Hello!
It's been awhile, but I'm back with a real blog entry!
Yesterday started quite early with us getting on a bus (a rented one, not a public one) at about 8 am. We drove for about two hours and passed a lot of absolutely gorgeous scenery. It was nice to get out of London for a bit and see the England that I'd imagined from my Jane Austen books. The countryside is unspeakably lovely with the rolling hills and cute little towns. We passed fields with sheep, cows, and even baby horses, which were adorable. We finally arrived at Warwick Castle (pronounced like "Warrick"). That's one of the weirdest things about English-style English. They don't pronounce half the letters in their words, or at least the names of places. I don't know who the person was who looked at the word Gloucester and thought that "Gloster" was the right way to say it, but apparently it caught on.
Anyhow, the castle:
There were signs all over celebrating the castle's 1100th birthday, so that gives you an idea of how old it is. It was originally built by William the Conqueror (in 1068 according to Wikipedia, so I'm not quite sure how they came up with 1100, but whatever). I actually just read through a bit of the Wikipedia page to try to figure out some of its history, since I don't feel like I learned too much about it while I was there, for reasons that will soon be made clear, but it mostly just talks about different Earls of Warwick that it passed between, so it's mostly just a cool castle, I guess.
The castle had a bit of a different style than the Tower of London. It was very touristy, which I guess the Tower was as well, but this one felt a little more amusement park-y, like Lagoon without the rides. There were people dressed in period garb and different carnival-ish games you can play.
The creepiest thing was that most of the rooms were filled with eerily realistic wax figures.
There were two different time periods represented: a medieval section and a later section, maybe in the 1700's or 1800's (I really tried to find out exactly when it was, but I'm still not sure. Sorry). It had some pretty cool interiors. I recognized some Baroque and Rococo furniture thanks to my history of interior design class. There were also some pretty cool historical-ish items there, like this clock that once belonged to Marie Antoinette, which was purchased by one of the owners of the castle:
Two of the most famous owners of Warwick were Henry VIII and Richard III, however neither of them ever actually lived in it. They mostly just left it neglected, which is a shame. Here they are, once again in creepy waxwork:
I don't know who thought the wax was a good idea. It's really unnerving.
My favorite parts of the castle were the least touristy. There was a really lovely rose garden that I enjoyed even though the roses weren't actually blooming yet.
A couple of girls and I also climbed up a ridiculously long and slightly dangerous-feeling spiral staircase to get up to the top of one of the towers. There were really gorgeous views from up there:
I mean, look at that! It's so incredible that I get to see these things.
Anyhow, overall Warwick castle wasn't my favorite thing that we went to. It just felt a little overdone with all the waxworks and characters running around. It would have been really nice if it were just the castle and the grounds without all the fluff. If you ever have a chance, I would say go since it's quite picturesque, but if you're in England and your schedule's tight, I would say it's a pretty safe one to miss.
After Warwick, we got back on the coach and drove to the next attraction: Anne Hathaway's house. This house also had a very nice garden. Many of the plants had little plaques next to them with quotes from Shakespeare's plays that had mentioned the plant's name. After wandering the gardens for a bit, we made our way to the actual house:
I'm loving on the wattle and daub. It's such a friendly sort of cottage. We were guided through the house where we got to see the settle where Anne and Shakespeare were supposed to have courted as well as the original stone floor in the kitchen, which is the only flooring in the house that is the same as it was during Shakespeare's time. It was cool to walk through such an old house, but there really wasn't actually too much to see, especially since Shakespeare never actually lived there. It was also quite small and crowded, so we mostly just shuffled through the rooms and it was hard to get a really good look at anything. It's kind of hard to see things like this with such a big group, which was probably the biggest problem.
The next place we went to was the farm that belonged to the family of Mary Arden, Shakespeare's mother. It's a working farm today, but it tries to remain the same as it would have been back in Shakespeare's day.
They had lots of interesting animals, like these pigs that were Maggie-colored:
And these pigs that were rather sheepish (literally):
There was also a pile of sleeping ferrets, which are creepier than the wax figures:
The cutest thing was this baby cow:
There was also a pretty cool falconry exhibit, or "predatory bird demonstration" as the guy called it, since falconry means that live prey is involved. It was a pretty cool little farm, but it started raining and was pretty cold, which meant that we spent quite a bit of our time in the gift shop and cafe.
