Stratford-Upon-Avon

     Today we left at 9:45AM for Stratford-Upon-Avon.  The drive was a little over two hours, but very pretty.  Once there, our first stop was Mary Arden’s Farm.  Mary Arden was the mother of Shakespeare, thus he spent many years on this farm.  We observed a traditional Tudor Meal, went to the Falconry, and visited some of the farm animals.  I hate slash am terrified of birds, but I was brave and held an owl.  I first held a chicken leg in my hand, then the owl came and landed on my hand, ate the chicken, and finally it flew away.  We left the farm, leaving Mary-Celeste behind since she wasn’t on the bus when it was time to go, and then headed the Anne Hathaway’s Cottage.  This was my favorite stop of the day because I thought the gardens were so pretty and the house was quite charming.  After the cottage we headed to Shakespeare’s Birthplace. Because Shakespeare’s dad was a glove maker, hey had a guy inside the house demonstrating how to make gloves.  I also learned that the phrase “goodnight, sleep tight” comes from Shakespeare’s time when people slept on ropes instead of slats, therefore if the ropes were tight, one would have a comfortable sleep.  There was a cute shop that sold anything you could ever want relating to Shakespeare and in it there was a section with love quotes from different plays.  My favorite was: “they do not love that do not show their love.”  

The Asian that showed me how it's done

Pig Sty @ Mary Arden's Farm

Tudor Meal

Outside Mary Arden's Farm

Anne Hathaway's Cottage

Shakespeare's Birthplace

     After visiting all of the places, we had about four hours of free time.  However, it was pretty cold and windy so we didn’t really want to wander around outside.  As a result we went to Marks & Spencer and had some soup.  We then flocked to McDonalds (they are super nice here) and did some homework/camped out until it was time to go to the theater.  We then went and saw “A Winter’s Tale.”  It was well done and probably my favorite Shakespeare play we have seen.   At about 11PM we loaded the coach and didn’t arrive home until 1AM.  It was a long day, but still fun.