Given a Nice Day, England is Quite Charming

Left: Lady Nelmes is enjoying herself while Lady Macbeth is clearly in strife.

Below Left: Duke Frederick jokes around with Touchstone, the fool from As You Like It.

After heading out of England to get a taste of travelling we thought we'd take a few excursions in the local area.

Of course, England wasn't founded last week, on the contrary, it's rich with history and most of you back home had ancestors from these parts. It turns out that Birmingham is superbly placed to experience this historic charm. Stratford-upon-Avon and Warwick are two such places. There are many more escapes to get around to on our vacation to Mother England but the two mentioned will have to do for now.

I don't need to remind anyone that Stratford is famous for a certain playwright of the 15th and 16th centuries calling himself Shakespeare. You may have nightmares about learning his stuff in English classes, but he certainly put Stratford on the map and do they let you know it. Aside from the house where Shakespeare was born (in 1564) there are many statues with reference to his works throughout the town and almost every shop has some form of Shakespeare gimmick to it. Many sell his works and arty gifts for perfect consumer type tourists.

Not far down the road is Warwick and its awe-inspiring castle on the banks of the river Avon. We turned up on a stunner of a day and proceeded to check out the town until... we got to the myriad of antique shops. We camped in a few of them for a while. I bought some old coins and a few cool stamp first issues (I'm not sure cool is the right word for stamp collecting, how about good looking?)

We went to the castle for a look and didn't pay the 19 pounds to get in. It would have been nice, given the scale of it and the vast gardens but we thought seeing it was cool enough. Besides, the nearby Thomas Oken tearooms were calling.

Legend has it that the first fortification of the Warwick Castle site was built as early as 914 AD. It is traditionally associated with the earldom of Warwick, one of the oldest in England. After the Norman Conquest of England in the 11th century, William the Conqueror appointed Henry de Newburgh as Earl of Warwick. The Castle was the changed to meet design characteristics of the time.

Thomas Oken Tearooms is actually the house of a one Thomas Oken (unsurprisingly) - a man who did a lot for the town and left a lot after his death in 1573 (what else do you do with wealth when you've got no kids?)

We spent the rest of the day cruising around the town, which isn't hard given it is a quaint town like Stratford (although much less commercial).

Next on the list of English countryside sightseeing... Cheltenham, Leamington Spa and maybe even Wales?

Later
Bron and Fred xxx

Our Whirlwind Tour of Scandinavia

In England it was wet while we goit 18 hours of sunshine in Stockholm!>>

Hej hej!
That's the the traditional, enthusiastic warm welcome in Sweden. That's about as easy as it gets... Swedish has a handful of nouns that are truly mesmerising to someone who only spends ten days there. We really enjoyed the Swedish language, Danish was just about as incomprehensible as a language could get to an English speaker.

Anyway, it has been a while since our last blog entry, no excuses really but we have been up to stuff... Scandinavia and the jewel that is Sweden.

In all we spent 8 nights in Sweden, including 5 with good friends Lisa and Nick Piper and there two little fellas in a 'quaint' little village (sorry about the use of that adjectives Lisa but it really is quaint) named Vellinge in Sweden's southern most tip. The town is conveniently located 15 minutes from Malmö - the main metropolis in the area.

Malmö is great city, not bulging at the seams like a lot of cities around Europe and directly across the water from Copenhagen. Both cities are linked by the Öresund bridge (Öresundsbron) - 8km of bridge, 4km of man-made island and 4km of underground. An awesome sight, it's bloody hard to photograph so go 'Google' it yourself if you're interested.

We spent three nights in Stockholm, Sweden's capital city, and had a thoroughly splendid time there. I really do urge anyone reading this with an inkling towards European travel to go to Stockholm. In summer you get real value from the sun - 18 hours of sunlight time - sun streaming through the windows at 4am is utterly perplexing.

Stockholm has all the uniquely Swedish style of design on show, a truly magnificent harbour and a quaint old town (there's that word again) called Gamla Stan. There you'll find all kinds of stores, old buildings and the Royal Palace. Gamla Stan is also home of the Nobel Museum. It's a happening place built to a large extent on water; the Baltic Sea and a handful of lakes (something of which Sweden has 96,000 of).

Copenhagen rocks... in all we spent three days there and were inundated with things to see and do the whole time. There's plenty to see in the history and architecture department as well as the world famous Tivoli amusement park and a handful of popular museums. This includes Ripley's Believe it or Not museum, National Museum and the Erotica Museum, which, by the way, Fred did not happen to visit (maybe next time). The rollercoaster ride at Tivoli was truly exhilirating and photo evidence shows Lisa really loved it while Fred appeared to be preparing to soil himself. Visiting the Royal residences of Copenhagen is worthwhile - Rosenbourg palace is an awesome sight complete with Crown Jewels and moat.

Copenhagen is a little more 'free and easy' (laissez faire) which is exemplified by the longest pedestrian shopping strip (Strøget) and the Nyhavn canal harbour, which was home to Hans Christian Andersen for ages. If you go to to Copenhagen, do a canal tour and see the sights, it is an impressive city from the water.

Well that's our waffle... thanks again to Lisa and Nick for having us at their house and for jacking us up some great accommodation in Stockholm and Copenhagen.

Hej då and see ya
Fred & Bron