25 & 26 June 2016: Shakespeare, Robin Hood, and Oxford

Saturday was a low key day. We started with a visit to the Sherwood Forest of Robin Hood fame. From there we went into to Birmingham for lunch near the canals. It was not nearly as impressive as the River Walk in San Antonio but similar on a smaller scale and still very nice. We had planned to stop to visit Warwick Castle but the day had escaped us and we were behind schedule. With plenty of castles under our belt, we decided to move on. We drove through Stratford-upon-Avon where William Shakespeare was born. It is a nice little village with shops and cafes but nothing of real substance for us so we kept going. We made it to our hotel outside Glouchester in the Cotswolds Area, shopped for supplies, ate fruit and bread for dinner, and the kids went swimming in the hotel pool before bed.

Sunday was a busy day. We began our day by driving through some of the small villages and scenic byways of the Cotswolds. Compared to the parts of England we have seen so far, the Cotswolds was unique in the small towns and country roads; however compared to parts of Ireland and Scotland, it paled in comparison a bit. We continued down the road to Oxford, home of the world renowned Oxford University. The town and university was charming and well worth the visit but somehow different than we were expecting. Our last stop of the day was in Windsor to see the Windsor Castle. I will follow up with another post on it.

Sherwood Forest

Birmingham

Cotswolds

Oxford University