Our Totally Awesome Weekend Adventure Part 2 (Shakespeare edition)

October 24th

Eileen and I woke up early to catch a train to Stratford-upon-Avon, one of the places I want to see before I die. Walking around was astounding since a lot of buildings are as old, if not older, than Shakespeare's time, the 15th century. It took us a while to find our way around since we couldn't find any maps. While walking, we happened upon a little carnival taking place in the middle of one of the streets. It was so nice. They had lots of rides, games, and food, and let me tell you the food smelled so good! Fries, cotton candy, doughnuts, yum! But unfortunately, we kept walking since we were here for Shakespeare not cotton candy.

We finally found an intersection with signs posted that pointed in the directions of the attractions we wanted to go. Eileen was very excited and decided we should head to the RSC first. I agreed and we headed that way. It wasn't until I got there that I realized what we were seeing. The Royal Shakespeare Company. We hurried inside eagerly to see Shakespeare stuff. They had so many elaborate and detailed costumes from many of his shows like Romeo & Juliet, Midsummer Night's Dream, Julius Caesar and many more.

I think this was a Fairy Queen.

We continued walking around until we saw everything they had on display, which honestly wasn't as much as we were hoping for. So afterwards, we left and headed back the way and found a bunch of cute stores: Peter Rabbit, Alice in Wonderland, Magic Shop and this: 

We poked our heads inside of these stores but then continued on to our main destination: Shakespeare's Birthplace. We paid for a pass to these places: Shakespeare's Birthplace; New Place & Nash's Home; Hall's Croft (Susana's home); and Shakespeare's Grave. We managed to visit all of these places too. The house he was born in was small and quaint. His father was glove maker and his shop was actually in the family home. There was a small window that opened onto the street from his store that allowed people to make their purchases straight through the window. Talk about working from home.

Glove workshop

I think one of the nicest rooms in the house though was the one for his parents which also had his cradle in it. These items were not originally here, the house was refurnished to look the way the house would have looked during the time, meaning this was not his actual cradle.

There were actors all over the house that would tell you further information about Shakespeare and answer all questions posed to them. They also would recite Shakespeare from any play that you requested. I asked for Hamlet and he did it on the spot. He also did an amazing performance of the balcony scene from Romeo & Juliet.

We then wandered around outside until we happened upon New House which is the site of the house Shakespeare lived in later on in life. Unfortunately, the original house is not there anymore but it has been furnished to look like what Shakespeare's house may have looked like. My favorite part was the gardens. They were so vibrant in color and luscious. Though it rained while we were out there.

Did I say just outside? I meant it rained the whole day.

There was one section of the garden I found just lovely and would want in my dream home. There was a walkway that was covered in an arch of greenery. The only way that I felt I could convey this scene properly was to film it:

We remained in this little alcove until the rain died down and then started heading in the direction of Susana's house. The rain began to get heavier so hurried faster but I'm slower than Eileen is. I was wearing little cloth Chinese Mary Jane shoes and therefore was dodging as many puddles as absolutely possible. My toes still got wet through the shoes but by this time we had made it to the house. But we couldn't get in. We stood there trying to open the very old door until we just started banging the knocker until someone let us in. Once inside we realized that the latch needed to be lifted to get in, this was a very old door. We handed the man at the desk our tickets and he informed us that Shakespeare's grave was closing very soon compared to Susana's house and so we might want to go there first. We thanked him and left quickly. So much for drying off.

Eileen was speeding down the path, splashing through puddles, while hopping my way through the muddy graveyard to avoid puddles. Here she laughed at my silly attempt at keeping dry when we arrived at the doors to the cathedral. We walked in and everything was hushed. You could feel that this place was sacred. We walked slowly forward and handed the woman our ticket in order to view the playwright's resting place. It was not only he that lay there but his family as well. His grave was literally inside of the church in the foundation. He certainly was wealthy.

We lingered for a time, looking at baptism and death records on display. When we finally decided to leave, we headed back to the giant oak doors which were being barred by the woman that took our ticket. Eileen and I both let out a strangled "Eep!" The woman looked back at us and told us not worry, we weren't locked in but she had to prevent others from coming in since they were closing. She finished locking up and said, "Follow me, there is another way out." We felt special seeing the secret exit. (It wasn't really anything special but we felt elite.) While we headed back to the Susana's house I thought about what it would be like to work at a place where Shakespeare's bones were next to you everyday, the greatest writer who ever lived. I was in awe at such a privilege.

We executed a perfect opening of the front door this time while closing in expertly behind us and said with smiles plastered on our faces while rainwater dripped off of us, "We're back!" The man looked worried and said, "Did you get there in time? Did you see it?" We eased his concern by telling him we snagged some great pictures. "Oh, good, I was worried you wouldn't get there in time." We smiled at him and re-handed our tickets to him which he stamped and told us a little bit about the house. It was the third largest house in Stratford at the time and it was still used as residential housing up until the 1970s. The previous owner had held many parties there and invited many distinguished guests. Winston Churchill and Ghandi had both been in attendance of these parties. Even for the time, this house was absolutely enormous. They really must have been millionaires during their lifetime. I want to own this home, it has so many features that I want in my dream home. The "master bedroom" was master by today's standards in size.

When we finished looking at the house, we decided it was time to head back to the train station so we would be on time for our train. But while we headed over, the rain picked up again and more puddles were accumulating. As I was hopscotching down the sidewalk, a car passed splashing Eileen's side of her pants. I started giggling until one splashed me as well. Karma. Then the light turned green and all cars were rushing by splashing us. We had to lower our umbrellas to protect our lower halves from becoming soaked. We were pinned between a brick wall and the street so there was no where to go. We finally made a mad dash for an alley way to put some distance between us and the waves. We were getting close when the heaven's opened up and God released his holy wrath upon us. We caught in the worst part of the storm. The rain crashed down upon us, wind making umbrellas useless but we trekked onwards. To hell with my shoes, they were already soaked anyways. We viciously fought our way through until we got to an intersection and as if we stepped into another room, it stopped and it was bluer. Behind us was dark and menacing. We shook ourselves off and got back to the train station, relaxing and drying our clothes for the rest of the evening.