In today’s UK adventure, we went off and explored Stratford-Upon-Avon! The town’s most famous claim to fame of course is that it is the birthplace of Shakespeare! It truly was a wonder town with very scenic views and a fountain that had a bunch of foam in it!
After missing our initial train to Stratford, we eventually arrived! It was raining when we got there, but that didn’t stifle our exploration! Once we got to the Gower Monument, a monument that has four of Shakespeare’s characters to depict his themes of history, comedy, tragedy, and philosophy, we set out our separate ways. My buddy Alec and I went and explored parts that we would later see during our walking tour. The first thing we saw was the fountain with foam at the bottom of it. I don’t know if they were cleaning it or what, but it was strange. We then traveled up one of the streets, looking at all the shops and cafes there. Our first stop was looking at Stratford’s town hall. The coat of arms on there was blue and gold and looked to have three panthers on it. What a coincidence! We then went back down the street and entered a candy shop. In there, we had a lovely chat with the Scottish couple that owned the place. The husband instantly knew we were from the US and asked where we were from. Once we said Pittsburgh, he instantly asked if we were Steelers fans. Would you look at that! We also discovered that the Discovery channel in the UK has many documentaries on the Amish as the couple said they had watched a bunch of documentaries about them. After we left, we continued exploring other streets.
We continued on and visited the Guild Chapel and passed by the Old Bank and King Edward’s school. The Guild Chapel is where Shakespeare attended services since it was connected right with Kind Edward’s school, where Shakespeare went to school. Shortly after, we got lunch at a nice French cafe and then went and walked along the canal. While walking along, we happened to walk by right as a boat was going through the canal’s lock. We got to watch the whole process of the boat lowering and then going through the other side after the water had lowered! The group then met back up and started on the walking tour.
Some of the places we had visited I mentioned earlier when Alec and I were off exploring. Some of the new places however were Trinity Church and the Royal Shakespeare Company’s theater. The theater is combined with three type of buildings- the original from the late 1800s, one from the mid 1930s, and a more recent one in the 2010s. We then made our way to Trinity Church. It is here that Shakespeare is buried. The only reason he was able to be buried in the church was, while he was still alive, he got a man’s remains evicted so there would be room for Shakespeare when he died. I can’t believe that you could get someone’s remains evicted regardless. We made our way past the places Alec and I had already saw and on to Shakespeare’s birthplace.
His birthplace looked quite nice and cozy. As we toured around, we found a glass window pane signed by various people. The pane had the signatures of famous people on it like Alfred Lord Tennyson and Charles Dickens! After the tour, we went to dinner and enjoyed some more great food. After that, we returned to Birmingham. All in all, Stratford-Upon-Avon was a great experience! If you ever get the chance to visit, I highly recommend going to it! Until the next blog post, peace out!