Wednesday August 1:
Today I went to Stratford-Upon-Avon. When I got out of the
station, I had to walk across town to get to the information center. I bought
my tickets and a map then was off to be a tourist.
I came across this big Shakespeare memorial (I think it was
the one used in “Gnomeo and Juliet”). In the center was a tall monument was a
statue of Shakespeare sitting in a chair posing in an epic fashion. There were
four statues surrounding the Shakespeare monument, all characters from plays.
Two of them I didn’t recognize but the other two I knew. Lady Macbeth and
Hamlet.
When I finished looking at the statues, I proceeded to New
Place/Nash’s House. The place where Shakespeare spent the last several years of
his life. It was pretty quiet when I walked in which meant I got to enjoy the
house almost all to myself. In the back of the house, they had an archeological
site of the original Shakespeare’s New Place (the house I was walking through
was Nash’s House, either Shakespeare’s daughter or granddaughter’s husband’s
house). I continued my way through looking at the garden and the exhibit they
had about emotions and values in Shakespeare’s time (money/greed, love/lust/,
and so on).
I then made my way to Shakespeare’s birthplace. As I was
walking, I saw/heard some street performers singing/playing all kinds of music.
One duo was playing some jazz, and another was playing a cool arrangement of
Set Fire to the Rain. There were also some people doing tricks. There was one
girl who was doing a trick where she sat and balanced on a bamboo stick! Mk I
see I’m going to have to include a picture of this:
 |
| Sorry, not letting me rotate. |
See? Oh c’mon, you’ve got to admit this is cool!
Anyways, I went to see the birthplace of Shakespeare. They
first had you go through an exhibition about Shakespeare’s childhood and how he
can to be the famous Shakespeare. Apparently there was a huge possibility that
he could have been killed in his youth when a plague broke out killing mainly
children. Somehow though, Shakespeare managed to avoid it. But can you imagine
what the English world would be like without Shakespeare?
When the exhibition was over, we went into the actual house.
Size-wise it was similar to the normal townhouses in London. The first room we
entered in was rarely used. Its main purpose was to show off how wealthy the
family was. The second room we entered was the father’s workshop where he made
gloves. They had replicas that we could try on. One was like a mitten, another
was like a normal glove we have today, but the last one was a bit different. It was a three fingered glove used for
riding. When I tried that one on, it was like my hand turned into a hoof but
still with an opposable thumb. The rest of the house was similar to a modern
day house, just you know old-fashioned.
I then took a small snack break before taking off to the
final house I wanted to see. Anne Hathaway (no, not the actress. Shakespeare’s
wife)’s cottage. As I was walking, I passed by what I guess is a popular statue
of a jester. Took some pictures of him, then continued on. HOLY COW the cottage
was far away. It was it’s own little village outside of Stratford-Upon-Avon. It
rained a bit which was a nice cool down for me. When I got to the cottage
FINALLY, I quickly went through it, and then had to book it back to the station
to make my train.
Luckily, I made it in time for my train and got back to the
Johnsons just fine.
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