Stratford-Upon-Avon (Thursday/Friday):
Even though Stratford-Upon-Avon is technically in the Cotswolds, this deserves a post of its own, as it’s famous due to being William Shakespeare’s birthplace. Although, we started our day by riding the bus out to Warwick where we went to see Warwick Castle. This was like an extension of Medeival Time Dinner Theater, if you’ve ever gone to one of those. I think my kids would have loved it. There were archers, knight hand to hand battles, falconry, and more. Haley and I climbed up to the castle towers. I cannot imagine going up those narrow windy passageways at night with a torch. It’s hard enough going up and down them during the light of day with lights guiding your path. But, the view from the top was beautiful, of course.
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We did tour Shakespeare’s birthplace next and learned many interesting facts about him. I’d never really been a fan for or against Shakespeare but after finding out more about him, I wasn’t too impressed with him as a person. However, he did have a talent for writing plays.
That night, staying with the Shakespeare theme, we had tickets to see “The Taming of the Shrew.” Before we left on our trip, Mom had us watch the movie version with Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton. It was actually pretty good. Then we got to the play. It was one that I was glad I didn’t have any of my kids there with me. We honestly tried to decide if we should leave and then we thought, it has to get better and before you know it, you’ve sat through the whole thing. Needless to say, we didn’t care for it. If you want to watch the play, go for the movie version rather than the live play.
Friday we finished up in Stratford by touring Shakespeare’s wife, Anne Hathaway’s house. Her house was actually only a mile from our bed & breakfast so we walked on a little path through neighborhoods to get there. It was a great walk first thing in the morning with no one about. The house was interesting as the tour guide told us where different sayings came from, like “given the ‘cold shoulder'” and ‘chairman of the board’ – all having to do with where people were positioned in the main meeting area of the house. The gardens there were beautiful.
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London (Friday/Saturday/Sunday):
We took a train to London. It was a weird feeling being back in a city again, after enjoying the English countryside. We started out strong by going on a double decker bus tour of the city. We were afraid we wouldn’t be able to see everything we wanted to in a day and a half, so at least we were able to see the major sites of the city, snap a photo, and say that we have seen it. I have to admit, Haley and I acted like true tourists sitting on the top of the open bus, snapping picture after picture. Some of the highlights we saw were the gates to Buckingham Palace, Trafalger Square, Piccadilly Circus, the London Eye, Big Ben, London Bridge, and London Square.
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We had tickets that night to see “Gone with the Wind” in a theater on Drury Lane. Mom had read some reviews that said the show wasn’t very good so our hopes weren’t too high. But, it was amazing. We all loved it! I had never seen the movie all the way through so a lot of it was new to me and I thought it was well performed. I loved some of the native American songs. Honestly, everyone in that theater could have fallen in love with that Rhett Butler. He was superb!
Saturday was our only full day in London so we made use of it by making it our museum day. As we walked to our first museum, we made sure to walk by Buckingham Palace as we had only seen the gates the day before. We were disappointed the normal guards weren’t on duty as they were practicing for the queen’s birthday celebration for the following week. We were able to peek onto their training grounds and watch for a little while.
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Our first museum was technically not a museum, but rather a church. We walked around Westminster Abbey and saw where many historical figures are buried or memorialized. It was fun to walk through “Poet’s Corner,” looking for names such as Tennyson, Robert Browning, Charles Dickens, and Rudyard Kipling. There is a memorial there to Jane Austen as well!
We then went to the Imperial War Museum, which included the Churchill Museum and Cabinet War Rooms. I know I have learned the history that these places cover, but I seem to hear names, dates, and places and they go right out of my mind after I regurgitate them on a test. So, now that I’ve seen the places and learned more about the people I can do more research knowing where they were and what they’ve done – perhaps it will stick longer. It will have a bigger impact, nonetheless. But, I did love learning more about Winston Churchill and how his family was very involved with what he did. The museum, in and of itself, was amazing with video clips to watch and many interactive displays. We were in there for a couple hours and didn’t even see everything.
We hit the National Art Gallery. We actually started feeling ‘museum-ed out’ so aside from a Picasso and a few other famous artists, we weren’t too enthralled. Then Mom and I hit the National Portrait Gallery, which was very interesting as they were portraits of ‘real people.’ Each area was set up with portraits from a specific era. We only had time to see the older era and a quick run through the 90’s era to see a portrait of Princess Diana. Mom’s history knowledge is vast so I felt like I had my own personal tour guide as she told me about a number of individuals and what they did, who their friends were, what ‘clubs’ they were in, etc.
That night we had tickets for “Joseph and the Amazing Technicolour Dreamcoat.” What a fun show! I had seen the musical with Donny Osmond on video so I knew the music. But this show was high energy – ‘Joseph’ for this show was actually the winner off of Britain’s reality show “Any Dream Will Do” where they competed for who would be the lead for the show. When ‘Joseph’ (Lee Mead) came out on stage, the reaction was surprising – he was a big celebrity and you could tell the reality show must have been a big hit in Britain. The show was truly amazing – if you want to see a little bit of Lee Mead’s talent, click here for a video with little excerpts from the reality show.
Sunday morning after breakfast I parted ways with everyone else as I had to fly home a day early to take care of my family. I was sad to leave, but excited to see Chris and the kids. I kept myself busy the entire flight to New York City, finishing up a book, catching up on my journal, and working on Sudoku puzzles. And, of course, when I got through customs, I could barely hold myself back from sprinting to the door to give everyone hugs. I was proud of myself – I didn’t cry (I’m always so emotional) but I couldn’t stop smiling – a great trip and a great homecoming.
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