and that's a wrap!

Okay let’s wrap up the trip! It won’t be pretty but here we go…

Next day saw us heading to Carcassonne, a place Jeff affectionately calls Disneyland…lol…He had been there before and didn’t particularly like it but for our sakes he sucked it up, trouper that he is and took us. The external façade of the castle is very Disneycastle-like in the turrets that adorn it all around. At night they light it all up real purty an it looks really nice. Unfortunately they’ve not really done much with the inside of the castle itself, so paying to go in was a bit of a waste.

So anyways, you get there and as with all medieval castle/villages they were encased in a high wall, So through the gates let you into the village itself with cobblestoned streets and old buildings. Each though has been turned into a tourist shop of some kind or a restaurant. But still the overall look of it was cool. We went into the torture chambers which housed a lot of old torture devices from the medieval times, complete with an iron maiden. This little tool was interesting and certainly had me squirming. The “scoop” like end was made to be inserted into an orifice, and then the other end, when twisted, caused the part that was inserted to slowly open wider and wider. Can you say OUCH!

After that we stopped in…..and Jeff took us to a Roman amphitheatre that is actually still used today. You can’t get inside but still it was amazing to see.

Next day Jeff drove us to the airport and we said our farewells. Then we caught our flight back to London, sans my bottle of wine from the Papal Palace that security confiscated. (I had intended on checking both bags, but wasn’t allowed and forgot the wine was in the one I was carrying on…-sighs-) I was once again hoping to make it to Highgate Cemetery to see the old part, but apparently when they say "London" Stansted airport, they don’t really mean London they mean way the fuck outside of London. So once again we arrived too late to see it.

We once again met up with my online friend Liam, who accompanied us through the “newer” part of Highgate and I at least got to wander about there and snap some pics. Then we dragged Liam through the London underground tube, much to his displeasure. Liam doesn’t like the tube, is kinda afraid of it actually, but the tough Canadian chicks took good care of him…lol…We went back to Piccadilly Circus and found a nice pub for some fish and chips and then did some last minute tourist shit shopping. Then we escorted Liam back on the tube to catch his train and said our sad farewells.

Next day (after not getting much sleep due to the domestic dispute directly across the hall that began at 5 AM) we headed off by bus to Cheltenham and Sudeley Castle to attend the Medieval Faire. I immediately fell in love with Cheltenham and the surrounding countryside and swear that one day I will spend a lot of time there, if not live there. We took a cab from the bus station to the castle and our cabbie regaled us with stories of the town, very interesting! The Faire was awesome, the jousting was WAY cool!

So that’s that. Next day it was back to the hotel, and the next day it was catching the flight back home. I admit I was pretty close to just staying…lol