British Life in Stratford

   Today was an incredible day, mostly due to the fact that Stratford Upon Avon is an endearing little town! It's been so different being outside of London again. I love how different the feel is outside of the big city. Stratford is still a pretty big tourist attraction itself, but definitely for a different crowd of people. The locals are incredibly nice and though they still have that small town mentality of being really nice, they are familiar with tourists and seem quite willing to play along with our weird ways. The first people that come to mind are Richard and Sue, the wonderful couple that run our bed and breakfast. They both live here as well and they are so incredibly kind. This morning we were served a full English Breakfast made by Sue. It was absolutely delicious. It included bacon, sausage, scrambled eggs, hash browns, mushrooms, a tomato, and of course, baked beans. On the side we also had some delicious juices and toast with jam that was homemade as well! It was amazing. It seriously felt like such a dream this morning. I woke up in my cloud-like bed and could smell the breakfast being made downstairs as I got ready, the light shining in through my window. If that's not a perfect way to start off the day, I don't know what is. 

A quick snapshot of my breakfast, before I devoured it

    For the first part of the day our whole group traveled together and went into Shakespeare mode. We started off our travels by walking over to Shakespeare's birthplace. It was just a few minutes away on foot from where we were staying, which was quite nice. (I'd later come to discover that everything is really close together, so we walked everywhere today). The house is such a fun place to visit. There is a museum of sorts that they've set up before you actually enter the cottage. In it is a fun video presentation about Shakespeare's work and how it continues to be a part of our culture. They showed clips of different productions that have occurred over the years, including random selections from Coraline and The Simpsons. Not the most brilliant of adaptations, but I suppose it works! At the end of the video they said something that I really liked, "When performed, Shakespeare's words become flesh and blood, and they belong to all of us." It is so true, and quite amazing how words that were written so long ago are still so relevant and powerful today.The gardens outside the house were gorgeous and they had actors that walked around and performed different portions of plays and sonnets written by Shakespeare. It's all so incredible and so simplistic at the same time. The house that Shakespeare was born in was decent sized, though we may consider it small now.
    After visiting his birthplace, we then made our way over to Shakespeare's home later in life (known as the New Place) as well as Halls Croft, the home of his daughter and her husband. All the sites were quite fun to see and visit. They are definitely not very grand in comparison to some of the things that we have seen, but they really don't need to be. It's the fact that they are so well preserved and have so much history behind them that make them so fascinating.

Shakespeare's Birthplace - Street View

Visitors would come and sign this window. Names like Charles Dickens!

The back gardens

Delanie and myself behind the house

Enjoying some performances in the garden (Shakespeare's home in the backdrop)

The random tree that stands where Shakespeare's room once was. They'd like to chop it down to discover the remains underneath, but it's protected by a trust. 

   Our combined group "tour" ended around noon and we were given the rest of the afternoon to do whatever we waned to do. My little group of Amanda, Raine, Tracy, Delanie, Ellen, Dallin, Ben, and myself stopped by Trinity's Cathedral to visit Shakespeare's burial sight. He was buried inside the church, and his burial sight is right next to his wife, Anne Hathaway as well as his daughter Suzanne and her husband.

The exterior of the church

Shakespeare's tomb. Anne's is just to the left 

   Following our Life to Death exploration of Shakespeare we decided to explore Stratford a little more. We walked about and discovered some fun shops that were scattered throughout the city. We stopped by a Second Hand Book shop that I would have loved to have explored for quite some time. My group was great and they waited patiently for a bit, but then we had to continue on our way! We visited some sweet shops and began to look for ideas for some lunch. We discovered a Fudge Shop that was incredible! The man that was working also owned the place, and he was so incredibly nice. We walked in as he was working on a huge slab of fudge that was still warm and melty. He offered us some delicious samples and we visited for a little while. He said that he has the best job in the world, but it's sometimes difficult to live off of a business like that! I bought a little bag of fudge (which I devoured way too quickly).  Leslie, George's wife, said that the fudge that he was preparing looked incredibly delicious, but it was not ready to be served. She then noticed an ice cream shop across the street and asked if she could get some ice cream and have him drizzle the fudge over the top of it. He said he had never sold the fudge like that before, but he was willing to give it a go. Leslie and Amanda bought some ice cream and did just that! The AMAZING part about this whole situation actually happened later in the day.  Ben and I went back to the shop before our evening showing of Arden because I had eaten all of my fudge. As I walked in the owner said, "We were just talking about you!" Apparently the ice cream shop had heard about what Leslie and Amanda did. The owner of the ice cream shop then came over and bought a massive amount of fudge to be used on the ice cream at the shop. The fudge owner was all smiles and told me to tell Leslie thanks for that! It was so fun! (He also probably gave me more fudge than what I paid for the second time around. I'm not complaining).
     For lunch we had an incredible experience as we decided to have another true English experience and have some afternoon tea. We went to a place called Hathaway's Tea Garden. Our little group was situated in the back gardens of a nice restaurant. We ordered some delicious herbal tea and had an official little lunch/brunch in the gardens. I ordered a "Snow Love" tea that was made from apples and pears, and it was fantastic. I added one brown sugar cube and one white to make the taste just perfect. They then brought us some scones (biscuits to us) as well as finger sandwiches and little desserts! It all felt so fancy and it tasted incredible. We all had a great time as we visited and got to know each other a little better. Leslie was glad to spend some time with us because she says she felt sad that she hasn't really been able to as much as she would have liked! She is a hoot, and we were glad to have her. George also joined us a bit later as we were wrapping up our tea. I was so tempted to buy some of the Snow Love mixture to go, and I'm almost upset with myself now that I didn't!

