Today was an early morning compared to other days. I woke up feeling a little sick but I felt a little better than the previous night. We had to meet as a group at 7:50 am. The plan for today was to visit Stratford upon Avon, which is the birthplace of William Shakespeare. I was excited to visit this place even though I knew we were going to be walking a lot. Once our group gathered together, we all walked to the train station, which was a 30 minute walk. It started to rain on our walk so we all ended up putting our hoods up and pulling out our umbrellas. Once we arrived at the train station, we waited a few minutes for the train. Soon, we boarded the train and we had another hour to wait until we arrived at the cute town.
Once we arrived at the Stratford upon Avon train station, we walked a little more to the city center where we met up with Tim, our tour guide. Tim was going to lead our walking tour around the town explaining the historical landmarks and the history of the town. Once I saw that town, I was very excited because there was a lot to explore and it was very cute! We were also told that the canal in Stratford Upon Avon would eventually connect to the canals in Birmingham! I found this super cool and fascinating. Speaking of canals, there were also so many swans in the water too! It was so pretty and cool to see! I really liked the view that was visible from the canal bridge. It was very gorgeous!
Next, we went to the Swan theater. Here, we went to the top of the tower which allowed us to see the city from higher up. Again, the views were just amazing! Then, we got to see the original place and/or flooring where William Shakespeare performed his shows. It was just insane to think that we were standing in the same spot that William Shakespeare was standing at in one point of time! Later, we moved on to go see Trinity Chapel. Trinity Chapel is the location where Shakespeare and some other people of his family were buried. Shakespeare, his wife, daughter, etc., were all buried in this church. The layout of the church was just so beautiful in addition to all the amazing stained glass.
Then, we went to see the school that William Shakespeare would probably have attended. That was also very nice to see. By this point, we had done so much walking that we were all starving. We had a little bit of time for ourselves. In this time, we got lunch. We went to a little cafe and I brought myself a chicken club sandwich and hot chocolate. This was my first time trying hot chocolate in the UK and I absolutely loved it! After that, we had a little bit of time left so we just walked into some stores to look around. I ended up buying some souvenirs like magnets and a tote bag for myself! In addition, I was absolutely happy when I walked into a Harry Potter store! Although I didn’t buy anything, just walking into that store and looking around made me feel so happy! That was probably one of the best moments of the day!
After that, we toured around Shakespeare’s house. I expected the house to be very small just because it was way back in time. However, I was proved wrong with this tour. The house was very large compared to what I thought houses would look like for that time period. There was a glove shop in the house because William Shakespeare’s father was a leather glove maker. We continued on with the tour and saw the kitchen and bedrooms of the house. I found it interesting that there was a cutout in the ceiling and that was used as a bedroom for people to sleep in. We also saw the exact spot where Shakespeare was born and that was also very cool.
Once the tour of Shakespeare’s house was over, we had a little game of trivia led by our tour guide Tim. Then, we all took a group picture and said our goodbyes to Tim, who had given us tours for two days now.
We started to head back to the train station to catch the earliest train back to the hotel. By this time, it was still raining so we still kept going on in the rain. We made in just in time for the train with a few minutes to spare, which was amazing.
After an hour train ride, we made it back to Birmingham. I decided to go to the mall with a few others since it was out last evening in the city. After some shopping and walking, I went back to the hotel to pack up my stuff in preparation for leaving the next day. I am really excited and looking forward to being in London for the next two days!