Blog ≫ 2020 ≫ Our holiday to London and Warwick (part two)
To Marylebone by bus for the train to Warwick. A brief wait for the train, so time for a coffee and then to the shop to get yet more Top Trumps. We got Marvel heroes this time, it's a good set. A mix of Avengers heroes and villians and then some of the Netflix series too. A nice train to Warwick, about an hour and twenty. Warwick is quite small really but very nice. We walked up towards the main high street but decided to stop for a small lunch asap. Found The Roebuck and had sandwiches and beer and it was good. Sort of the feel of The White Hart in Hythe, everyone happy with this one. Thing one had a bit of a fuss about the crisps they had, in fact all pub crisps "why do all pubs make their own crisps?" he says. What he means was why is it always the same sorts crisps, maybe kettle crisp styles, maybe some interesting flavours like chilli, but why not the Wotsits and Frazzles that he likes? Then walked the rest of the high street, through old town gates, past a road called The Butts. Nothing funny about that, it's where they practiced archery in yore isn't it?
We got to the actual castle and had to walk round it to our accomodation in the Knights Village. This was very impressive, it's a set of log cabin type lodges with medieval decor. There were two rooms in it, small but nicely made up. The boys liked the very solid bunk beds and the funny tapestry on their wall but mostly the TV with built in games including Angry Birds. Our room was decorated with swords and shields and bows and arrows and things, and lots of solid wood.
We walked into town for a look round, it doesn't take too long. We found a traditional sweet shop and the boys spent far too long in there. I went in a charity shop opposite and bought a dreadful cheese based card game for us to play in the pub. I didn't realise quite how cheese based it would be, lots of jokes and questions about types of cheese. We found a pub I'd looked up in advance and they were not busy at this early stage so we had a drink in The Old Coffee Tavern and tried to play the new game and more Top Trumps. At some point we boys went and got haircuts while Clare looked around, settling on a barber shop right opposite where we were meeting for dinner. Yes I have actually had a haircut though it is still very long and not looking good. I got him to leave thing two's hair quite long too as I didn't really want that cut at all, though he has been asking for it chopped off for a while. Thing one got a tidy up too ready for school this week.
We'd booked Dough And Brew for dinner, but when we got their they told us they were full and could only put us outside, or we could have a pizza to takeaway. Note, we had booked a table, several days in advance. Not very pleased with this one, in the end they said they could give us a sort of table in an hour, eating at a bar running round the edge of the room. If it had not been eat out to help out 50% off so everywhere was fully booked we definitely would have walked off in a strop. We took the option of coming back in an hour but thought if we can find somewhere else we'd not go back. We did not find anywhere else. We couldn't even get inside anywhere for a drink as they were all table service only and fully booked because of the discount. We sat miserably outside The Globe, only partly avoiding the rain. So we sloped back to Dough And Brew with our tails between our legs. The food was very very good, so glad I did. Sourdough pizzas all round, though the "brew" part of the name is misleading, they don't make their own beer and I think only had craft beers. Very nice, very filling. After this back to the lodge then I snuck out to investigate a nearby pub. The Racehorse was big and bright, but a couple of ales on, so I had a half of each. Then another half, then a half that they'd poured by mistake and gave me for free. I can't think what this pub reminds me of but it was nice and friendly, not cosy at all, maybe a bit more of a food sort of place.
This is taking too long I'll be back with day three of the holiday and day two of Warwick later, where we actually go to the castle.
