Headlines
Run Recovery: Kenilworth Castle
Cadbury World: fun -- and chocolate -- for kids of all ages!
It's Cold, It's Still Early: let's check out Solihull
Home: local news and a very scrappy dinner
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Stream of Consciousness
Run Recovery: Kenilworth Castle
Today is recovery day... recovery from Sunday's runs.
Deb finds pamphlets about castles and gardens that she would like to see. I look on Google Maps to see where they are and whether we can get there. Whatever we visit has to be roughly between here and Birmingham -- we have to end up at Cadbury World for an afternoon visit...
First stop is Kenilworth Castle.
Deb sets the GPS and we set off. All over the place! But the GPS certainly knows where to go. And it doesn't really matter where we go -- it's all something new to be seen. There's a lot of traffic but no problems. Deb navigates and I dodge the other traffic.
Kenilworth Castle is -- impressive! Ruined, but still impressive.
We have to pay for parking. That's to stop the people of Kenilworth filling all the Castle parking. When we pay to enter the castle, we get our parking money back. We only have a single pound coin so we can only pay for an hour's parking... Must get more coins!
We pay our entry fee and go into the castle grounds. Into the grounds, not the castle -- it's a ruin. It seems that an English king (hundreds of years ago) was sick and tired of local lords going feral and resisting the king from inside their country castles. So the king ordered castles to be destroyed... Or, at least, made unliveable. Since then, Kenilworth Castle has no roof and several walls missing.
Other bits are also missing. An order of monks was retired (on a good pension, apparently). Their monkery was then torn down and the stones used for other buildings.
There's a formal garden. Rebuilt from detailed descriptions from when it was first built. Queen Elizabeth I (?) was due to visit so the then castle owner had a formal garden built in honour. Complete with sculpture and a fountain. Impressive! I may have to build a garden for our own next visitors :-) I did see that the gardens stand out very clearly on Google Maps.
There are some buildings still standing, complete. One low, square building set low, almost underground, is now the public toilets. Very modern inside, very old stone outside. We were in and only just out as a tour group of school kids came in...
The day is cloudy with occasional light showers. The sun does occasionally shine. There is a very chill wind. We are very glad to find that the cafe is indoors.
The cafe is in the old stables. A very high, long building. There would have been at least one storage level above but it's gone now, so it's open all the way to the ceiling. Solid stone floor and walls. Big, peaked wooden roof, showing the wood construction on the inside. Love it!
We have soup and bread for lunch and a sandwich to take away. That'll be dinner tonight.
We're at Kenilworth for more than our hour's parking... It's fascinating. Including the history and descriptions in a display in the old stables.
Cadbury World: fun -- and chocolate -- for kids of all ages!
Time to move on. But no time for the moated house that was to be our next stop. We drive straight to Cadbury World.
As straight as the GPS lets us, anyway. There's no such thing as a straight road in this part of the world! No worries, though. I have Cadbury World as a waypoint in the GPS. We drive and drive and drive... and arrive.
From the outside, it's an old brick factory. With a more modern (1991?) front face, in Cadbury colours. Glass fronted like the entry to a cinema.
Not much space in the carpark but the display area itself is quite peaceful. I would not like to be there with a few groups of school kids! We are able to take our time, wander at our own pace, without feeling crowded.
We walk to the start of the main display. The woman at the door pushes several bars of chocolate at us -- we don't even try to eat any -- then she ushers us in...
The main display starts with museum-style dioramas of cocoa history. Models of Aztecs and Spaniards in South American jungles. Impressive.
Next stage is brilliant! Small sets -- models of streets and buildings. With holographic characters walking round telling the chocolate story! The characters are about 20cm tall and look very realistic. It's quite spooky!
A couple of movie theatre presentations about making chocolate and the history of the Cadbury company. Interesting but rather heavy on the happy, contented people in the process. In one theatre there are special effects... For instance, when we are told that the cocoa beans are shaken -- our seats are also shaken :-)
Then it's up some stairs and a walk round an actual packing plant. Posters of what is happening, actual wrapping and packing going on, all a bit hard to see in any detail. Interesting, though.
Next is the Cadabra ride! It's a kiddie ride in little trolleys on a track. Through a sort of Charlie and the Chocolate Factory setting. All sorts of cheerful cocoa beans, laughing and singing. Chirpy, cheery, aimed at kids six years old and younger... We loved it :-) Impossible not to smile :-)
And then, we're at the end of the main display. We're given a cup of almost liquid chocolate, with marshmallows and sprinkles. We eat it all... I think I have now reached my chocolate limit for the week!
