Today, we got to visit Stratford upon Avon, a very cute city about an hour away from Birmingham. We met up with Tim the tour guide again to get a walking tour of the area and learn the history. This city is most famous because it was where shakespear was born and raised. We started by looking at a statue that was along a canal. This canal connects to the one in birmingham right by our hotel, so that was interesting to see. The statue was build to recognize him and a few of his popular characters from his plays, like hamlet and lady macbeth. We then continued walking to the next site. On the walk there, the canal had so many huge swans in it. I never really saw a swan before, and they were so pretty and a lot bigger than I thought they would be.
Next we went into the swan theater that was originally made to show versions of shakespear plays, but now shows many other shows as well. It also included the original flooring of a stage he performed on thousands of years ago. We then got to go up into the lookout tower they had and see a full 360 view of the city.(thank you ella for the idea to go up there!) After this, we walked towards trinity chapel, the place where shakespear and many members of his family are burried. It was a beautiful church with so many huge stained glass windows, which I love. I think they are so pretty when the sun shines in them and you can really see the colors pop out. He is buried in there along with his wife, daughter, son in law, and I believe maybe a few other people. I’ve never really been a big fan of historical burial sites, but being in the church was really cool since it was such a beautiful place.
Then, I went to a cute little cafe with a few others to grab lunch since by now we were all starving. I just had a chicken club sandwich and it was delicious! We spent a while in there just talking and hanging out before wandering around and doing some shopping. Many of the buildings in the city are extremely old and small, making it a fun place to explore since each corner you turned looked different!
After a short break, we went and toured the birthplace and childhood home of shakespear. We started in the small cottage beside the home, which they believe was used to rent out to others, since it was much smaller than their real home. Their real home was much bigger than I expected since most homes from that time period were very small. It had a glove shop downstairs, since his father was a leather glove maker. We learned that in each town there would be at least 2-3 glovemakers, which I found weird because I did not realize that was such a big thing, but I guess everybody did wear gloves so they needed a lot of people to do that job. The home also had a small kitchen, and then 3 bedrooms upstairs, one for the parents, one for the children, and one for the apprentices of the glove shop, was was more just a small cutout in the ceiling. Also connected to the house was an addition that was added on a few years after the family had moved out. It eventually turned into a pub and stayed there for close to 200 years!
After finishing our tour with tim, we walked back to the train station to return to birmingham. The ride took about an hour, but we drove through so many areas of just fields, grass, and lots of sheep. I did not realize sheep were such a big thing in the UK, but in the more rural areas they seem to be everywhere, but they are cute and fun to watch out the window. After getting back, a few of us went to the bullring to walk around and look in some of the shops, before grabbing sushi for dinner. Since it is our last night in birmingham, we then went back to the room to pack up all of our things before heading off to london tomorrow. It is definetly sad to leave because the time really did go very fast, but I am also very excited and ready to explore london.