Cadbury tweet-up adventure

This weekend we had a different sort of adventure.  We went to a tweet-up at Cadbury chocolate factory, which is in the midlands of England, near Birmingham.  As we live in the south of England we did not want to do the trip in one day so we drove up the day before and stayed in Stratford-on-Avon in Warwickshire.

This meant leaving home early and going on the car ferry.  Harry brought the mini-muffins along for breakfast.

We took a leisurely drive up via Hampshire and Oxfordshire.  My person was very happy to go through Oxfordshire and see where her grandfather came from.  Just outside the lovely Oxfordshire, Cotsworlds town of Chipping Norton, we found the Artyard Cafe.  Harry couldn't choose between carrot cake and chocolate cheesecake.

Mini-Kolo found this motorbike and went for a ride.

When we got to Stratford we needed to look for evidence of Shakespeare.  Harry found Hamlet and got acquainted with Yorick's skull.  It may not have been quite respectful.

We went for a walk along the river Avon and found a lock.  Harry had trouble climbing up and got there just as Mini-Kolo fell off.  We walked on quite a long way.

Eventually we turned back to go back to Stratford.  Harry checked out the way by finding signposts.

We were hungry and it was time for lunch so we went to a great tea shop and had a vegetable tikka baguette.  It was enormous and Harry and Mini-Kolo shared this one.

We didn't have a cream tea but Harry checked out these scones, enormous!!

After lunch we walked around Stratford and met this enormous teddy.  We are not sure what character he is representing.

By this time our paws were tired and we checked into the hotel and put our paws up for a while.  That was a welcome break.

On Saturday morning we made our way to Bournville for the Cadbury tweet-up.  We arrived despite the SatNav.

While we were waiting for the others, at Cadbury, Mini-Kolo and Harry decided to check out the Cadbury cow to make sure it was safe for all the others.  Baboons are good climbers so they are right to do the checking.  Mini-Kolo found a little niche on the tail.

Everyone arrived Tour Guide Ted, Ker'd, Tired Teacher Ted, SallyJainW, Lucky, Bluey and Honey and us.  The baboon behind Mini-Kolo is Sally's rehomed baboon Betsy Pawwood, named after Beset Trotwood in David Copperfield.  She is Ryan Baboon's sister so he was glad we had met her.

Then came the cow scramble!!  Mini-Kolo kept his safe place in the tail, he falls off things often.

So time to enter the Cadbury exhibition.

Mini-Kolo couldn't wait to get in on the chocolate act with TGT's Theo!!

Next thing we knew we found ourselves in a rain forest, where we learned the history of chocolate.  That was very interesting and later we learned about the history of Cadbury which was fascinating.

We loved the chocolate shapes.  Harry specially liked the football.

After the trip around the exhibition and a visit to the shop we got acquainted with Ker'd over lunch.  He has come to England all the way from Ohio and is having fun adventures and meeting Twitter pals.

After all that adventuring we were very hungry and went to the White Swan Hotel in Stratford for fish and chips.  These were lovely and manperson reported that the beer was also good.

It was great to meet all of you and we hope to meet you again.  We will see some of you at the IOW tweet up in July.  We missed Martha B Bear because she was involved with her football team's great achievement, but we will see you in July Martha.