I was surprisingly sad to leave Stratford-upon-Avon today, as well as our cute little bed and breakfast. Richard and Sue were quite wonderful hosts. This morning I went down for another fantastic breakfast, and Sue had made a great English breakfast again. This time around she gave us even bigger portions because she said she didn’t know when we would eat next in our travels. It was incredibly sweet and was yet another example of how great this couple was. Leslie and I were the first ones to breakfast this morning and I got a chance to talk with Sue for a while as well. They have such a fun little family and I am grateful that I got to meet them! I wish I could have met their seventeen year old son Oliver, he sounds like a hoot between football accidents and motorbikes, he is the typical teenage son.
Saying goodbye to The Quilt and Croissant
Our whole group got together right after breakfast and returned to our coach. We then made our way to a few different places. Our first stop was Anne Hathaway’s cottage (wife of Shakespeare). The cottage is quite small and the tour through it does not take very long, since there are only four or so rooms to be seen. The best part of the house, for me at least, is the garden. The area around the cottage is quite big and it is covered in flowers. Any of the flowers that were mentioned in Shakespeare’s works were featured in this garden in some form! It was so fun to walk through. This is another of the sites that I have actually been to before, but it was fun to see how much it has change in two years. It was also incredibly sunny as opposed to the rain that I faced once before.
The new moon crescent statue, with Anne Hathaway's Cottage in the background
A view of the cottage
Relaxing in the gardens
The next stop on our little tour was the Mary Arden Farm. This farm used to belong to Shakespeare’s mother’s family, and is still a functioning farm today. I had not been to this place before, so it was interesting to see a new part of Stratford. The space was little and tucked away, but was quite fun. It reminded me a lot of Thanksgiving Point, but on a smaller scale. There were areas where you could pet different farm animals and take part in some farming chores like milking cows or herding sheep. The little kids that were there on school trips were taken into a barn where they all dressed up in Tudor style clothes and then worked at different tasks on the farm. I mostly just wandered around and smiled at all the little things to be seen. It was definitely aimed for a younger audience, but it was still fun. They also had a bird show at this farm, and it was really cool because we talked with the lady who was presenting the birds and found out that she is a member of the church! The two birds that she showed off were two different kinds of owl. The first was an small barn owl (also known as the ghost owl) named Mariam the Misfit. She had been trained to fly very close to people and it was hysterical to see how people would react as an owl flew incredibly close to their face. The next owl was an eagle owl named Boye. The bird lady was great fun and really seemed to be having a fun time with the birds and the audience. She was a hoot! (Get it…owls….hoot…….I’m funny).
One of the buildings at the farm
Boye showing off to get some treats
Our last stop on this trip was to go by and visit Blenheim Palace. It’s an incredibly beautiful palace that serves as a museum of sorts as well as the current residence of the Duke of Marlborough. It has quite a lush history with royal families and dukedoms, and is even the birthplace of Winston Churchill. We were given free reign of the grounds, so Dallin and I went through a quick tour of the palace. I was in awe of how grand everything was. Even the smallest bedrooms were adorned with incredible furniture and displays, like fireplaces or chandeliers. We walked through room after room of grandeur, and the tour ended with an impressive library. The room was quite long and had two floors of books, with an organ sitting on the opposite end of the room. It reminded me of the Great Gatsby and his own personal organ. Now I really want to have my own library/organ combo so that someone may serenade me while I read! Right after the library was also a personal chapel, making it quite easy to go to church! It’d be like General Conference all the time! No need to leave the home!
The gardens at Blenheim are amazing, and I spent a significant amount of time sitting behind the palace by their fountains. There were also several walking paths available, but i opted to sit in the garden and take a rest in the shade. Over the past few days I have become quite red from the amount of sun I’ve seen. I thought I would get away from sunshine by spending some time in London, but everyone keeps saying how odd the weather has been behaving. Just my luck. Everyone else enjoys it though, so I won’t complain too much. I sat in the shade of the garden and watched the clouds, which are always quite beautiful here! The afternoon flew by and before I knew it, it was time to return to the coach, and return to London.
Blenheim Palace
The room that Winston Churchill was born in
Everything was so fancy
One of the more "common" rooms
The library featuring a statue of Queen Anne
Library Organ
Personal chapel
One of the gardens
Side view of Blenheim
I’m not certain how long the ride was, as I slept through most of it (surprise). When we got back to London I was quite pleased and had not realized how much I was missing my little London home as well. My roommates and I settled in a bit and then I went and bought some groceries to help me finish off this last week! The rest of the evening was quite relaxed, as I think that we were all quite exhausted. Ben and I watched the Fifa World Cup in the common room. Brazil played against Croatia, and I found myself rooting for Croatia because they were ranked lower than Brazil. I have a thing for underdogs! While Croatia initially took the lead as Brazil scored on themselves, they lost as Brazil came ahead, 3-1. Dallin attempted to go and watch the game at the pub with some members from our Portuguese ward, but came back a little while later. We asked him what happened and his response was, “Brazilians are crazy”. So there you go. We may stop by a pub one of these days to watch a game. That’s how it is done here! For tonight though, we were quite content with the amazing A/C in our little basement.
We have our last class tomorrow and then finals start next Monday! There’s only a week left of this fantastic adventure! I’m sad to be leaving, but also excited to get back home as well!
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