London Day 2 - the Ong's go on tour, Teresa peruses art

After the bumpy start of Day 1, Day 2 started at 6:30am. We were all supposed to go on a tour of Warwick, Oxford, Stratford, and the Cotswold, but Teresa decided that it would be a good idea to catch up on some sleep to power the rest of the week's activity and opted out of the tour. Teresa spend a leisurely day in London, checking out the National Gallery museum and it's impressive collection of paintings including painting from DaVinci, Monet, and Van Gogh. After having a lovely lunch in the museum's cafe (including banoffee pie), she made her way down to Oxford street to check out the best of London high street fashion.
Earlier in the day, Evelyn and I made our way to the Paddington Hilton where the tour was to pick us up. The bus was 20 minutes late, but got us to the terminal where our tour bus was leaving with minutes to spare. Our tour guide was a 50 something british man with a british accent that would go well with the phrase " hello governor," wearing a vest that almost match the upholstery of the bus seats. He had a jaunty sort of humor with hints of sarcasm and many bouts of slap stick. On the bus trip to and from the sites, he would add tidbits of interesting facts and stories, like where phrases like "upper crust" and "saved by the bell" came from. Unfortunately, I missed most of his comments as moving vehicles lull me into a deep, gaping mouth sleep.
Our first stop was Warwick castle, which is kind of like a medieval Disneyland. There are people dressed in medieval garb walking around, notably a knight who went around high fiving the kids and making them growl with him. Around the courtyard, there are exhibits like "the making of a king," and "the castle dungeon." One exhibit was a short film about a boy who was supposed to go to battle, as part of the War of the Roses. He has a dream the night before the battle, where death (?) or someone who looks like death tells him that they will lose the battle and all will die. I think the boy ends up not going, but I am not sure.
Next, we stopped at Stratford to see Shakespere's birth house and garden. Stratford is a quaint, picturesque town. The tour guide pointed out two pubs, one of those pubs is where Shakesphere had his last drink before dying. We learned a lot of interesting facts and rumors about Shakesphere, including the fact that Shakesphere's grave is 18' deep, opposed to the normal 6' grave to deter grave robbers who at that time dug up graves to sell the bodies to hospitals for medical research. Another robber deterent he used was a sonnet on his tombstome that basically says that anyone who steals his body will be cursed. Pretty effective as his body is still there.
The last stop of the trip was Oxford. It was cold and rainy the whole day. Ninety five percent of the tour participants were women, which meant that we were all cold. The guide took pity on us and let us have 15 minutes in the Oxford university store to buy "jumpers." I am now the proud owner of an Oxford bunnyhug. :) The Oxford convocation was happening while we were there, so the town was bustling with graduates in formal convocation dress and their very proud parents. We toured the Oxford campus and even go to see the building that is Hogwarts Hall in the Harry Potter movies.
At 7:30 we all met up at the hotel, travelled by Tube to Earl's Court, and had a lovely meal at the Indian chain restaurant Masala Zone. I'm sure Evelyn will provide more details about the food later.