The fudge in the preliminary stages

Settling down for tea

Our view from the garden

I was so excited (and rightfully so)

My tea and scones

The incredible food platter

     Following our posh British lunch we spent a good chunk of our afternoon down by the river. (The Avon of Stratford Upon Avon). A group of us paid to take a quick boat ride up and down the river. We were told that it was a guided tour, but our boat drivers didn't actually say anything. I didn't mind too much as it was beautiful regardless and we had a great chance to get to know one another a little better as well. We sat along the river for quite some time following the tour as well. It was very entertaining. There were pigeons, geese, and swans everywhere that were all after some food. People would walk down by the water and drop in some bread and the birds would come FLOCKING! My group sat down by a tree and began playing some card games. I leaned against the tree and pulled out my Kindle and proceeded to read some Harry Potter. It was incredible up until I realized that I had little aphids crawling all over my pants and into my bag. Woops. That was a startling surprise. I also met a goose who wanted to eat my fudge.

Swans. Swans everywhere. If you feed them, they will come

I met a swan

On our boat ride

We considered a paddle boat, but opted for the hands free experience

Such a lovely day

Looked up from my reading and met this brave little guy. He eyed me for quite some time. He was after my fudge. So I named him Cornelius, as in Cornelius Fudge. Bwahaha. 

We were all quite fascinated by the birds

     In the evening we scrounged up some food before our show. Everything in this town closes up at six, which we had not really thought about earlier. So come 6:15 or so we found ourselves quite hungry, but without many options concerning food. It's so baffling to us that they would close down so early. We actually ended up visiting a café called Costa (a place similar to Starbucks) where we ordered sandwiches that were quite nice. Following our quick dinner we went back to the theatre that we attended last night to see Arden of Faversham. This show was performed in the same building, but in a different theatre known as the Swan. The author of the play is unknown, but there have been theories that Shakespeare worked on it himself, or at least played some part in the creation of the play. The play was actually pretty intriguing. It was changed to be set in more of an 80's time period. The main character sold those weird little golden cats that are from China, the ones that wave their paw back and forth. They were scattered throughout the entire show and it was an interesting choice, especially at the conclusion when they lift up the back wall of the stage and there is a huge wall of the things. The show was pretty mediocre at first, but the last twenty minutes really upped the energy, which happens when suddenly the characters find themselves murdering someone and trying to hide the evidence!

The Royal Shakespeare Company Building

    The play was pretty short and was over before the sun had even set. We wandered about for a bit longer and got some McFlurries. I justify this decision by saying that it was a special Mars Bar McFlurry, and that I couldn't get that in the states anyways, so it's obviously a British choice. We invited Brett's kids to come along with us since their parents were heading back to the B&B. He has five kids and they range from a 2nd Grade son to his oldest that just got his mission call. They are all incredibly fun kids! We had a great time walking around and visiting with them and each other. Back at the B&B we sat outside in the front patio/porch area and visited amongst ourselves as well as with Richard (the owner) and his daughter Cassie. He and his daughter were both so nice and we started talking about our different cultures and it really showed one of the best parts about these experiences, which is getting to know some wonderful people and really getting to immerse yourself into a different culture.
     Today was fantastic, and was full of so many wonderful experiences that were so British and so much fun!