I’m trying to play catch up; I actually went last Monday. I’ve just been keeping very busy! I’ve had this realization that my time is becoming increasingly limited here; only a month left! Saying it has gone by fast is a supreme understatement. In this realization, I’ve been really trying to cram in every last thing that I want to do and see, and I realized I haven’t made any day trips to other places in England in a while. And that was one of my main goals when coming here. Thinking about famous day trips out of London, Stratford-upon-Avon always comes to mind. I couldn’t decide if that was really a place that I wanted to go see. I mean I like Shakespeare and all but a whole day centered around him? I just wasn’t sure what to expect. But when I went to Greece, the girls I was with talked about how they had gone there and LOVED it. The main thing you do when you go there is tour all of the family homes: Shakespeare’s Birthplace, his mother’s farm, his wife’s cottage, New Place (the home he moved to at the end of his life) and Hall’s Croft (his son-in-law’s home.) The goal is that you learn about Shakespeare from all these different aspects of his family and they told me that it was actually very interesting. Not to mention that a lot of the town is still in “Tudor Style” and like I’ve said before, I really have a thing for old historic buildings. So I decided at the last minute that I was here so why not visit, and scored a 12 pound return ticket.
I left earlyyyy Monday morning (the price of getting tickets so cheaply) and got into Stratford-upon-Avon around 8:45am. The place was dead. There were a couple coffee shops open but that was it. And the homes didn’t even open until 10, so I literally just wandered around the touristy part of the city (even though there was no one out so it didn’t feel that way) and I made my way down to the river Avon (hence the name 
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Because I had time to kill and really enjoy walking anyway, I spent the next 45 minutes just walking along this nice paved path along the river. Fall was in full swing here and it was absolutely gorgeous and such a peaceful way to start out the morning.
I made it to this bridge further down that crossed back over the river and doubled back towards the town center again. I ended up walking by this gorgeous church which had a really cool graveyard and was just blown away by all the colors.
So it ended up that this was Trinity Church, the church where Shakespeare was buried. There was an entrance fee of 2 pounds but a sweet little nun paid it for me when she found out that I was a student studying abroad (the accent always gives me away – another worker inside jokingly referred to me as being from “the colonies” haha)
So it ended up that this was Trinity Church, the church where Shakespeare was buried. There was an entrance fee of 2 pounds but a sweet little nun paid it for me when she found out that I was a student studying abroad (the accent always gives me away – another worker inside jokingly referred to me as being from “the colonies” haha)
The fact that he was born, spent almost his entire life here, and died here is interesting to me. Of course you almost never see that now and for someone as famous as he was, I would have expected him to move around a little more. It was a simpler time!
So at this point it was now 10 which meant that I could start touring the homes. The first one I went to was the New Place. (You can buy a bundle ticket for all 5 of the homes that is literally almost as cheap as entrance into just Shakespeare’s birthplace, however, his mother, Mary Arden’s Farm, was closed for the winter so I did not get to go to that 
) The guide that was in New Place was SUPER knowledgeable – he explained to us the story of the home, which actually does not exist anymore. Once upon a time when Shakespeare bought it, it was the best house in the town (and a huge one at that) because it was at the center of town where all the markets where and right next to the government building. However, it fell out of the family because Shakespeare had no descendants (the only grandchild he knew did not have children and the other 2 that were born after his death died before they could have kids of their own), and a man that owned 19 other properties in the area picked it up, but never stayed there so it gradually fell into disarray. Instead of pay the taxes on it, he actually demolished it. From there, his lawyer bought the space and somehow it ended up in the hands of the Shakespeare Birth Trust who have been able to do excavations of the site to find foundations that still remain and give an idea of the place; they also have illustrations of what they think the house looked like. Now, it is a bunch of different gardens that were really nice to walk through, even though it was a pretty cold day (literally 10 degrees colder than the day before and after!)
