Day Seven...

Now, time for some REALLY exciting commentary...(Gina takes over)

After visiting Warwick Castle yesterday, we drove (okay, well, Dad drove and as usual it was a near-death experience) to Oxford to check out the university area and stay one night. It was a neat area with lots of restaurants and even an internet cafe (by the way, our hotel did NOT have email access, but more on that later...). We had dinner at a cute Italian place where they gave us a table by the window and we gawked at all the passersby. Mom kept trying to convince Susie to go to Oxford...

But Susie said a definitive "NO!" as soon as she saw our "hotel." It was a B&B that Mom had "cleverly" found on the Internet. The main features of the "guest rooms" were running water as well as TVs with a total of four different channels. In addition there were some interesting characters hanging around outside on the street and whooping it up at all hours of the night. However, the kiddies enjoyed watching part of the film Sabrina on our TV, and turned the volume up loud so as not to be disturbed by the sounds of axe murders going on upstairs. We did have a good breakfast the next morning (today), however, served by Mr. Bates the hotel owner himself. By the way, Mom and Dad had a good laugh about our little B&B experience because they said it brought back fond memories of the movie Psycho.

(Dad returns to conclude commentary)

Then we drove to Heathrow, got lost briefly (the rental-car return route was not marked), and eventually got to our plane. It was a 1.5-hour flight to Frankfurt, and then we began the rail portion of our vacation, immediately heading south to Bern, Switzerland. We took very few pictures this day, but you can see Kate in the Bates B&B, the kids on the train, and the Bern restaurant where we got a late dinner.