Cadbury's Chocolate! (And a Castle!!)
It's a Creme Egg car! :-D Isn't that silly? Aunt Bek remembered these cars from her last visit to the Cadbury's factory nine years ago! She literally bounced when she saw they still had them, LOL!
Yesterday, we flew from Dublin, Ireland to Birmingham, England. It was another of those up and right back down flights. Here's me waiting for our Aer Lingus flight in Dublin:
In Birmingham, we picked up a rental car. Cars in the UK are weird - the steering wheel is on the right side of the car instead of on the left, like they are in the US! And they drive on the left side of the road instead of on the right. I think Melinda is very brave to have done all the driving for us. Thank you, Melinda!
We drove to Stratford-upon-Avon and settled into a cottage near there. By then, it was pretty late, so I went to bed.
When we got up today, Aunt Bek told me we were going to a chocolate factory! How cool! So we drove back to Birmingham, where Cadbury's chocolate is made. The outside of the factory is pretty boring:
...but inside, there's Cadbury World - a huge chocolate shop and the factory tour, which is really cool. You get free chocolate, find out how all kinds of candy is made, and there's even a ride (but I still think Disneyland is cooler). There were a lot of places where Aunt Bek wasn't allowed to take photos, so we don't have many. But here's me with one of the chocolatiers (chocolate-makers), after Aunt Bek got to write her name on the counter with melted chocolate:
Then it was back in the car to drive to Warwick to see a real, live castle! :-D Warwick Castle (by the way, that's pronounced "War-ick," not "War-wick") is really cool - what Melinda calls a "castley castle." It was built by William the Conqueror in 1068, and it's still standing!
Aunt Bek took a lot of photos here, but I can't post all of them! Here's a shot from the room where a lot of weapons were on display:
In the middle of the room, there were two mounted knights in shining armor:
Outside the castle, they have a trebuchet, which is a kind of catapult. During the summer, when there are more tourists, I think they demonstrate how it works:
Several beautiful peacocks were wandering around the castle grounds, and I got to see a golden eagle, too:
The last thing we did before we left the castle was, Aunt Bek, Melinda, and I climbed over 500 steps on the ramparts walk! But the view was totally worth it:
Gotta go - time for dinner!