Thankfully AIFS organized a trip, and once again Ryan, Erika, and I jumped on a coach and enjoyed the two hour drive.
We first stopped on the outskirts of Stratford to visit Anne Hathaway's cottage. Anne Hathaway was Shakespeare's wife.
She grew up here, and this is where Shakespeare came to court her.
Anne was 26, and Shakespeare was 18, when they married.
They needed a quick marriage because Anne was pregnant (scandal!) A little girl who was with us asked the tour guide how that happened. Watching the tour guide think through how to answer that was pretty amusing.
The cottage was so cute.
Erika and I enjoyed the gardens
They were simple, but large
and even has this weird random hut.
We got back on the bus and it was onward to Stratford!
We stuck with our tour guides as they took us to the cathedral where Shakespeare is buried.
It was one of the smallest cathedrals I have been to so far, but still pretty.
Shakespeare wrote his own epitaph, which contains a curse to anyone who would disturb his remains. They have been untouched since he was laid to rest here.
After the cathedral, we had an hour to get lunch and explore. Erika and I rushed to the Royal Shakespeare theater, then decided on a quick lunch at McDonalds.
Last time I checked, our McDonalds in the states doesn't have a vegetarian option, but the ones here offer a veggie wrap, with an actual veggie pattie inside, so that is what I got.
After lunch, we slowly made our way to Shakespeare's house, stopping to look in various stores.
Ryan wanted butterbeer, so we stopped in a magic shop called "The Creaky Cauldron" and he got some, which he generously shared.
It tasted...strange. Like butter, citrus...and maybe pineapple (?) had a baby.
During our butterbeer enjoyment, I realized that I had left my cell phone at the theater. We had to be at Shakespeare's house in two minutes, yet I had to run over a half-mile back to the theater. When I got there, a security guy drilled me on my phone (make, model, color, etc). It is a cheap phone that I don't care about, so of course all I could offer him was "it's grey and black...and small...) He finally decided to give me a break and disappeared to get it. At this point, I was ten minutes late to where I needed to be. He came back with the phone, but rather than letting me have it, he made me follow him to a different room. He disappeared again, telling me to wait. I seriously contemplated just leaving. He came back with a binder and told me I was free to go.
I ran the half mile (in the rain) back to Shakespeare's house and made it just in time to rejoin my group before they moved on to the next museum presentation.
After a brief, but elaborately staged history of Shakespeare, we were allowed to wander his house.
We got a short amount of free time after the tour to shop, then it was back on the bus.
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