Today we went to Stratford-Upon-Avon, a small town known for its rich history. The town is known for being the birthplace of William Shakespeare and boast a large tourist attraction that surrounds him, his life, and his 39 plays.
We started the day by waking up early and grabbing breakfast at the hotel at around 7:30. Then we went to the train station, going to the wrong one first but quickly figuring out our mistake. We also managed to get off the train a stop early, but we figured that out and were able to find our way. Soon after we met up with our tour guide Tim and began our day and tour.
Some of my favorite things that we saw today was the church Shakespeare is buried at with is family, the reconstructed theater, and the little shops and markets around the town. Shakespeare and many of his family members are buried in the Holy Trinity Church, a famous old church that he was also baptized in. The grave site in the church was beautiful. It was surrounded by stained glass windows and featured sculptures of him and other that were buried in the room. Recently the church did some work and found out that he is buried only about 3 feet underground, something that they didn’t used to believe. Instead, they used to think that he was around 20 feet down. There is also a rumor that his head was stollen from the grave, and when they did the scan of his grave, they only found a shadow where his head should have been which prompted them to quickly shut down the investigation. It was interesting to see how much they valued their prized play writer, so much to the point where he was able to honor him by burying him in the church and allowed him to write a curse in his will that would curse anyone who tried to move his remains. Next, I thought the theaters that we saw were super cool. Our tour guide Tim taught us that the theaters that are standing today are actually a combination of multiple theaters that had been in that location previously but had suffered an unfortunate fate. The older buildings had burned down and been destroyed to the point where now the theaters that stand there are a mix of modern and more art deco style architecture. This mix provides the look of two very unique theaters that can’t be found anywhere else. Both the Swan Theater and The Royal Shakespeare Theater stand tall and improved along the riverbank. Today you can attend a show in either of these and see one of Shakespeare’s plays being performed by the wonderful Royal Shakespeare Company actors. Finally, I also really enjoyed the ;little street market going on in Stratford-Upon-Avon while we were there. It is a bank holiday in England today so most people were off from worm and were enjoying the lovely mild weather. On our break between the tour of the church and the tour of Shakespeare’s childhood home we were given the chance to explore and find lunch. Many of us went to said street faire and tried some traditional food. I personally tried fish and chips with curry sauce and mushy peas. I really enjoyed the fish and chips and even the curry sauce. The mushy peas weren’t my favorite and I think I’ll probably try and avoid them for the rest of the trip. Besides the peas it was upper cute to see everyone out in the parks and eating together with their families. Lots of children and families were out and about. There was a healthy mix of locals and tourist, and it created a cute space to hang out in and enjoy our day.
I also learned a lot today that I had never heard of before. Previously I knew absolutely nothing about Shakespeare besides the books my teachers made me read in high school. Today I was introduced to the world of Shakespeare and all the cool stories about him. I learned that he had three kids, an older daughter and a set of twins. The daughters lived longer while his son unfortunately most likely got sick and lived a very short life. His eldest daughter is buried in the church with him while the twins have a memorial in the graveyard outside where they have planted two trees in their honor. I learned that Shakespeare split his time between London and Stratford-Upon-Avon and had plans to live out his retirement in SUA after he was done writing. Unfortunately, this didn’t happen for him but he owned a large house there and was a notable member of the community. Finally, I learned that most of his personally life was not documented. For as well as Shakespeare is known across the world there is very little of his personal life that is known. Between the time period and his nature there is little to no documentation about his personal actions. Information and his relationship with his wife and other things are scarce if anything. There are periods of time where his seemed to completely disappear off the face of the earth for years at a time and remain a mystery to this day.
