drive through the Cotswolds, we got to Warwick Castle. Fun!!! The grounds were beautiful, and there were peacocks everywhere that dad had a glorious little time feeding. Callie almost cried when dad made her feed one. We climbed all through the towers and dungeons, and it was very sweaty/fun. Beautiful weather that whole time, which was awesome. When it was time to get off the train, we went to grab our bag of sweatshirts and other paraphernalia, but alas!! It was gone!!!! The Greeks stole it!!!! We tracked them down using the information that they gave to the tour company, but they made us go to their hotel to pick it up, instead of being courteous and delivering it after they swooped it! We ended up going to a super cute italian restaurant, and had our first yummy meal in our stay at London!
THURSDAY: What. A. Day. We got to sleep in (8 am by mom's standards), and took our time getting out the door to St. Paul's Cathedral. It was so beautiful and, somehow, Mom convinced us to climb to the very top of the dome. 528 steps, if I'm not mistaken. It was SO exhausting! Our legs were shaking by the time we all lugged up to the top, but it was definitely worth the climb.
After that, Callie found the police hat she's been questing after. It looks a little something like this. No but really, that's what she looks like in it.
After that, it was time to get to Wimbledon! We were trying to figure out exactly what track to take while we were in the tube station, and thought we had finally found the correct one, and had decided to get on. The train had been there for about a minute, so we knew we were cutting it close. (A little sidebar: once in New York we lost my mama on the subway when we all got on and she didn't. We had laughed about this the whole trip before this very event occurred.) We started to hustle onto the train, and Callie made it on, and then the gas releases made their noise and the door slid shut. Mom, in her moment of matronly protection, stuck her arm out into the doorway and stopped the door with her arm!!!! Okay actually another British guy inside stopped it with his foot, but Mom's arm was definitely in there getting some pressure. That's when this music started to play: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FWiyKgeGWx0 ..skip to 1:50 to catch the full vision on this one. She was screaming at Callie to get off at the next stop and meet us, Callie was crying hysterically and pounding on the door, Dad was yelling at mom and trying to get her arm out of the door, and Grant and I were just standing there trying not to get in the way of anyone or anything. A guy inside the train was super super sweet, and apparently he pulled the emergency stop trigger and talked to the driver so that it wouldn't leave. It was crazy town! All of a sudden, out of the corner of my left eye, I see a black guy with 3 foot long dreads running down the track towards us (queue Chariot's of Fire music here). Turns out he was the driver. He unlocked the door, and lead us all onto the train, only to find out that we were on the wrong track and the whole ordeal could have been skipped in the first place if we had noticed what line was running. Rough times. End result: two crazy ladies (mom and Callie), and one mildly angry dad. From this, my dad coined the phrase, "Mind the gap, but more importantly, mind your mom's arm."
Finally, we made it to Wimbledon. We stood in the queue for a solid hour, but got in not too long after five, which was super nice. We made it to a girl's doubles game featuring the girl who is currently ranked number eight for singles! It was super fun. Then we snuck to the above railing to watch Isner play (he's ranked ten for men's singles), but soon it started to rain. They had to hurry and tarp the grass because it gets too slippery too quick, but the second they had it tarped, the rain stopped! They untarped it just in time for the rain to pick up again, so they had to recover it, then uncover it again! The play didn't start again for another thirty minutes once the rain started the first time. We ate delicious strawberries and cream, sat on Henmen Hill to catch the ended of Federer's game, and had a blast and a half! It was too much fun. We made it home without incident, and survived the day in one piece. Phew!
I love your commentary Holly! I was wondering for a while there if you had left Grant at the hotel, till you mentioned him in the Tube. Glad to hear you are all having a blast!
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