Warwick Castle/Stratford-upon-Avon
“He was not of an age, but for all time.”~Ben Jonson (about Shakespeare)
My mom and brother arrived last Thursday and are now leaving me tomorrow. I’ve been busy touring with them. Friday I took a trip with my class to some things that aren’t that important and if I ever get pictures of them, I will post them. The problem with the field trips on this program is that we go to places (most of the time) that are of no interest to me. We visit some ancient Roman ruin where all that remains is a rock and I’m supposed to be impressed and act like the intellectual side of me is stimulated. I’d much rather watch Miller’s Crossing for the sixth time this semester.
Anyway, when my family comes, we do things up right. Saturday we visited Warwick Castle and Stratford-upon-Avon, the birthplace and home of William Shakespeare. My family moves a little bit slower than I do, so we didn’t get to see The Merchant of Venice as I had hoped, but it was still a wonderful day.
Warwick castle is basically a tourist trap. Take the Pirates of the Caribbean ride at Disneyland, throw it in a castle, add a couple tour guides dressed up in fake armor and you have Warwick castle. I personally loved it. I suppose it is nice at points to see those castles which are just in ruins, not maintained, and just sort of cold and empty, but Warwick was alive and brought you a kind of child-like awe during the visit. They had working trebuchets, archers shooting at targets, and a falconer who was using a bald eagle (I suppose then he would be an Eagler, I don’t know the technical names). I wasn’t really paying attention to the history, just kind of meandering through enjoying the atmosphere of the place. It was worth the trip.
We caught a bus to Stratford and the weather turned for the worse. Thankfully, it only lasted a few minutes and that allowed us to see Holy Trinity Church where the body of Shakespeare lies, the birthplace of Shakespeare, his home (which no longer exists, closer to the Royal Shakespeare Company theaters), and Anne Hathaway’s cottage. Supposedly, my visit to Shakespeare’s home took me in the footsteps of many a famous author including Nathaniel Hawthorne and Mark Twain, others too, but I can’t recall their names.
Exhausted, we took the train back to Oxford and called it a night.
one of the theaters of the RSC
the Avon river. Here are some rowboats each named after a female character in one of W.S. plays. A few were Beatrice, Miranda, Juliet
Holy Trinity Church
the epitaph of W.S. grave
his birthplace
Anne Hathaway's cottage
My mom and brother arrived last Thursday and are now leaving me tomorrow. I’ve been busy touring with them. Friday I took a trip with my class to some things that aren’t that important and if I ever get pictures of them, I will post them. The problem with the field trips on this program is that we go to places (most of the time) that are of no interest to me. We visit some ancient Roman ruin where all that remains is a rock and I’m supposed to be impressed and act like the intellectual side of me is stimulated. I’d much rather watch Miller’s Crossing for the sixth time this semester.
Anyway, when my family comes, we do things up right. Saturday we visited Warwick Castle and Stratford-upon-Avon, the birthplace and home of William Shakespeare. My family moves a little bit slower than I do, so we didn’t get to see The Merchant of Venice as I had hoped, but it was still a wonderful day.
Warwick castle is basically a tourist trap. Take the Pirates of the Caribbean ride at Disneyland, throw it in a castle, add a couple tour guides dressed up in fake armor and you have Warwick castle. I personally loved it. I suppose it is nice at points to see those castles which are just in ruins, not maintained, and just sort of cold and empty, but Warwick was alive and brought you a kind of child-like awe during the visit. They had working trebuchets, archers shooting at targets, and a falconer who was using a bald eagle (I suppose then he would be an Eagler, I don’t know the technical names). I wasn’t really paying attention to the history, just kind of meandering through enjoying the atmosphere of the place. It was worth the trip.
We caught a bus to Stratford and the weather turned for the worse. Thankfully, it only lasted a few minutes and that allowed us to see Holy Trinity Church where the body of Shakespeare lies, the birthplace of Shakespeare, his home (which no longer exists, closer to the Royal Shakespeare Company theaters), and Anne Hathaway’s cottage. Supposedly, my visit to Shakespeare’s home took me in the footsteps of many a famous author including Nathaniel Hawthorne and Mark Twain, others too, but I can’t recall their names.
Exhausted, we took the train back to Oxford and called it a night.
one of the theaters of the RSC
the Avon river. Here are some rowboats each named after a female character in one of W.S. plays. A few were Beatrice, Miranda, Juliet
Holy Trinity Church
the epitaph of W.S. grave
his birthplace
Anne Hathaway's cottage
1 Comments:
Those places look so cool! Now I know how to keep Ryan in check. I have some info on how Stonehenge may have been made. This stuff will blow you away because it's so simple.
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