June 11: Stratford-Upon-Avon (Literary Tourism Site)

On day five we toured Shakespeare's birthplace. As we got off the bus in Stratford, I was immediately immersed in the sounds of tourists and smells of the near by bakeries. Peter gathered us by a statue of a jester, and we were then split up into two groups to take a walking tour around the city. We were shown all of the beautiful buildings that lead to the river, where you find geese and swans everywhere. The river offers boat rides and is a beautiful place. From the river, we were taken to the local church where Shakespeare, his wife Anne, and his eldest daughter are buried under the alter. The tour continues back up the streets of Stratford, where we were shown the building he went to grammar school in and practiced the plays he wrote. This building was two stories with white and black stripes on the outside. He is said to have did school upstairs, and practiced the plays downstairs. After viewing this building, we were taken back to his birth house. It is beautiful and quite big. It is two stores, with a den, kitchen, dining room, two bedrooms, a loft where an apprentice would have stayed, and a glove making workshop where he helped his dad. Throughout the house there are replicas of everything, from the bed that Shakespeare and his two siblings share, to the man gloves and animal skins laid out in the workshop. We then took the coach to Anne Hathaway's cottage. This house had a lavish garden with many statues, and the inside was quaint and dark.  Over-all, Stratford-Upon-Avon was one of my favorite sites, because it was quaint and very homey feeling.