Anyway. This weekend's trip. As there was no need to go to Leicester to view the eBay van (sob) me and Em decided to go somewhere Saturday. 50 million mile an hour winds ruled out an outdoors day. So... Cadbury World then!
Hilda and Hilda had a lovely picnic in the services car park.. the cheese cobs were lovely, but we could have murdered a cuppa. I had prepared a flask but it leaked. Em was somewhat amused at my method for testing the watertightness of the suspect lid. Admittedly, with hindsight, tipping it gently over the sink may have been less messy than sloshing it over the worktop, but never mind.
Who needs an animal surfboard table...
We're terribly posh don't you know... little fingers out and everything..
We did debate turning home after lunch and just having a trip to the Tamworth Services, but decided to soldier on. To be honest I didn't really trust the TomTom, he took us through Birmingham city centre and student-ville, and it seemed like he had taken us to some random waste company's service entrance.. but we were brave and found ourselves in the Cadbury's car park. From the moment I opened the car door it was like a flashback to childhood visits to the city with that wonderful smell. I spent most of the afternoon sniffing!
Signs you are obsessed number 42: you stop twice to take pictures of a rusty T25...
The actual Cadbury factory.. where so many yummy things are born...
Being an Aspie I had to take a picture of the train..
And had to follow the signs literally..
Having got nice Mr Tescos to pay for our tickets we started with the 'essence' part of the tour/museum, where we learnt about the experiments that resulted in CDM, and got out first 'hit'... a yummy shot of melted chocolate over popcorn. There was an Alton Towers moment when we came out of the tour straight into our first gift shop. There we decided upon our souvenir strategy for the world tour. We both collected rubbers as kids so they were a prime candidate. However, I had started collecting pencils last year at Jorvik and Banham Zoo, as there were no rubbers at Jorvik.. so I decided to continue the pencil collection. In the end I couldn't resist and ended up with both. No suprise there then.
Anyway.. rambling on about souvenirs.. after Essence we went into the Bournville Experience. The new Head had given an assembly about the Cadbury brothers when he first arrived at the school, so I was keen to learn more about the history of the company, and how they set up Bournville, and how they set about changing the lives of employees, from the back to backs of Birmingham to the specially built village with nice houses and gardens and green space. They also set up churches (they were from the Quaker tradition, so no pubs) and schools and sports clubs etc for the workers. They even built a pool and taught the women to swim during working hours! Now we have schools closing down pools because they cost too much to run. From the Bournville museum it was on to the main building. Somewhat unbelievably we actually had tea and apples for lunch in the cafe!!! Also unbelievably, I ate more than Ems!
We were relieved to see that the sugar was in fact made from sugar, but somewhat intrigued as to how a packet of sugar may, or may not, contain milk.
On then to the main tour, which was cool, and covered the history of chocolate itself and the history of cadburys. We weren't allowed to take pictures in the factory part, but we made up for it by sniffing a lot, and eating two bars of CDM. I did just slightly break the no photography rule, but it was not to get a picture of the machines...
Other highlights of the tour (aside from that delightful Rabbit/Carrot motif) were the Cadabra ride and the green screen. The Cadabra ride was a bit like the old Around the World in Eighty Day ride at Alton Towers, but in a creme egg car, and through a landscape filled with singing cocao beans. We met Mr Cadbury's parrot, and some lovely cows...
We did get somewhat busted at the end of the ride. We were rather enthusiastically waving goodbye to some Cocoa people that were bidding us adieu, when suddenly the doors opened and a member of staff caught us. She asked us if we were enjoying ourselves. And failed to keep a straight face.
I think we should do our own tour, as we clearly did a fantastic job of keeping the staff amused. Those at the green screen said we were the best they'd had all day... we do get points for effort... but I really do need to learn how to run properly (tip.. try running with same arm and leg forward.. impossible)
I think we have a new career waiting as Choclatiers.. we are masters with the medium...
We were among the last to leave.. having spent an age and a fortune in the World's Biggest Cadbury Shop or whatever it was. I maintain that half my fortune was a present for mum.. but a purple tea towel, rainbow pencil and bag of mis-shapes did accidentally make it into the basket with the souvenir pencil and rubber.
Mini Moby and Tom then did a grand job of getting us back home, just about in time for curry with George, Gill and Vicky. Top day :-)
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