That same area is demonstrations of chocolate making and decorating. There are people hand-making chocolate shapes. Others -- behind glass -- are decorating chocolate. A couple of enormous chocolate sculptures... One is a model of Buckingham Palace that would be a metre high. Wow!
Our final stop is for afternoon tea... High tea, I guess. It's in the Cadbury Cafe, next to the Cadbury shop. (We did go through the Cadbury Shop. By that stage we were no longer willing to buy any actual choocolate. Sorry!)
Our tea -- we had booked in advance -- is in a somewhat closed-off area of the cafe. Not really private, just enough to make us feel special. Tea, coffee, sandwiches. Scones (nice scones, too) and jam and cream. Plus cakes. For example: triple choc square of something. Double choc muffin. Ordinary choc slice. And a few not so chocolate cakes.
We ate enough and had the rest put in a bag to take home.
A very, very enjoyable afternoon! Aimed at kids and a lot of fun. Plus quite good food. And a lot of advertising for Cadbury :-)
With one final -- minor -- disappointment... Advertised for the near future, coming soon to Cadbury World: Sooty and Sweep in Space ! Woohoo ! Though I suspect we would be cursing if we were here with the crowds that that show would bring :-)
It's Cold, It's Still Early: let's check out Solihull
It's still only 3:30 or so. We have time to check out a Cotswolds Outdoor shop in Solihull, almost on our way home.
Our South Downs walk comes with a discount card for Cotswolds Outdoor. I'm thinking that a warmer jacket is needed for Antarctica next year -- and would be useful for England, now. (Today I'm wearing wool long johns under my pants. I'm about warm enough, as long as I don't spend too much time in the wind.)
Deb sets the GPS. We drive.
There's more traffic on the roads, it's school closing time. With Deb navigating, no worries. There are some really slow bits but -- as always -- it's just some new place to see. Just a bit slower :-)
We reach the Solihull carpark near the Cotswolds shop. Parking, no worries, it takes my credit card. Not sure where the shops are! We ask a passing woman... She tells us where the shops are -- we think. She seems to be speaking English -- but in an almost incomprehensible accent. She is, I would guess, a local Solihullian!
No worries, we find the shopping centre. And the Outdoors shop. We look at jackets. There's only one that seems suitable but I'm not sure if it would be waterproof enough for Antarctica. The jacket is "showerproof". Antarctica is dry but we can expect to get wet on the way, visiting the subantarctic islands.
Anyway, the jacket I try on is too small and they have no others in stock -- it's summer(!) and winter stocks have been run down. The shop assistant tells us that a larger store -- which we may pass, further south west -- does have one larger jacket in stock. (Did he say Plymouth? I should have tried to remember!) We may try again.
While we were stopped at Solihull shops we had intended to buy some milk and cheese. We forgot. So -- on the GPS-directed drive home -- we stopped in a convenient larger town. Henley-in-Arden. It has a Co-op and a few other suitable shops. We buy milk and cheese and apples.
We are parked outside a fish & chip shop. The local hoods are hanging out, in tee shirts and looking as though they should be very, very cold. Local hoods? Well, half a dozen young blokes eating fish & chips. Deb looks at the shop and decides that we really must try some battered, deep fried sausage. But not today.
And so, on home.
Home: local news and a very scrappy dinner
There's a lot on tv about Stratford-upon-Avon. Okay, it is West Midlands BBC TV. It's all about the Shakespeare weekend. The reports are that there were 55,000 people in town over the weekend, twice as many as this time last year. No wonder there was no room in the cafes or the carparks!
Plenty of news about Shakespeare and the parade. And about the celebrities -- including actors and royalty -- who were in town. No mention of the marathon. Ah well. Listening to some of the people who found it all to be very exciting -- makes me think that yes, it was all rather exciting!
We are here for the marathon. It was a convenient fit to when we wanted to go, and to our South Downs walk. It was a complete surprise when we found that we were here for a 400th deathday celebration! We were less than excited... But now, I definitely am glad that we happened to be here, this year, for the big celebrations! No matter how little we actually took part :-)
Dinner was the sandwich from Kenilworth and leftovers from Cadbury World. I also had some bread and cheese. Not at all a balanced meal, just filling. Deb spotted a parking area behind the local Bell Inn, we may go there for dinner tomorrow night.
Or, we may eat a hearty lunch in a random pub in the Cotswolds. And snack in the evening.
Who knows! That's tomorrow :-)
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