Road Trip and Anniversary

Monday was our 2 year wedding anniversary so we went out to dinner in Kingston. It was really nice but our main plan to celebrate was the road trip yesterday....

We started by getting up at 6 am and after a two hour bus ride to the rental car place we were off! Luckily the car rental had a map book that saved us! Travis was the driver and I attempted to navigate. Other than a couple curb checks (the streets are too skinny) he did great! Navigating however.... was difficult. We had printed off directions from Kingston to Gloucester then from there to Stratford upon Avon then back to Kingston. The problem was that a lot of roads are either not labeled or the street sign is hidden. Typically the street signs are white with black lettering and low to the ground. The hardest part though is that they are usually 5 to 10 yards into the street they are labeling... kind of pointless if you're approaching or even at the intersection. Most of the day ended up being spent in the car or bus but it was still really fun seeing some great sights!

Gloucester is north east of London near Wales. Its a smaller town with lots of red brick homes and buildings. We went to the Gloucester Cathedral which was amazing! It was huge and beautiful. Some of the hallways... I think called cloisters were used for some scenes in the first Harry Potter movie. Good choice by them because the hallways were really great. King Edward II is buried there as well. We walked a little in the town then headed to Stratford upon Avon. We took the scenic roads to see some Cotswolds towns. I'm not entirely sure what Cotswolds is but my understand is its the name of an area and type of town. Kind of makes me think of saying Austin hillcountry... Travis probably understands better. Anyway they are some very small and cute villages. Outside of Broadway was the Broadway Tower. This small stone tower built on a big hill. There were really beautiful views of the hills and fields from up there. The tower was built by an Earl for his wife and was also used as a look out between a couple other places. We also saw lots of animals: horses, cows, deer, and of course sheep! Next we headed to Stratford upon Avon which is where Shakespeare was born and died. Unfortunately the church he is buried at (Holy Trinity Church) was closed because of urgent renovating just this week of course. We walked around the outside and saw the other old headstones. We then headed to his birth place. Once we were finally able to make it (street sign problems) it was too late and the tours had stopped so we were unable to get a tour of the inside of the house. We saw it from the outside... its in the middle of a square. It was weird to see this old famous house only a few shops away from a Toni and Guy hair salon. Stratford upon Avon is a very nice little town that we walked around till dark than got some dinner. Of course we got lost a little heading back to Kingston but finally made it and took the bus back home.

There may be something Travis wants to add about yesterday and hopefully we can add pictures later.