Day 12, last tour and back to history

Here we are on Day 12, and our last scheduled trips while we are here in London. We started it off with a tour of Oxford….. University that is. Now since we talked about so much, I will just give all of the footnotes. We dove head first into talking about some of the buildings, and some of the great minds that this place was involved in. Some of the writers who has links to Oxford here and their works include: J.R.R. Tolkien, who wrote both the Hobbit and the Lord of the Rings Series, C.S. Lewis who wrote the Narnia series (it has been rumored the concept of the Wardrobe entrance to Narnia is based on him running through a cloak room into a blizzard and coming out to a lamppost as he snuck out of the chapel on campus), Lewis Carrol real name Charles, wrote Alice in Wonderland, which take sits name from a real girl who live in the town of Oxford. Carrol attending the Christ’s Church College which is where portions of both “Golden Compass” and various scenes from the “Harry Potter” series was films and the dining hall was the inspiration for the Hogwarts dining hall. Some other notable alumni includes both John Locke, and William Penn, seriously look up their alumni list, there are way too many important people to count. Also  with one of the 38 colleges being called Christ’s Church College, religion is important there, and we did visit one of their chapels, which is also the town chapel.

The theme of the trip was being busy, and this day was not exception, next we went to Stratford Apon Avon, where William Shakespeare was born. For those wondering, we did discuss the concept that Shakespeare could have been a pen name for one or many ghost writers. Though, we are certain the man did live and was alive around the time the books were written, his place of birth and where he lived most of his live is on display in Stratford. We are also certain he has no direct decedents. As far as we know his direct lineage went as far as grandchildren. With that said his blood was carried on through his sister (no not like that, as in since they came from the same parents.)

After we were done there, we went on to Warrick Castle. The place was first developed by William the Conqueror in the 1000’s (it was really started 200 years earlier, but not really for the purpose of a castle). As things go, things were built others were torn down. I believe the oldest currently standing structure went up in the 1200’s. With that said the royal development of this castle is ironic since it was used by the rebels in the English Civil War in the 1600’s. Today, it is a historical fun place. They have a birds of prey show, the dungeons, a gaol (ye old English version of the jail), a wall and tower walk, where you can climb the structure and walk along the walls the making of the king and other exhibits. Most of them are educational, as in they tell a lot about the history of the castle as you enjoy the entertainment. What would be the only thing that could have made this day any better? The weather could have been better, which in itself has not been that bad all trip. So, I will stop complaining about that.