Life Affirmation

Well today was another one of those life-affirming, wonderful days that I seem to have so many of over here. We went to Stratford- upon- Avon (SUA) and I went for a superb walk in the countryside with Vanessa. We ate a great restaurant and saw a terrific play. Sounds like the makings of a great day to me...

We left later than usual (10 am) because we had the play at night. We had a smaller bus than normal so we had to sit next to people. Vanessa and I sat next to each other and talked for the first time in about 3 or 4 weeks I think. Pretty crazy. It was nice. It was a 2 hour drive out to Mary Arden's house just outside SUA. Mary Arden was Shakespeare's mother. It was in this house that Mary was raised. The house is more than that though. On the grounds of the house, they have a lot of stuff going on showing what life was like in the Elizabethan era. They had people in period clothing all over the place. The people were doing things like playing flutes or sewing boots or baking bread and making lunch. It was cool to watch them do their thing and ask questions about it. The property is also a farm so there were donkeys and sheep along with roosters. The sheep were really cute (picture 1). The actual house was nice as well. It was done in a Tudor style. The best part by far was the falconer (picture 2). That would be a guy who trains falcons and other birds. He was showing off his Kestrel, a smaller type of falcon. The bird would fly around and the guy would throw food in the air and stuff. He told all of us watching (there weren't that many) about falcons and how to train them and stuff. At the end of the show thing, he fed the bird a baby chick. Not for people with a queasy stomach, let me tell you. The bird was very pretty as well. By the time the falconer was done, I noticed that I didn't see anybody else around from my group so I quick stepped it over to the coach. I was second to last on.

We finished the drive to SUA and went to Shakespeare's Birthplace. Yup, they pretty much have a tourist attraction for everything there. You can guess what the gimmick of this place was. I don't even want to know how much the admission was. Whatever. We went inside and walked through a packed bunch of museum displays. There were too many people in that small museum. Then we walked outside in the gardens and entered the actual house. The house where Shakespeare was born is another Tudor style house with some people in period costume doing period things inside. One woman was sewing leather gloves which William's dad did. Um, that's about it for the Birthplace. If I was on my own visiting SUA, I don't think I would have done. The view of the house from the street was just as good as the view from in the garden (picture 3). Oh well. It was still slightly informational.

Last week at the library, I checked out a book called "Exploring SUA: Historical strolls around the town" by John Abbott. Highly recommend it to anyone going there any time soon. Well written, informational, funny, and good directions. I decided to do one of the walks that went out into the countryside. Vanessa said she wanted to go so, just like the old times (like 2 months ago), the two of us set out. I forgot to mention that it was pretty cold and windy and cloudy all morning so I was kind of leery about going out into the countryside for a 6+ mile walk. I'm glad I did it. We began the walk by strolling along side the River Avon. We passed by a brass-rubbing shop where you can pay money to rub a copy of a piece of brass that is a picture. It wasn't very expensive but we both passed. Next we came to Holy Trinity Church where Bill Shakespeare is buried. There was a wedding going on so we couldn't enter which was too bad. Right by that is the Courtyard Theatre where our play was going to be later that night. We also passed by a very nice looking pub and decided to check it out for dinner later. After passing the church and crossing to the south side of the Avon, we started the walk in earnest.

The first half of the walk was along the River Avon, skirting the edge of a bunch of fields. It was SO pretty. The sun was shining so we were really quite warm. As I said, Vanessa and I hadn't really talked for longer than 2 minutes in about 4 weeks so we spent most of the time talking and marveling at the sky, fields and river. We walked by a field of cows and Vanessa wanted to get closer to them so we did. Soon, a bull stood up and stared us down (the filed with the bull standing up to the right picture 4). It was quite intimidating. We got the message and walked away. The scenery is not draw-dropping or anything but it was so quiet and peaceful and English that one couldn't help but love it. I shared one of my PBJ sandwiches and we ate while we walked and talked. Across the River Avon, we saw some really cool looking houses (picture 5). They looked expensive but very nice. After about 2.5 miles we came to a weir. I don't know exactly what it is but it looked like some small rapids to me. They were wonderful in the sunshine (picture 6).

From there, we cut away from the river and walked to a town called Weston-on-Avon. I read about it in my book and when we came to the church, Vanessa tried the door and said it was locked. I smiled and said, "Good!". I said that because the book said that if the church is locked, you have to walk across the street, knock on a door and ask for the key. We did this and were both very excited about it. Turns out the key is a very large piece of metal. It's amazing that they trust people with the key and to go in their alone (not that they shouldn't in such a small town). I used to the huge key to open the door (picture 7). The church was very nice on the inside. I like the windows (picture 8). It reminded me of the church I saw on my home-stay. The woman was very kind and we told her about my book when we returned the key. She read the part about her house and thought it was funny. This was my favorite part of the walk.

From there, we saw very dark clouds on the horizon so picked up the pace a little bit. We walked through some more fields but on higher ground. We came upon a tall group of hay-stacks so Vanessa told me to climb to the top. I did as I was told (picture 9). She followed suit. As I was climbing, it started to rain. We were joking about what people would think we did with our mud stained pants and smelling like hay. Haha. The hay stacks were fun except for the rain. Climbing down was interesting as well but we made it without hurting ourselves. From there, the walk went by some farmhouses and it rained a lot more. It was really windy and we could see the rain being blown around. The walk went next to a very busy road which sucked because the cars were loud but eventually cut across a field and back into Stratford for the finish.

We went into Holy Trinity Church and saw William's grave (picture 10). Not anything too spectacular about it but now I can say I saw where he was born and where he is buried. That's something I guess. I did like the church and graveyard around it. It reminded me of the church in Dedham. After that, we went to that pub we saw before and decided to eat there even though it was expensive for us (about 9 pounds for a meal). We looked at each other and said, "No regrets" and went in. I had a Game Pie with mashed potatoes. The pie was in the shape of a cup made out of flaky pastry and had duck meat, mushrooms, other vegetables and gravy inside. SO DELICIOUS! Vanessa had baked trout with almonds and spices on top with new potatoes. Her dinner was really good too. We didn't have much time and the meal was already kind of expensive but I figured I might not eat out again in England so we ordered a cup of ice cream (picture 11). Heavenly! (so much so that we started eating it before I could take a picture). It had hot fudge on top and was the perfect end to the meal. We quickly got the bill and paid and then ran over the theatre. We got there with three minutes to spare but the ice cream was totally worth it.

The play we saw was The Merchant of Venice and it was incredibly well done. It was shown at the Courtyard Theatre instead of their main one because that one is under construction. I don't feel like doing a synopsis or anything like that of what the play was about. If you want to know what it is about go here. I read the play in eighth grade which helped a lot. I never even noticed the Shakespearean language. Parts of it were super funny. There was a live orchestra playing some of the music (just background stuff, it's not a musical obviously) which was awesome as well. Just a really well done performance and a great time. The bus didn't get back until 12:30 and now it is about 2 am so I am going to stop now. Church and homework most likely tomorrow.

Cheers!