Well, I feel sheepish. I haven’t updated in a really long
time. And that is really mainly down to the fact that I literally have not had
the time. In the time between my last post and this one, I have written two
essays, one 2500 word story, studied for and taken a final exam, and traveled
to Stratford-upon-Avon, Warwick, the Cotswolds, York, Bristol, Bath (again), Dublin,
Paris, Venice, Rome, Berlin, Nuremberg, Neuschwanstein, and Munich. And I’m
about to go to Prague next week and probably Edinburgh at some point. So I have
a lot of catching up to do on this thing! I do have to say that everything has
been incredibly fun and wonderful, and I feel so lucky to have experienced and
seen everything that I have.
First things first… My Aunt Kim came to visit me in late
March. Since she lived in the UK for a few years, it was great having her here
to navigate around as we toured the countryside of England. She rented a car,
picked me up from my house, and we set off to Stratford-upon-Avon. It was a
really cute town full of blooming tulips and thatched houses. Our first order
of business was to find the house where Shakespeare was born and go for a tour.
I really loved it. They had the house made up exactly as it would have been in
the 1500s, even down to the furniture, and they had dressed-up guides in most
of the rooms explaining facts about Shakespeare’s life and the era. The garden
in the back was really beautiful, and the coolest part was they had dressed-up
actors walking around who would randomly start performing excerpts from
Shakespeare’s works. We stopped and watched a girl and guy perform from The Taming of the Shrew. Then someone started
calling out requests from other plays and they both just started performing
scenes from these plays right out of memory. That would be
such a fun job…if you had a really good memory for that kind of thing and were good at acting…which I am neither…but still.
 |
| Actors in Shakespeare's garden |
After that we stopped
at a tearoom for afternoon tea and scones. This is going to sound silly, but
that was my second cup of tea ever in
the UK…mostly because I’m a heathen and like Coke better than tea. But I
discovered a love for it on that trip, probably because of the sheer number of
times we did stop for afternoon tea. It really perks you up, and not just
because of the fact that I put on average about 20 spoonfuls of sugar into
mine. Also, scones with clotted cream and jam might be the best thing the Brits
have ever done for the world. The tearoom was really cute and
Shakespeare-themed, with his quotes painted in gold all over the place.
 |
| Stratford-upon-Avon |
That night we bought tickets to see Richard III. As you might imagine Shakespeare plays are very
popular in Stratford and supposed to be really great. I can say with certainty that
it’s true—I really loved the play and I wasn’t sure I would, since Richard III isn’t really his most
lighthearted work. Inside the theater it was built something like it would have
been in the 1500s, with tiers of wooden benches. The actors were really wonderful.
It was a really long play—I think it went from 7 to 11 or something like that.
Definitely worth it, though!
That night we stayed in a bed and breakfast my aunt had
picked out. I’ve never stayed in a B&B but it was this adorable house in
the countryside and—best of all—it had sheep. It was lambing season so there were
lambs chasing each other all over the place. Our second-story window even
looked out onto them and we could hear them bleating in the morning. There was
also a white horse and two or three very friendly cats roaming around. I kind
of went nuts trying to take pictures of everything…as I usually do. The
homemade English breakfast—fried eggs, bacon, sausage, tea, and toast, always
toast—we were given in the morning was also worth the price of admission.
 |
| LAMBS! |
The next day we visited the house of Anne Hathaway,
Shakespeare’s wife. The main thing I remember about that is a very informative
lady explaining the huge stone fireplace in the main room and all the tricks of
using it for cooking back in the 1500s, which was basically a whole day process.
Makes me thankful to have microwaves. I also remember going to the gift shop at
the end and having to fight my way through a horde of tourists who were all
talking really loudly. I couldn’t think why they annoyed me or why their voices
were so jarring until I realized they were all American and I hadn’t been
around that many Americans together in a while. Now I kind of know where they
get the “loud American” stereotype. Anyway, after that we visited the church
where Shakespeare is buried with his very cool epitaph of “Good Friends, for
Jesus’ sake forbear, To dig the bones enclosed here! Blest be the man that
spares these stones, And curst be he that moves my bones.”
 |
| Anne Hathaway's house |
We left Stratford and drove to Warwick because I’d mentioned
wanting to see a castle. A few people had warned us that Warwick Castle had
turned more into a tourist trap than a historical place, but it was still
really cool even though there were some cheesy elements. Once you get inside castle
gates they had it set up something like a Renaissance fair, with people in
pseudo-medieval costumes walking around and souvenir stands set up. Luckily you
could still walk through parts of the castle itself like the great hall and
everything. Also one room randomly had all these wax figures of King Henry VIII
and his wives set up for no particular reason, but it was interesting.
They also had shows on every so often, like jousting, hawking, and so on. We
caught the trebuchet show. My dad would have loved to see it. The guy put on
his little performance and talked about how dangerous it would have been for the
people operating this thing; two men have to run in this huge wheel to work it
and if they tripped they would have been dashed around inside the wheel. Then they had the trebuchet
hurl a rock. After that we caught a falconry show, even though it
was actually eagles (and an owl!) that he used instead of falcons.Two were American bald eagles. Also, we saw a wedding party
later in the day heading toward the castle for the reception. The bride and
groom went through the gate in a horse-drawn carriage. Can’t imagine being
able to get married in a castle from the 1100s.
In Warwick we also stepped inside a beautiful old cathedral and Aunt Kim started talking to the lady who worked there. She was very distinguished and had an upper-class accent. My aunt asked why some of the statues on tombs got to wear crowns when they were only earls and not kings, and the lady explained that they were coronets and that nobility could wear them. Then she got a bit uncomfortable and very reluctantly said something to the effect of, “I don’t mean to brag, but my husband is one of the lesser nobility.” Apparently on her wedding day her mother-in-law gave her a diamond coronet to wear (but she stressed that she couldn’t keep it since she had only married a younger son). We wanted to ask more about who her husband was and what his rank was, but we didn’t want her to consider us “vulgar Americans” so we just thanked her and left. That taught me it pays to talk to people…I would have just thought she was just an average person working at a church, but she was nobility. Pretty cool.
After Warwick we headed out to the Cotswolds, which is a
string of beautiful old villages all located near each other. They look very
cozy and authentic. Plus they have funny names. We visited Stow-on-the-Wold
(you can’t make this stuff up), Upper Slaughter and Lower Slaughter (really),
and Bourton-on-the-Water. All very beautiful. The first and last ones were a
bit touristy, but still neat and full of friendly people. As you can imagine
these trips encompassed more afternoon tea, more scones, more sheep, and more gorgeous
countryside.
It was a really relaxed and fun trip, and I’m grateful to Aunt Kim for taking me around. This post is already running long, so I’ll leave it here for now. Stay tuned for details on my Easter break trip and my Germany trip!
