Stratford-upon-Avon

The tradition of Friday day trips continued yesterday with a visit to Stratford-upon-Avon, Shakespeare's home. We were meant to wake up early and have a productive morning of library time before the 1pm departure, but that didn't happen; we ended up getting up just in time to grab Olive's paninis before heading onto the bus.

Once in Stratford, we strolled around a bit and found a really nice teahouse that we dwelled at for quite sometime. This was my first traditional English tea, and it's definitely something to repeat in the near future. Luckily there's a teahouse that's apparently really nice just across the street from Stanford House that I'm excited to try sometime.

After the table next us had left, I decided to take advantage of the scenery.

Behold, the deluxe "Afternoon Tea" for two, complete with (in ascending order), your choice of three types of sandwiches, scones, and dessert pastries.

My more humbling choice, the "Cream Tea:" tea of your choice with two scones, strawberry jam, and clotted cream. The tea I chose was the house blend.

We then proceeded to stroll around town looking like very lost tourists...The town itself is very charming, but you have very much the impression that you are in the middle of no where. I wouldn't be surprised if 97% of the town's economy revolved around Shakespeare. As we walked further and further into the residential areas, I couldn't help but feel like the breeze meant we were about to hit the coast, even though we were far far from it. I guess I just miss California.  

In the afternoon, we visit Shakespeare's birthplace, Anne Hathaway's cottage (his wife), and the chapel where Shakespeare is buried. All three of these places were neat, but also closed by the time we reached them. Woo.

The house where Shakespeare was born!

Some happy tourists gathered at the back of the house for a photo opp.

Spooky tree on the way to visit Shakespeare's grave.

The chapel (closed) where Shakespeare is buried.

More spookiness. 

Anne Hathaway's cottage, a 30 minute trek through a residential section. 

After these three main stops, it was time for a light dinner at the Black Swan, a famous pub across from the Swan Theater. The play we then went to go see was "The Orphan of Zhao." I really liked it -- it had a very consumeable and fast-paced, movie-esque plot -- but it didn't please some of the connoisseurs. In any case, it sparked interesting discussion on the bus ride back about the casting choices that had been made. The play is Chinese, set in China. But the vast majority of the cast was Caucasian, with the only Asian actors getting the roles of dog, servant, baby-sound-maker. It was very disconcerting how clear-cut this split in casting choice was. In any case, for 5 pound student tickets, it was a very good experience.