Day 10: Stratford Upon Avon

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Day 10: Stratford-Upon-Avon (4th day of study tour)

So we woke up early- I think we were at breakfast at 6:30 and on the bus by 7am for the two hour ride to Stratford. Most of us slept on the bus. Once we arrived we looked at the map to figure out where we had to meet our tour guide for the day. I am quite proud to say that I was able to figure it out!!! Usually I don’t even bother looking because Adam and Stephanie are so good with maps that I just follow along but yea!!!! I figured it out. We had an excellent tour guide named Helen. She was fantastic. It was obvious that she enjoyed her job and enjoyed talking about the history of Stratford. What a nice break from London Stratford was. It is a very quaint town, not too many people, lots of old buildings and shops. What was really neat was to see how the architecture changed through the years. There were many streets or street corners where you could see a building from the 1500’s next to one from the 1600s and next to one from the 1700s. There is so much history in that town. The walking tour was about 2 hours. We got to see Shakespeare’s birthplace, land where his home was, grave, and many other places. We had lunch after the tour and then headed to the RSC for our workshop. I honestly must say that we were disappointed with this workshop. It was not what the description said. What we had expected the students to get out of the workshop- they did not get out of it. Then we had a lot of free time until the bus came at 8pm… funny thing about Stratford--- everything closes down around 6- Adam, Stephanie and I found a restaurant and had a really long dinner to take up the time. We got back on the bus and Adam and I spent the two hours with a few of the students who stayed awake teaching them what we thought they were going to learn in the workshop. For those who stayed awake and were interested it proved to be an excellent discussion and exploration of Shakespeare’s language where even Adam and I made new discoveries.

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Photos

The crooked house
The walls and floors are crooked inside and people still live there!

Sitting in Shakeapeares Garden listening to Helen the tour guide
This is where Shakespeares house used to be. The guy that bought it got sick of people coming to look at the land so the idiot tore down the house and flattened the land. The people still came!!!! Now someone else owns it and maintains these beautiful gardens.

Shakeapeares Garden
how pretty

statue in the garden
artitsts make these stautes and each one represents a different shakepeare play. Any guesses on which this one represents?

more flowers
Stratford is known for having lush flowers. I have no idea how they keep them alive since it is never warm.