Getting to Know Shakespeare (Part III.)

We woke up saturday morning bright and early to meet the bus outside our flats at 8:30AM. It took us until 11 to get to Stratford (or rather almost stratford). Michael gave us a little chat about Stratford and about Shakespeare's upbringing. It was really interesting, and our first stop was Mary Arden's house. Mary Arden was Shakespeare's mother. (The picture above is Aylia dancing around the May Pole!)

We were warned not to play with all the animals because apparently little kids had been getting Ecoli because of petting zoos. Great.

But isn't he so cute!!

The upstairs of the house had tiny little doors!

One of the childrens room...i assume.

(Aylia and Sinead)

Sinead and Owl. They had a whole bunch of Owls! :)

Inside Mary Arden's house which was under normal living until the 70's i believe. neat huh?

HOW CUTE?! I love piggies.

Some of the gang (Stephanine, Haley, Jeff, Vanessa and Eddie)

We also got to see a falcon demonstration and a bunch of kids got to hold it.

Then we got back into the bus and drove to Ann Hathaways house. We just drove by it but we wanted to see Shakespeare's wife's house :D

(Ann's house)

And then we drove to Stratford-Upon-Avon. We were allowed to roam around for a bit, along the street that Shakespeare was born. It was FULL of tourists and the street is also full of "shakespeare" shops. All the cafes have clever shakespeare names, such as the "as you like it cafe." And of course there is a fantastic bookshop all of shakespeare, where i got a tiny pocket romeo and juliet (so now i can always have it on hand :D). And i got some lovely postcards (which some of you can expect when i finally get around to writing postcards.) There were a lot of nice little shops, the gift shop was a little tacky...but what can you expect. I like the Globe gift shop better so i'm going to get more stuff there. But i really loved it. It's strange to think you're walking the same streets shakespeare did, seeing the place he was born, grew up and died.

(Haley, Kate, Stephanie, Sienna)

Sinead and i stopped at a nice cafe. But we had only a few minutes to chow down!

Lute playing jester :)

Steph outside Shakespeare's birthplace! :)

Then we all met up and Michael began to give us a little tour of Stratford! We went to the Church of Stratford-Upon -Avon. it's interesting because it was first a catholic church, and then when the Protestants took over they had the church officials white wash all the Catholic symbols, and as you can see in the second picture, some of them have been carefully recovered. It was beautiful :)

Then we went to the place where Shakespeare bought his last house. At the end of his life he had lots of money so he bough a bigger property (actually right near this church). Sadly the house was knocked down, but we did get to walk around in his back yard.

Shakespeare's Backyard.

Then we walked down to the water where the Royal Shakespeare Company. Because the RSC's production was deemed not up to snuff, we didn't see a show...but we did walk around. The theatre is under construction, so we didn't get to see shakespeare's theatre, but we walked around and it was packed with people. :)

Then we headed to the graveyard to see where shakespeare was buried.

Candid of Sinead :)

Group shot! <3

Now we travel inside the church shakespeare is buried. Because he's got a well off family he gets to buried inside the church. Interesting fact for those of you who care, if you look very closely at the stained  glass (particularly Jesus), you might notice something odd. That something odd is that his face is not faced in the Left direction, but rather the right. Which is not ususally how he is depicted. We learned that (Thanks Michael Winter!) but i'm not sure they know why. Strange, eh?

Hey Billy Shakes! Of course wrote some verse to go on his grave, making sure no one dug him up and moved his bones. Nice Job Will.

Shakespeare's actual birth/death certificates!

After this we headed back to the bus for our final stop. I wish i could tell you the last little town we visited but i can't remember it's name. We went to the Church there which was so beautiful! :)

Countryside from the Bus

A beautiful house in the town.

Then we got back in the bus and headed home. Holy crap that was long, and took me most of the day. I hope you enjoy all the pics. Saturday adventures continue with Aylia and Sinead but i'll post that later...i think this is enough photographs for now :D

Cheers loves,
T