Day 3: Castles and Moats

Since we have been in Stratford for a few days now, we took somewhat of a field trip out of the town's limits. We visited Kenilworth Castle and it was probably one of my favorite things we have done so far. The history behind Kenilworth is that Robert Dudley, the Earl of Leicester, completely remodeled the castle in an attempt to convince Queen Elizabeth I to marry him when she came to visit in 1575. As a last ditch effort, Dudley spared no expense. This massive feat is now in ruins, but it is still beautiful. For the next two hours, we roamed the ruins, climbed the towers, and took in the English countryside.

Once we left Kenilworth, we headed about 20 minutes down the road to Baddesley-Clinton, a prominent manor house (complete with a moat) near the Stratford area. Over the next couple of hours, we were able to explore the house and learn about the history of the family at that time in history. When we finished exploring, we went into the restaurant attached to the manor where I had my first taste of tea since being in England. We had what is known as cream tea, which like many other English sayings, very much so confused me. Apparently, the cream in "cream tea" refers to the clotted cream that you put on top of a scone along with jam that accompanies your tea drinking, not cream that you put in the tea. Let's be honest, I can not be the only American who has made that mistake..