We started our journey at Anne Hathaway's cottage (William Shakespeare's wife). The cottage was very cute, and proved how small people used to be back then. Right about the time we arrived it started to rain, and it pretty much continued to rain the remainder of the day, oh well, you still make the best out of it. The cottage and the grounds were very nice, especially seeing the inside of the cottage. The beds were so small and the mattresses were basically suspended by ropes, not boards, I was surprised.
Anne Hathaway's Cottage:
We got back on the bus and went to Mary Arden's farm. This house was much larger than Anne Hathaway's cottage, mainly because it was an entire farm. The house itself was not bigger but there was much more on the land, more buildings, more space, and more animals. We started out by having a light lunch in the cafe before starting to wander the farm. After lunch we went to the falcon show, but we were disappointed because he would just have the kids take turns to put on the glove and have the falcon fly to them. We had seen much better bird shows so we decided to continue on around the farm. We went into the tudor house, which was very small, but the upstairs was not sturdy enough any longer for human traffic, so it was closed off.
Tami walking through a kid's maze, apparently, in the Orchard:
Outside of the tudor house was the stables, where there were 2 very cute cocker spaniels, and a pig sty. We got to the sty and there were no pigs to be seen, so I started making kissy noises for them to come out, and low and behold 2 very enormous pigs came charging and snorting out of their hiding place in my direction. Well, needless to say they scared me and I jumped back a few paces. Oh well, they were still cute.
The attacking pigs:
We then walked over to the open pastures and orchards to see lots of sheep, even baby sheep in jackets, donkeys, more pigs, horses, and even a few longhorns.
Cute baby sheep:
We then caught the bus to go back into town where we went to Shakespeare's birthplace. We toured the inside of the house and the grounds, it was very quaint inside and all of the furniture was still authentic. It was neat even seeing how the walls were kind of crooked, since everything was built by hand, with logs and mortar and such.
The back and grounds of Shakespeare's Birthplace:
Next door was the Creaky Cauldron, the museum of witchcraft and wizardry. We went inside but were running short on time so we did not take the tour, next time we will. They had lots of Harry Potter memorabilia in there, so I can't wait to be able to take the full tour.
We walked through town to see many old buildings, Nash's House and Gardens, the Old Theatre, the Avon River, and onto Holy Trinity Church. This is where William Shakespeare and Anne Hathaway are both buried, so we went inside to see their very unimpressive graves. There was however a very impressive bust of William Shakespeare, along with a beautiful organ. I have realized that the organ is my favorite part of churches.
Shakespeare's grave:
Shakespeare's bust in the Holy Trinity Church:
We left the church and continued our walk through town heading by Hall's Croft, Mason's Court (a very very crooked house), and the American Fountain, which was very nice.
It was getting close to time to leave so we stopped in at the Pen & Parchment for a quick drink before catching the bus back to London.
Greg sitting back and enjoying his beer:
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