WARWICK

 I am getting used to using taxis. They make for so much less stress when you are in a strange place by yourself. At Birmingham airport the taxi driver greeted me and drove me to my lodgings in Warwick. So much easier than a train and a bus.

My first impression when I got here was – clean! It was so nice to be in clean surroundings. My own bathroom too!

This is a bed and breakfast so each day I can have cereal, yoghurt, fruit, toast , cooked bacon sausages, eggs, tomatoes and mushrooms. I only did that one day. Too much food.

The only challenge I have here is the internet connection in my room is weak so I can just do emails and Facebook but no research. When there is nobody in the lounge I go there and get some real work done.

The b and b is run by Bruna Stanojevic, an Italian with her husband Milan, a Serbian and their son Marko, born in Birmingham,  who played rugby for Italy against the All Blacks.

Warwick is a very old town. It has had people living here for over 1400 years!. Most of the streets are narrow and some are still cobblestones. There are still the remains of two of the gatehouses that protected the town. In 1694 there was a huge fired that burned a lot of the old town centre. So the buildings in that area are "new". That is they were built in the late 17th and early 18th centuries. We don't have any buildings in New Zealand from that time period!

East Gatehouse

Every year they host a Folk Festival and it just happened to be my first weekend here! There were  market stalls everywhere and at the local museum. Also street performances from many different groups of Morris dancers. I had no idea what they all were. After asking a few questions I learned that different regions of the country have different styles of Morris dancers. There were even some belly dancers with belly's as big as mine.

There are things they still do the old way here too.