Cadbury Chocolate Factory

We have been trying to find things to do while we are in England. It is easier said then done really, since our kids are so young. So when M found the factory tour of the Cadbury Chocolate Factory, we decided that it was a “must”. In my mind, it was going to be a cross between Willy Wonka’s Chocolate Factory and the Coke Museum in Atlanta, Georgia. My fear was that it was going to be closer to something like the tour of a box factory (Simpson’s episode). In the end, it was closer to the first two, just without the Oompa Loompas. I guess they did something close to Oompa Loompas.

When we found it, it felt a little overpriced. If it ended up being good, then it wouldn’t be. If it was excellent, then it was a value for the price. When you pull up to the factory, you are not really sure if it will be good. We walk in (actually we ran in, since it was starting to rain) and got the tickets. The tour is in two parts. The first part is the actual tour of the factory and a little history of chocolate/Cadbury. It was alright. The kids were not interested in it at all, other then the snacks that they gave to eat on the way. It was not until the Disney like ride through Chocolate Land happened that the kids were interested in the tour part. Here you got to follow like drops of chocolate on the way to the Cadbury Factory. N thought that it was great (here is where the kind of like Oompa Loompas happened). I actually liked the factory tour. It always amazes me how much gets produced and how it is produced. I loved watching the video on the Cadbury Egg production.

The second part started with a stupid video about how they came up with the idea of putting 1.5 glasses of fresh milk in each candy bar. I guess it was cute, but a little much maybe. After the show, you got to produce your very own candy treat- milk chocolate on top of your choice of treat. I picked popcorn, N had wine gums and M had cereal. Z loved it. She was covered in chocolate before it was over. Everyone was taking pictures of her. It was all over her.

The girls liked it, but I think that the highlight for them was a combo of the snacks around the factory and the playground with swings, probably more the other one. They were happy though, and we thought that it was excellent. They did have an elevator, just not a glass one.

Back Home

After being on the road for over 6 weeks, we are finally home. Over the next month we are going to be blogging about all of our adventures, and we had lots of them. I will also (in theory) be posting some recipes and drinks on the 80 Meals blog as well, so you need to check that out as well.

Here are some of the highlights to come:

Camping in Denmark
Day Out With Thomas
Sea Life
Cadbury Chocolate Factory
Oxford
Monet's Garden
Disneyland Paris

and much more.

Road to England

The trip to England was a bit of an experience this time. It took three nights to get here, with the first night only a couple of hours away from the house. The second night was in a tent in Aalborg Denmark and the last night was on the ferry between Denmark and England.

The tent night was interesting. I was not overly interested in staying in a tent. I love camping, but I am guessing that I am going to get my fair share of it this summer. M was driving though, so she decided. It rained during the night...of course. The girls loved it though. They got sleeping bags for Christmas last year and thought that it as the coolest thing ever to sleep in their very own sleeping bags in a real tent. They were warm and happy all night. I wish I could say the same about M and I. We fought for the sleeping bags and were a little cold the entire night. In the morning we quickly put up the tent before it started to rain again (we failed).

The last night we took to the ferry from Denmark to England. M thought that the boat was a little small. It was not the biggest boat I had seen before, but it was not small. In reality, the boats to Åland have more things to do on them then this one and we were on this one for 18 hours. I guess it was a good thing that we did not have any alternatives on what to do- we slept for 12 of the 18 hours. While we were taking a little fika in the food area, we sat next to 3 couples chatting. They were all chatting about the different yachts that they own/have owned. Then they started to chat about the different places they took dance lessens- "I took a month long tango lesson in Argentina." "Well, I look a salsa lesson in Africa." The conversation went on and on. The joys of having way too much money.

We arrived in England with no problems and even got to the flat with out any problems. It is pretty nice and sits right on the Thames. So much so that I am going to have to be extra careful with the girls in the back yard.

Steam Days in Didcot England

Swedish Classic Update

Vätternrundan 28 days
Vansbrosimningen 57 days

Lidingöloppet 133 days

Vasaloppet 281 days

biking 40km @ 27km per hour and 6km

swimming 0

steps 18,919

skiing 0

other 0