To Berlin or not to Berlin

After the company away day and dinner on Thursday night, Erin and I started packing our bags at 11pm to get ready for our 6:25am flight to Berlin. After 3 hours of sleep the alarm went off at 3:30 and Dick, Erin and I were off to get in a cab at 3:45am to Liverpool Station. We safely arrived at Liverpool by 4:15, plenty of time to get on the 4:25am train to Stansted airport. After arriving at Stansted, we got our boarding cards and proceeded to security. The line was one of the longest I'd ever seen...snaking throughout the airport, but we were relatively close to the front of the middle...should be fine. After waiting in security for an unbearable 60 minutes, we made it to the gate at 6:27am for our 6:25am flight. Huffing and puffing with about 12 other people who ran from the tram to the gate, we all saw the plane pulling away from the gate. Missed the flight by mere seconds, even though we did everything right to get there on time...no oversleeping, no stopping for coffee perfect early morning trip. After getting back through security the opposite way and going to "customer service" Ha! We were told that there was another flight Saturday morning at the same 6:25am and we could buy new tickets for 200 pounds each. Afterall "we cannot be responsible for the airport security...we don't have to defend our policy to give no refunds...we're Ryan Air". And, we will never be flying Ryan Air again.

Completely exhausted, angry, deflated, confused...we sat in the airport contemplating what to do next. We looked at all of the airlines and found no flights to Berlin for less than 200 pounds. We decided it would be kinda stupid to pay another $1500 for us all to go to Berlin. Rather than going home to go back to bed we figured we were already packed, so we may as well go somewhere. So we walked over to Budget car rental and rented a car. Why not take a tour of the English countryside....plus I can now learn how to drive on the left side of the road.

Our first stop was Cambridge, a mere 30 minutes from Stanted airport. We figured we could stop there and get a book on England, have breakfast and coffee and plot our course. Cambridge was certainly a beautiful town with all of the colleges of the university. We were fortunate that despite the rain on the drive up, the skies opened up and we enjoyed a beautiful mid-day in Cambridge. I even pulled my best impression of my dad by managing to get a quick nap in in the middle of the bookstore and again on the punts on the canal behind all of the buildings.

With my two short naps, I was ready to go. Next stop Stratford on Avon, home of the Bard. Erin worked the books and phones and found a new hotel for us to stay in. We arrived in Stratford aroung 5pm and all felt that if we napped before dinner we were done for the night. Instead we checked into the White Swan in, an inn since before the Americas were founded (1450), right in the middle of town. We had a hard time finding it though because it was in the center of a town carnival with rides galore. After dinner, we rode the bumper cars about five times, all three of us laughing like 5 year olds as we slammed into each other. Dick and I also went on a ride that was a small steel cage hooked to two bungy cords stretched 100 feet in the air that shot the cage straight up like a cannon. Erin took a video which I will figure out how to attach. It was a blast...

After a solid 12 hours of sleep, we toured Stratford on the common double decker tour bus, and toured the birthplace of Shakespeare. Next we were back in the car to figure out where to go next. First stop was the Warwick Castle. This was an amazing midevil castle run by the Tausaud's so the castle was filled with wax figures. I thought it was a little weird with the figures, but it was a very cool castle. One of the highlights was a giant Trebuchet set-up out on the lawn where we got to witness them shoot a flaming ball about 1/4 mile. We'll try to attach the video of that as well.

Next stop was the Cotswolds. We piled back in our right hand drive car and started cruising around the Cotswolds (english for cute little towns in idyllic settings). We stayed in the tiny town of Witney at a great little hotel. While we were checking in the restaurant looked fantastic so we all went up to rest for a minute before heading down to eat. Unfortunately, the restaurant was booked solid until 10:15p (it was about 7 now). But they gave us a few recommendations in town (english, thai and Indian). First stop english, booked. Next thai...booked. next indian...booked. There were only about 5 restaurants in town, all booked solid. Just before we were to settle on the "American Pizza/chicken/kabob" house, we went down one more street. There we found a hotel with a dining room...and a few open tables. The service was absolutely horrible, and fortunately they overheard me talking about it. Midway through we got the most attentive service and they redeemed their previously long-lost tip.

Sunday was spent touring Oxford. Another beautiful college town with very old buildings, many featured in Harry Potter books. I loved seeing the pub that has been open since 1242. We all really liked Oxford but agree with everyone who said Cambridge is nicer. It is. After Oxford we went to Blenheim Palace, birthplace of Winston Churchill. Unbelievable. Definitely one of the nicest palaces we've ever been to. The rooms were amazing, it was in great shape...Beautiful.

The last adventure of the weekend was figuring out how to navigate small english towns to take "backroads" to Stansted to return the car. We'd heard so many horror stories about driving back through London, that we did what we could to avoid it. Unfortunately our map was terrible, but we had a good adventure of it all.

All-in-all a fantastic weekend...but now we need to plan another trip to Berlin. And apologize to Mary Core and her friend (who we were to meet there) who did get to enjoy Berlin.

Ted