Travels in London - Days 7-8: Not Actually in London

A lot of time and distance has passes since the last entry. When last I spoke, I was in Birmingham, having just arrived off the train. I am now in Caernarfon, a castle town on the coast of North West Wales, and am at the end of our second day here.

To step back in time, on our second day in Birmingham we decided to visit Cadbury World, at the Cadbury factory out in Bournville. For those of you who has visited the Cadbury factory in Tasmania, Australia, you might remember an factory tour involving hair nets and machinery. Oddly enough for the Bournville tour we spent surprisingly little time in the factory.

It began with the history of chocolate and a walk through the jungle to the ancient aztec city, where a tiny hologramatic Cortez explained the history of chocolate, managing to both acknowledge and at the same time gloss over the slaughter and destruction of the Aztec civilization, which I spose is actually rather a feat. From there we got to hear of the history of Cadbury, where some more holograms and projections talked about the factory and shop they set up in Birmingham. Then we went to a "motion experience ride" which explained the manufacture of chocolate while the seats did occasionally bizarre things like shake or blow steam for no readily apparent reason.

After that we went on the "Cadabra" ride, which reminds me of A Clockwork orange in it's sensory assault, in that small children ride in one end and come out glassy eyed repeating the mantra "I love Cadbury. I love Cadbury." It was full of dancing cocoa beans, songs, music, and a camera, which took a picture of us I now have on a fridge magnet. I feel fortunate to have escaped with my life.

Afterwards we went through a small hall showcasing many of the Cadbury advertisements that have appeared over the years, which largely were weird (except for the gorillia playing Phil Collins music on the drums. That was awesome. Then we were in the shop! A chocolate shop is an incredibly dangerous place to be, as it is full of chocolate that can be purchased, and later, eaten. I bought what I assumed was a hugely excessive amount of chocolate, but it only cost me six pounds ($12). Hmm.

Then dinner and awesome mexican food with some friends of Lexi's, and back to the hotel. In the morning we went to a service at the Birmingham Cathedral, before talking a walk around in the SNOW!!!!! that had fallen the night before. We went and visited the reservoir, and the tower that one of the Two Towers is based on, and Lexi's old apartment, before heading to the Train Station for our train to Wales.

It's time for dinner, so this post ends here. But days 9-10 will be uploaded after dinner.