The last of the day trips...

Stratford Upon Avon and Stone Henge

As you may or may not have guessed from the title of this post...I didn't go to Barcelona...we tried selling the tickets, had a buyer,then didn't sell them. So while my travel partner Mary B. is traveling arounf Barcelona,Spain, I decided to take the last few days to explore the motherland.

On Sunday(Father's Day!) I boarded a train to see where the man I've been studying for the past 9 weeks lived and died.

Then Monday I headed to Salisbury to see what all the commotion was about surrounding Stone Henge. Turns out I picked the right day, Summer Solstice! But wait, I get ahead of myself, let's start at the birthplace of Willy Shakes...

I got on the earliest train possible and made the two changes from Oxford to Stratford Upon Avon, I didn't really have a plan, but I knew i wasn't going to see a show at RSC so I just thought I'd walk around and maybe go to Anne Hathaway's house (not the Princess Diaries actress, the otha one), because someone told me it was free.

When I got off the train I followed some touristy looking people to the center of town, when lo and behold standing out right in the middle of the town center was Shakespeare's birthplace!

Ta Da!




Now, there was no way I was going to pay 11 Pounds (aka 20 dollars) to see where Shakespeare fiirst pooped his diaper, he didn't write anything while living there, the house is a re-creation AND I saw the interior on an episode of Passport to Europe with Samantha Brown...so that was out of the question. I did look in his giftshop and contemplate buying an eraser that said "Out Damn'd spot" (from Macbeth) but was not willing to pay 2 pounds(aka four dollars) for it. Call me cheap, call me a student,I just don't have the income or the suitcase space for trinkets that I don't need (unlike the stonehenge t-shirt I bought the following day that read,"Stonehenge ROCKS!-completely neccesary)

I walked around the main square and laughed at the ridiculous names of some of the shops then followed a sign that read "Anne Hathaways Cottage-1 mile"

After 30 minutes I stopped at a pub for my last plate of fish and chips (with mushy peas) and a cold cider, then continued on my way...

Here are pictures of the cottage(which cost 5 pounds, but was definately worth it)





The cottage was small but really interesting, I sat on a bench that Shakespeare used to sit on(well a re-creation of the bench) and learned a lot of etymologies of popular phrases, the table everyone sat at was literally a board of wood. So when they played games it was called a board game...the women of the time who were young and single literally slept on shelves before they were married, so when an older woman slept on a shelf they were literally, "left on the shelf"....I know, sort of boring but the guide was really entertaining...

After the tour I walked around the Hathaway gardens and over to the sculpture and tree garden, They had EVERY tree planted there ever mentioned in a Shakespeare play. I know, nerdy, but they had quotes next to the tree...it was cool in a nerdy sort of way.

After the Cottage it started to rain so I walked back to the trainstation and went home.

The next day I woke up and went to STONEHENGE!






When I arrived I was greeted with some unexpected guests. Click this link to read the letter I was handed upon arrival... it was written by the DRUIDS!

Now I know what you're thinking...spaceballs. No,you're thinking, what is a Druid? Well here's the wikipedia definition...

A druid was a member of the priestly and learned class active in Gaul, and perhaps in Celtic culture more generally, during the final centuries BCE. They were suppressed by the Roman government from the 1st century CE and disappeared from the written record by the 2nd century, although there may have been later survivals in Britain and Ireland, since druids feature prominently in Irish mythology.^[1]

In short, they're like a secret Celtic/Irish/Pagan religion that sort of worships Stone Henge...weird I know.

Well I was at Stone Henge on the summer Solstice so it made sense that they were there too...
Here's a video of them walking