Next we went into Stratford itself to go to Shakespeare's birthplace. Somehow, I didn't get any pictures of it, but probably my favorite part of it was a window that had signatures of visitors carved into it, including those of famous writers who'd come to visit. It was quite hard to decipher, since there were so many of them, but it wasn't so much the names themselves that interested me. It was how people felt obligated to leave a mark on the home of someone who'd left a mark on them. It's like they were hoping to retroactively become a part of Shakespeare's life because he was a part of theirs. I'm probably romanticizing here, since lots of it was probably just like graffiti that you see on, like, fences at Lagoon, but still. Continuing my tradition of buying books at the homes of their writers, I picked up a pretty little copy of Shakespeare's sonnets at the gift shop.
My favorite part of the day was going to Trinity Church. It was there, standing at the grave of William Shakespeare, that I finally felt the connection to him that I'd been searching for all day. Not everyone in the group had come to the church, so it was less crowded, plus there's something about old churches that induces quiet. I don't think it quite matched the moment alone at Dickens's desk, but it was a similar feeling of connection and inspiration, and it was just really nice.
There was also the font where baby Shakespeare was baptized, as well as a rather scary bust that his friends purchased and placed in the church:
The church itself was absolutely beautiful, too. I really loved all the stained glass.
After we left the church, we walked past the site of New Place, which is the home Shakespeare bought and lived in after he'd made some money from the theater. The house is no longer there, but it was still cool to see the site.
After getting dinner, we got to go see Henry IV part 1 performed by the Royal Shakespeare Company.
The play was incredibly good. I'd never seen or read one of Shakespeare's history plays, so I didn't really know what to expect, but it was fantastic. It was funny and well-acted. I wish I'd read the play before so I had a better handle on its politics and the back-story on some of the aspects of the play, but it was still very enjoyable. My only regret is that I was so tired from the long day. I'd gone to bed fairly late the night before and gotten up early, plus we'd done so much walking that I was really struggling to pay attention even though the play was so good. I have to admit that I nodded off a few times during the second half. I really wish that I hadn't, but there it is. I wasn't the only one, but it makes me feel like a Shakespeare traitor. I'd love to see another play by the RSC when I'm not quite so tired.
After the play, we had another coach ride back to the flats and went straight to bed.
Today was another full day, although not quite so full as yesterday. We had class this morning and then went for our second London walk.
The first interesting site on our walk was the British Museum. It's enormous, so we only went through a few exhibits. Thankfully it's free, and I'll definitely be coming back another time. We walked through the Egyptian, Greek, and Roman exhibits. I got to see the Rosetta Stone, which was really cool. It was super crowded, so I didn't get a great picture. Have the Rosetta Stone and some guy's head:
I was also giggling a little bit because Sydney and I have this joke about someone having the Rosetta Stone on an engagement ring (because people refer to diamonds as "rocks"), and seeing how massive it was was just really funny.
I also got to see the Elgin Marbles, which are pieces of the frieze of the Parthenon. It was amazing to be able to look at the Parthenon while standing in London.
Have you ever been so mad, you punched a centaur?
The next stop was University College London. The main attraction there was really weird: the Auto-Icon of Jeremy Bentham. Bentham, the founder of Utilitarianism, wrote in his will that he wanted his body preserved and displayed at the College. So his actual skeleton is inside his actual clothes (padded out) sitting on his actual chair in the college. He originally wanted his mummified head to top it all off, but the mummification process went slightly awry, so they topped it with a wax head instead and store his real head in the university vault. What a guy.
For your edification, please google "Jeremy Bentham mummified head" and prepare to be thoroughly creeped out. Or don't. It's pretty cool/gross though.
We also walked through Tavistock Square, where Dickens lived during the time that he wrote many of his later novels including Bleak House, Little Dorrit, and A Tale of Two Cities. Sadly, the house is no longer there, so we weren't able to tour it or anything. It's just a park now.
The last stop on our walk was the British Library, another place that deserves a whole day rather than the half-hour or so we were able to give it.
Inside, there's a large collection of rare books and manuscripts. I saw part of Jane Austen's manuscript for Persuasion as well as her writing desk, which was very, very cool. There were some of the early published copies of Shakespeare's plays (not the Folios) and part of a Dickens manuscript. There were also pages of music handwritten by Handel, Bach, and Mozart. I don't know too much about classical music, but they were still really cool to see. I also took a quick peek at the Magna Carta, which was there as well. Unfortunately, no pictures were allowed, so you'll just have to take my word for it. I'm definitely going back because I only saw a small portion of all the amazing things they had there.
Well, thanks for reading this very long post. I'm having a lovely time here, but I need to get to bed now.
Tomorrow: Hampton Court, home of Henry VIII
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