Excursions and Shakespeare Adventures, Oh My!

On Saturday, I existed in the same space in which Shakespeare was born. On Sunday, I stood in both parts of the world. Needless to say, the weekend was full of jumping around with excitement.

To begin:

English Countryside!

Saturday, we woke bright and early and met the ISA bus to go to Stratford-upon-Avon. After a lovely nap and foray through the beautiful English countryside (we were blessed with gorgeous sunny weather, and the green grass and rolling hills were breathtaking) we arrived in Shakespeare's hometown! Stratford-upon-Avon defied expectations. It was a fascinating mix between the centuries-old and the new - across from the H&M was where Shakespeare went to school. Incredible.

The Birthplace

The Birthplace (as everyone reverently called it) was very interesting. No pictures allowed, unfortunately, but we did get some nice pictures of the outside. It was a much larger home than I had expected - Shakespeare's father was relatively well-to-do (he was the equivalent of the "mayor" of Stratford when Shakespeare was growing up, despite his somewhat shady past as an illegal glove maker). Before you entered the actual house (designed to look like it would in 1575, when Shakespeare was 11), you were treated to numerous rooms with videos about the bard himself, one of which held an original copy of the first folio! Incredible. To my delight, David Tennant was featured heavily - both when they played a clip of the Doctor Who episode about Shakespeare, and in the "Hall of Fame," where his beautiful face was put up on a banner to commemorate his time as Hamlet for the Royal Shakespeare Company. Afterwards we wandered through the house, saw where Shakespeare was born and grew up, and departed through the gift shop (of course).

Warwick Castle from above

Then, a few of us walked to where Shakespeare is buried with the majority of his family (pictures were allowed here, luckily!). It was a beautiful little church, and the people there were very nice (though it too had a gift shop haha). Then we returned to the main tourist-y spot next to the Birthplace, and nommed some pasties. Then we cheerily departed to Warwick Castle!

Self-proclaimed as "Britain's Ultimate Castle," Warwick is a wonder unto itself. Owned by the same people who own Madame Tussauds, it was filled with wax statues re-enacting what daily life at the castle would have been like. You were also allowed dizzying access to the turrets and towers of the castle on a one-way venture up and down these terrible spiral staircases. We very often resorted to literally crawling up the stairs, as the next step was roughly the same height as our hands. Absurd. But it was worth it - the views were beautiful.

The Royal Observatory

There was also a Merlin thing going on - though it cost extra, so I didn't do it (too bad, the BBC nerd inside me says). But I got some nice pictures of the banners! And there were peacocks. Just cause.

The only unfortunate part of the day was that my voice was all but completely gone throughout. It's only just coming back now - and as Danielle (and everyone else here) can attest to, I sounded more than a little bit pathetic.

Then on Sunday we woke up at a leisurely time and headed over to Greenwich. Only about a half an hour trip on the tube and the DLR (the Docklands Light Railyway - we passed Canary Wharf on the way, and once again my BBC nerd self squealed for joy), Greenwich was absolutely beautiful. It didn't hurt that we once again had beautiful weather!

Both hemispheres!

After hiking our way up a rather steep hill, we paid a small fee to enter the Royal Observatory (one of many different museums, etc in the area) and had a blast standing on both sides of the world! We also saw a lot of clocks, which Emily assures me are really cool. We headed back on a river cruise down the Thames just as the sun was setting, and I sat there gushing the whole time at how absolutely gorgeous London is. I took about twenty pictures of the lit up Big Ben and Parliament - too beautiful to pass up. One thing that anyone who visits me will be treated to (dragged to?) will definitely be that area at night.

Then a very satisfying Sunday dinner at a pub in Trafalgar Square rounded out a fantastic weekend! And now it is Monday, and I need to go do homework. Booo. Oh well. All part of the experience, right? Cheers! :)