We have just come back from a couple of days break near Birmingham.  Dh was going away and I thought we'd travel with him and then go off on an adventure of our own.  I had used Mapquest for directions and had about 10 sheets of printed out directions.

You know what?  I discovered that using a MAP is a whole lot easier than trying to follow those directions.  Are you shocked?  We don't have a disembodied voice in our car telling us where to turn left so I have been sucked into thinking that getting directions from the internet is a 'good idea'.  No, it isn't!  Buy a road atlas and use that.  It even has the added bonus of, if you end up in a traffic jam you can find another way to go!  We didn't get stuck at all, not least because we were probably one of the few people in the country using a MAP and therefore not congregating on the same roads used by every computing devices' instructions.

Okay, so I did have to stop a few times to figure out where to go next, but that was easier than trying to figure out whether we'd gone 1.4 miles or 1.5 miles (our milometer doesn't do 0.1).  And, on top of that we had two of the quickest answers to prayer I have ever had - asking the Lord for help and with 1 minute receiving an answer not once but twice.  I was surprised and I think the Lord was laughing with me about it!  When I was obliged to use Mapquest directions I was very glad that LJ is now so good at reading that he could keep me on the right road!

We stayed 2 nights at a hotel so that we could take it easy and enjoy a whole day at the chocolate factory - plus we were looking forward to the adventure of staying in a hotel and having a HUGE cooked breakfast for 2 mornings!

We found Cadbury World down more back alleys than I care to remember (I doubt most local people even know the way we went!) and then relaxed into chocolate delight.  Our arrival was greeted with a large packet of Buttons and a Curly Wurly each.  We then went through into the history of chocolate.  We had been reading up about chocolate so we already knew the basics.  The trail took us on to the Cadbury family who were God-fearing Quakers.  Being Quakers they were considered non-conformist and were not allowed to attend university (and so enter a 'profession') and as pacifists also could not contemplate a military career. This left them very little choice but to enter the world of trade. After choclate began to gain in popularity they moved their factory out of the large city and started a whole development of buildings and homes which is still known as Bournville.  As Christians they were very unhappy with the conditions many factory workers faced and they determined to do things very differently.  Every home had a garden, workers were encouraged to take time off and get involved in sport and so on.  To me, it is no great surprise that with Godly men at the helm the company flourished as it did.

We were able to visit part of the factory.  The smell of chocolate was quite amazing and a little overpowering.  I can well believe that people working there all the time loose their taste for chocolate.Here we were given MORE chocolate just in case we'd run out????  We did eat 2 of the Curlywurlys between the 3 of us, but that's all. 

We were able to write with liquid chocolate and then 'play with' liquid chocolate on a huge marble slab.

There was a ride through a 'bean world'...

and an area to play various games

including getting your silhouette made in chocolate (only on the computer though- sadly!)

Then came a highlight..... we went for a short walk (through the rain) into another area where it was explained how Dairy Milk chocolate was first made and were given little tubs of liquid chocolate.  It was so delicious.  Yummy, yummy, yummy.  Yes, it deserves 3 yummys.

We had a great time.  It was fun, tasty and even educational.

We decided to pop into the nearest supermarket on the way back to the hotel and buy sandwiches for tea - remember we'd had the huge breakfast and a snack and chocolate.. - and what did we find?

Well, we had to buy one each because we see them so rarely!  "Icing on the cake,"  I believe it is called!