This castle is really fun with its interactive activities and exhibits. It is the home of one of the largest trebuchets in the world. Some of the exhibits are done by Madame Tussades, so the figures are made of wax and quite life-like. I learned about the Earl of Warwick, a lancastrian during the war of the roses, who rallied men together to fight for King Henry during the war. I also learned about the secrets and scandals of the Victorian royals. This exhibit made me chuckle because it really was pretty silly with its scandals and sound effects.
After Warwick, we headed to Stratford Upon Avon. We visited Anne Hathaway's, Shakespeare's wife, home as well as Shakespeare's birthplace. The gardens at Anne Hathaway's house were beautiful in a quaint little home garden way. My nose was overwhelmed by the scent of Violets. We walked through this wooded glade listening to Shakespeare's love sonnets. Here is one of my favorites:
Let me not to the marriage of true minds
Admit impediments. Love is not love
Which alters when it alteration finds,
Or bends with the remover to remove:
O no! it is an ever-fixed mark
That looks on tempests and is never shaken;
It is the star to every wandering bark,
Whose worth's unknown, although his height be taken.
Love's not Time's fool, though rosy lips and cheeks
Within his bending sickle's compass come:
Love alters not with his brief hours and weeks,
But bears it out even to the edge of doom.
If this be error and upon me proved,
I never writ, nor no man ever loved.
Can you imagine a world without Shakespeare? I learned a bit more of this man from the trip like how he was 18 when Anne Hathaway (then like 24 or 26) became pregnant with his child. Of course, they had to get married because it wouldn't be right otherwise. His father was a glove maker and acquired a great deal of debts through his back dealings with wool and loans. Shakespeare writes his knowledge of gloves into his plays.
In the evening, we had the incredible experience of watching the National Shakespeare Company perform "Macbeth." My seat was only two rows from the stage. The students on the first row had all the fun of feeling the stage blood and spit. They say that a lot of spit is the sign of a great actor.
The second part of our journey led us to Blenheim Palace, the beautiful home of the Duke of Marborough. There was a small exhibit there about Winston Churchill and the state rooms were nice, but the gardens are really the main event. These huge grounds sit right on a lake, which makes it picturesque and lovely. I did not even begin to see all the grounds, but I enjoyed the rose gardens and waterfalls. Not to mention, I had the most delicious cookie of my entire life at Blenheim palace (White Chocolate cranberry)
Let me not to the marriage of true minds
Admit impediments. Love is not love
Which alters when it alteration finds,
Or bends with the remover to remove:
O no! it is an ever-fixed mark
That looks on tempests and is never shaken;
It is the star to every wandering bark,
Whose worth's unknown, although his height be taken.
Love's not Time's fool, though rosy lips and cheeks
Within his bending sickle's compass come:
Love alters not with his brief hours and weeks,
But bears it out even to the edge of doom.
If this be error and upon me proved,
I never writ, nor no man ever loved.
Can you imagine a world without Shakespeare? I learned a bit more of this man from the trip like how he was 18 when Anne Hathaway (then like 24 or 26) became pregnant with his child. Of course, they had to get married because it wouldn't be right otherwise. His father was a glove maker and acquired a great deal of debts through his back dealings with wool and loans. Shakespeare writes his knowledge of gloves into his plays.
In the evening, we had the incredible experience of watching the National Shakespeare Company perform "Macbeth." My seat was only two rows from the stage. The students on the first row had all the fun of feeling the stage blood and spit. They say that a lot of spit is the sign of a great actor.
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| Anne Hathaway's Cottage |
After Blenheim, we visited Oxford. I think the highlights of this trip were getting a white chocolate raspberry cheesecake milkshake from Moo-Moos and going to Christ Church College for evensong. Christ Church college gets to boast that their grand hall was part of the Harry Potter movies, so there were quite a few tourists flocking to it.
After returning back to London, we took one day to go visit the Royal Botanical gardens at Kew Gardens. These beautiful gardens were quite extensive and I felt like I had walked through all parts of the globe by the end of our visit. They had a tree tops walk where you climb up over the trees and walk around an elevated boardwalk. I felt like Tarzan or the Swiss Family Robinson.
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| The Tree Top walk |
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