Stratford: lovely little town by day, sketchville at night.

It was back to jolly old England for me last weekend; I didn't think I would be back so soon, but when I learned there was an extra spot on the USC Stratford-upon-Avon trip I figured why not? The offer of free train travel, lodging, meals, museum entrance, and a play was hard to turn down.  I'm quite the sucker for free things, as those who know me know well. 

I've been to Stratford before, during my senior year of high school on the St. Joseph's Academy literary tour of England. I wasn't going this time as much for Shakespeare as I was for the free stuff, but of course the weekend revolved around the bard. Stratford is his home town, place of literary inspiration and final resting place. 

I took an afternoon train from Edinburgh Waverly and arrived in Stratford around 6 pm. I met Lilly at the train station and even though I had a map I managed to get us a bit lost trying to find the B&B - shocker. But we finally found the Linhill Guest House, a charming little place on what seemed to be B&B road, catering to the Shakespeare enthusiasts I'm sure. The owner, a sweet motherly lady, could not find my name on the USC list but assured me I would at least have a place to sleep - in her son's basement bed - if no B&B beds opened up. That's hospitality.

Lilly and I spent about an hour before it was time to meet the group watching some UK television. I have no TV here and otherwise no way of watching television, so it was nice to have a remote in my hands again. Pimp My Ride UK captured our attention -- British kids just sound funny using words like "gangsta" and "wicked." Lilly and I agreed that they should do a show combining the British and American casts: XZibit meets funny ginger UK lead guy and they pimp out a car together. Hilarious.

That night was an amazing dinner at Marlowe's, and since USC was footing the bill we dined royally. Bottles of wine for the tables, all the (quite expensive) food we wanted, decadent desserts. Thanks USC! It was fun getting to know the other Trojans studying at UK universities, and there were some very interesting characters in attendance. We followed dinner with a quick trip to a pub and then went back to the B&B for slumber.

Observation: the gents of Stratford must have taken a lesson from the men of East L.A. on vehicular flirting. Lilly and I were honked and catcalled at twice making our way to the B&B and were the victims of a somewhat scary interaction with four men in a car after the pub. Stratford: lovely little town by day, sketchville at night.

The next morning we had breakfast at the B&B (full English breakfast for me, of course) and then Lilly, fellow Trojan Kevin, and I walked around Stratford a bit and ended up at Shakespeare's birthplace. We were interrupted mid-tour by a call from the USC UK director telling us we had to meet him and the group for our walking tour, so we peaced out and headed to the other side of town.

[caption id="attachment_256" align="alignnone" width="500" caption="What many of the buildings in Stratford looked like."][/caption]

 

[caption id="attachment_257" align="alignnone" width="500" caption="Shakespeare's birthplace."][/caption]

 

[caption id="attachment_258" align="alignnone" width="500" caption="Where the bard was born."][/caption]

A delightful English lady named Norma led our group through Stratford and shared her accredited insights. We walked through a lovely park infested with killer geese (as acc. to the USC UK director after many of us tried to chase them) along a river and made our first stop at the church where Shakespeare is buried. His tomb is not ornate as one might expect it to be; it's merely some writing on stone on the altar. Shakespeare's fear was that someone would move his bones, and he asked for a short poem to be displayed along with his grave warning potential gravediggers.

[caption id="attachment_259" align="alignnone" width="500" caption="Chasing the killer geese."][/caption]

 

[caption id="attachment_261" align="alignnone" width="500" caption="Posing with the steeple of Shakespeare's church."][/caption]

 

[caption id="attachment_262" align="alignnone" width="500" caption="Lovely park along a river."][/caption]

 

[caption id="attachment_263" align="alignnone" width="500" caption="An "award winning" public toilet. Big disappointment - there was wee (that's what the British call it) on the seat!"][/caption]

 

[caption id="attachment_264" align="alignnone" width="500" caption="Shakespeare's resting place."][/caption]

 

[caption id="attachment_265" align="alignnone" width="500" caption="Don't touch those bones!"][/caption]

After the tour we had lunch at a tearoom and then Lilly and I attempted to do some shopping - the only thing I bought was Ritter Chocolate. Lilly's been raving about it since she's been here, and I haven't had any luck finding them until Stratford. Ritter is a German company that makes squares of rich chocolate with different fillings. They are good, but as I'm not the biggest chocolate fan I don't know if I'm fully appreciating them. 

We had another fabulous dinner compliments of USC at a Malaysian restaurant, and mmmm it was nice to have ethnic food again. Then we hurried to see the Royal Shakespeare Company's production of The Tempest. I'm not much of a theater person, but if you're gonna see Shakespeare Stratford is the place to do it. I did fall asleep in the first half and had a hard time following the plot, but the costumes and props were amazing. 

On Sunday I had one more English breakfast and then hopped on a train to come back to Edinburgh. Delays caused the trip to be about 8 hours total - yuuccck - but as always, I enjoyed staring out the window and watching the scenery pass by. Scotland and England have lots of sheep, btw. And my previous statement that Scots like to drink on trains has proved itself to be true time and time again -- this time it was a group of raucous men who had people clamoring for them to be kicked off the train for their "filth."

I'm off to Dublin this weekend, hopefully not too late for St. Patrick's Day celebratin'. Wear green tomorrow, don't get yourself pinched!