The Tor, Broadway Tower and Warwick Castle....with a little shopping thrown in! (Wed 19/11 at 9pm)

Juliette: Well I think this entry will be a combined one written by myself and Crispin...we are writing the blogs for each day even when we can't access the internet somewhere so that when we do we can still give an accurate update for you to read and us to keep as a record.

Today we started out early and went for a walk from our Caravan Park to "The Tor" - this is supposedly where Merlin is buried (no, not Merlin the golden retriever monster, Merlin the magician!). By the way, our Caravan Park (The Old Oaks) was awesome - great facilities and so nice and quiet. Anywho, back to the walk...we walked up the so called "footpath" (which in my opinion should have been called a MUDpath as it was just a muddy track) and stopped at the old oak trees (Gog and Magog) which are supposed to be remnants from an old druid path. After that we headed to The Tor, managed to take a wrong turn, then got on the right track but ran out of time so decided just to head back for the park 'cos we didn't really want to walk up the big hill to The Tor anyway. We trecked across some fields (again labelled as footpaths), scared a few of the resident cows and finally got back to the Caravan Park.

Crispin: After a quick shower and breakfast, we headed for the campground's shop/reception, to use the internet. Unfortunately, they didn't have any USB connections, otherwise we would have uploaded some photos and updated the blog. Juliette checked her emails, checked the bank accounts, and we had a look for directions to Broadway Tower, Shakespeare's birthplace, and Warwick Castle.

Juliette: Looks like it will be me finishing this off as Crispin has retired to bed - it's only about 9pm here but we have been up since 7am and driving does make you tired. Crispin has been doing a wonderful job with the driving, it's taken him a while to get used to the clutch but that is normal when you are driving a new vehicle and apart from the incident with the rear light (which could have happened to anyone) we haven't had any accidents. I certainly would not have the confidence to drive a vehicle like this so I am very proud of him!

Right, now where were we up to....oh yes, my favourite part - shopping!! We left the Caravan Park and headed back to Shepton Mallet to Tesco's as Crispin really needed a new jacket and some shoes. So, three quarters of an hour later we left with 2 new jackets for Crispin (one rain and one leather), a new pair of shoes for him and a pair of slippers (Mr Grumpy slippers lol!!). He also got a remote controlled Supreme Dalek - no, not the two foot high one from yesterday - a much smaller and cheaper version!

After all that shopping we headed off to Broadway Tower which Crispin had found on Wikipedia. It was a lovely day today so we got a great view over several counties and got a few souvenirs. Broadway Tower was a folly built by a very weathly man who it seems didn't have anything better to do with his money.

From Broadway Tower we headed to Warwick Castle, which was not originally on our itinerary but Crispin's aunt and uncle had recommended it and it was on the way. We got to the castle right on 4pm and just made it in - the castle is open until 5pm but they do not allow any new entries past 4. It was a little stressful getting there as Betty confused us and we went round the block a couple of times but we got there in the end and we were glad we did! An hour was just long enough to have a good walk around but you could easily spend 2-3 hours there. We did the walk up through the towers and along the castle walls which gave you a great view and was not too hazardous even with the very narrow spiral staircases which were not well lit. We then went inside the castle and saw some very realistic figures acting out some of the parts from long ago. It certainly was very impressive and I'd have to say my favourite part was being able to walk up the towers and along the castle walls. More souveneirs from the gift shop and then we headed to the camp site - Hollyfast Caravan Park - for the night.

We did miss Stratford-upon-Avon today but are intending to head off a little earlier than planned tomorrow morning so that we can have a quick look around the city centre and Shakespeare's birthplace before heading to Liverpool.

I still can't get over the fact that it starts to get dark here at 4pm and by 5/5.30pm it's pitch black!

Well I am starting to fall asleep myself now so off to bed with me as we have to be up around 7am tomorrow morning.