Bill Shakespeare

Yesterday was so fun! On our way to Stratford, we stopped at a little town called Chipping Norton and had a quick lunch of pizza and apple turnover. The drive to Stratford was about two hours in a coach, and the English countryside is beautiful! England has about twenty different shades of green, and we passed these huge golden-yellow fields, but I'm not sure what kind of flowers they were.

 First, we stopped at Anne Hathaway’s cottage. The house was built in medieval times before Anne’s family lived there, and you can still even see the fingerprints in the walls from when it was built! Pretty cool. Shakespeare famously wrote in his will that to his wife, Anne, he left nothing but his “second best bed,” and upstairs they had that bed displayed. Shakespeare was only 18 when he married 26 year-old Anne, and their marriage had to be done quickly, because Anna was already 3 months pregnant. Or at least, they think it’s the same bed. In the kitchen they still have the original floor laid down by Anne’s grandfather during the reign of King Henry VIII. More about good ole king Henry will come later. We learned some interesting things about how the household was run back in Shakespeare’s day. The tour guide told us that husbands were allowed to beat their wives as long as the stick they used was smaller than the width of their thumb. This is where the phrase keeping someone “under the thumb” comes from. Also, husbands were only allowed to beat their wives during daylight hours, so as not to keep the neighbors up. The house has no foundation or cellar, so I have no idea how it’s still standing! And, apparently, 13 generations of Hathaways lived in that house. Pretty cool! The gardens at the cottage were also so pretty!

Stratford-upon-Avon

 We drove the rest of the way to Stratford-upon-Avon, and visited the birthplace of William SHAKESPEARE!! I was sort of geeking out the whole time, but it was so exciting! Next to his childhood home, they have a birthplace museum, and right outside it is a garden with every flower, herb, and tree ever mentioned in a Shakespeare play. We walked through Shakespeare’s house, then, once we were outside, a lady in costume recited lines from Romeo and Juliet from an upstairs window! How cool is that? We then went to Trinity Church, the church were Shakespeare is buried. It was so awesome! Outside the church is an old cemetery, and it amazes me how these old buildings and headstones are still there! My camera died right when we were outside of the church, but I designated Katherine to be picture taker, so I’ll have to get pictures from her.

Graveyard at Trinity Church

Before going to Twelfth Night, we walked around Stratford for a bit, then got some dinner at a little café. The theater we went to does a bunch of Shakespeare plays year-round; it’s not the famous Shakespeare theater, The Globe, but we are going to go to a play there later in the trip. Our seats were up in the nosebleeds on the side, but because the way the theater was set up, we could still see everything. The play was so good! It was hilarious. The actor who played Malvolio (the bad guy) did such a good job! He reminded me of the Duke in Moulin Rouge. The play was a little difficult to understand at some parts, but because I’ve read the play a few times, I didn’t get lost. I'm so glad I was able to visit the famous Shakespeare spots; they're places I've wanted to go my whole life! This place is a dream come true!