What do you get when you multiply nine by six?

Also known as "What we did on Wednesday."

We slept in a bit and had breakfast at the hotel -- I'm thinking fried mushrooms may become standard breakfast fare in our house now (we'd already added broiled tomatoes after our trip to Australia). Heading out of the Greater London area was as easy as we'd hoped it would be (and part of the reason we picked the hotel we did... right at the start of the M1). We took our time driving out to Warwick, just enjoying the countryside. And the rain. I'm so glad we didn't get that sort of rain while we were in London or we probably would have gotten drenched even after we bought the second umbrella... I know people joke about the rain in Seattle, but it's really more of a persistent drizzle. We very rarely get that sort of downpour... it was actually pretty cool (says the person who didn't have to drive through it).

First stop was Rickmansworth. I commented to rackham that I was probably the happiest tourist to ever stop in Rickmansworth... then added that we may have been the *only* tourists ever to stop in Rickmansworth. ;-) We got a few pictures of me "sitting on my own" in a small cafe, had some yummy hot chocolate (very welcome, considering the buckets of rain) and I completely failed to figure out what the universe was for, why it was here and how it could be made a good and happy place.

We toyed with the idea of exploring Oxford, but the traffic was so horribly backed up that we abandoned the idea and turned around at a Park & Ride on the outskirts (apparently the best way to get into Oxford is by bus). We pushed on to Warwick and got caught in even more traffic. Listening to the radio, it turned out there were a whole rash of accidents all around us (there were times we didn't move at all for fairly long stretches). We also got to experience our first Welcome Break (it reminded me quite a bit of some of the rest areas we saw on the turnpikes in the eastern US... except with a hotel), where we picked up some lunch: chicken tikka masala naan pizza. Intriguing idea, but not executed very well. I think it's the first thing I've eaten since I got here that I didn't absolutely love... naan with a masala base, chicken, red onion and mozzarella cheese. Very odd mix.

After checking in at the hotel, we drove over to Warwick Castle (which had already closed) and through the town a bit before heading back. Considering the absolutely horrid traffic, we decided to just walk over to the Porridge Pot restaurant next to the hotel for dinner. Not bad food! Certainly better than the "pizza" at lunch.

We got back to the room to find a message from gillo, so we called her back and she drove over to pick us up... giving us a whirlwind night-tour of the area! We got to see the old and new cathedrals in Coventry (beautiful even after dark) and we stopped by Kenilworth Castle for a bit before heading back to Gillo's place. There we got to meet her family and had a fantastic time chatting until Rackham and I started having a hard time keeping our eyes open (it's been a busy and tiring week!). Oh! And we got to see her gorgeous new kitchen! (I always find it really interesting to see the differences in design of things between countries.)

I'll post an update about today's adventures later!

Thursday in England

This morning we explored the exotic environs of a Warwick laundrette (in this case, the Washeteria), one of the places gillo helped us find on our quick tour of the area last night. We actually managed to enjoy ourselves, though, due to some wonderfully talkative locals and a small museum just across the street... and now we have enough clean clothes to last through the rest of our vacation! We dropped the clean laundry at the hotel then headed back to the block with the laundrette and got lunch at the fish and chips shop there... which we took out to Kenilworth Castle. Okay, I know I've been talking a lot about the food we've tried, but I really do love British food and this was no different... a pile of fresh-cooked chips (aka fries) with breaded and fried fish on top, the whole thing doused with malt vinegar, sprinkled with salt and smothered in curry sauce. Absolute heaven.

Last night, down in the hotel lobby, we found some pamphlets for local sights and attractions, one of which was for Warwick Castle (the place we'd originally planned to visit today). Um... Yeah. It's apparently owned by the same folks who run Madame Tussaud's -- NOT a good sign. In the end, we decided to just give it a miss... there are way too many other castles around that aren't complete tourists traps. We ended up spending the afternoon exploring Kenilworth Castle, which was incredible... there was a very informative audiotour of the castle and the grounds and an interesting guided tour of the gatehouse, plus the ruins were pretty much open... there was so much to see! I've said it before, but it's been fun connecting the dots with the bits and pieces I knew about the history of England.

The ruins were impressive and the views of the countryside were just stunning (I tried doing a panorama shot, but I suspect it's not going to turn out... I have the worst time lining things up properly). We spent a bit of time on the castle wall just enjoying the views and the sounds of the wind whipping past, and also reading some of the graffiti carved into the castle walls... which raises the question, exactly how old does graffiti have to be before it ceases to be vandalism and starts to become history? The earliest ones we could find were dated 1760, though there were quite a few from about 1845 to 1890.

By the time we'd finished exploring, it was too late to see any of the other nearby castles, so we headed back to the hotel to check our email, catch a few of the afternoon shows (yes, we're becoming addicted to British game shows... they have one based entirely around grammar! It's so cool!!) and wait for rush hour traffic to die down. We got directions to the local Sainsbury's and walked up and down the aisles just seeing what was there... We ended up picking up some Coronation Chicken Salad, a three pack of hummus (in various flavors), some pita bread, a bit of Cheshire cheese and a carton of Tangy Apple and Blackcurrant Smoothie drink to take back to the hotel room for dinner (we also snagged another flavor of crisps (the Roasted Lamb and Morroccan Spices flavor we tried the other day was a big hit) for the drive north tomorrow). We just wanted to stay in tonight, and it made a pretty decent meal... and we were able to catch another episode of Ladette to Lady (no, I don't know why we're getting sucked into that show, since neither of us can usually stand reality television). All in all, it was a fun day, we got to see a lot, yet we also got to relax a bit (this is a vacation, after all!)

I realized this morning that we should have taken some pictures when we met up with Gillo last night! I never think of these things until it's too late!

Tomorrow we head up north past Birmingham and on up to Preston, which should let us get into Whalley at a decent hour on Saturday. I can't believe how quickly this vacation has gone! It's only been a little bit over a week, but we're already on the downhill side of things!