) The guide that was in New Place was SUPER knowledgeable – he explained to us the story of the home, which actually does not exist anymore. Once upon a time when Shakespeare bought it, it was the best house in the town (and a huge one at that) because it was at the center of town where all the markets where and right next to the government building. However, it fell out of the family because Shakespeare had no descendants (the only grandchild he knew did not have children and the other 2 that were born after his death died before they could have kids of their own), and a man that owned 19 other properties in the area picked it up, but never stayed there so it gradually fell into disarray. Instead of pay the taxes on it, he actually demolished it. From there, his lawyer bought the space and somehow it ended up in the hands of the Shakespeare Birth Trust who have been able to do excavations of the site to find foundations that still remain and give an idea of the place; they also have illustrations of what they think the house looked like. Now, it is a bunch of different gardens that were really nice to walk through, even though it was a pretty cold day (literally 10 degrees colder than the day before and after!)
Next stop, Shakespeare’s birthplace. It was 11 at this point and the town had finally started to wake up and people were out and about on the main strip. Shakespeare’s birthplace was a tiny bit underwhelming to me – I was just expecting to get a lot of random Shakespeare facts thrown at me but was kind of looking forward to that because he really did so much! I also think I came at a really busy time since people were just getting out and about and this is normally the first stop so I might have missed some information from a guide that I would have otherwise gotten had it not been so crowded. But it was still cool to walk through the house that he once lived in!
After that, I headed to Hall’s Croft. This was still the original Tudor home from the 16th century and much bigger than the birthplace. Shakespeare’s daughter married a doctor (last name Hall for Hall’s Croft) so they were able to have a pretty nice place. There were some school children in for the day that were stationed in each room to give me a little overview which I rather enjoyed
Such a beautiful home, and I really love seeing these recreated rooms and putting myself into this time period.
My final stop was Shakespeare’s wife, Anne Hathaway’s cottage. It was a good 30 minute walk from the town center but it was both cute and really interesting. Apparently the home is still in the Hathaway family today and people are still living in the middle part of the cottage! She was just a simple farm girl when she and Shakespeare got married (and like 8 years his senior) but she really did well for herself!
The walk back to the town center had all sorts of cute homes – these were my favorite.
I still had some time to kill before my train home, and since I had eaten a pretty light lunch, I wanted to get tea somewhere. I ended up going to the highly rated “Hobbson’s Patisserie” (rightly so!) to have cream tea and scones. They had all sorts of sandwiches and cakes and pastries that looked yummy too so if you ever find yourself here, this is the place to go!! I seriously love my scones with clotted cream and jam and this was the perfect afternoon snack. The scones were so soft and still so warm!! And dusted with powdered sugar!!! The best.
I actually still had a bit of time when I left here (it was about 4 now and my train didn’t leave until 5:30) so I decided I would go poke around all the shops. However, especially with the sun going down so early now, shops were starting to close up at 4-4:30 so it really ended up with me just walking up and down more and more streets. I walked over to the river’s edge where the Royal Shakespeare Company is and decided to go inside and have a look around. I reallyyyyy had wanted to see a play there; this particular night there were showing Twelfth Night which I know the story of quite well since the musical we did my junior year of high school, All Shook Up, was based off of it. Sadly, the show didn’t start until 7:15 and lasted 2 1/2 hours, which meant once I took a train back to London I wouldn’t get home until around 1!! So I just looked through their gift shop and tried to revel in all the great acting that happens there before I started making my way back towards the town center. On my way, I stumbled upon a place called “Fourtees.” This was the other highly rated tea shop and bakery in Stratford-upon-Avon. Because they were still open for another 30 minutes and I still had another hour and was curious to see what it was like, I decided to go in and ordered the “Irving Berlin” which was a white hot chocolate topped with whipped cream and white chocolate stars. YUM. The inside transports you back to the 1940’s (get it, Fourtees), with the decor, record player in the background, and the waitresses outfits. They also had a little room modeled after a bunker upstairs! Another super cute place to go if you’re in the area!
Final thoughts: I’m really glad I got to go to Stratford-upon-Avon if not for all of the Shakespeare knowledge, then for all of the historic buildings and the charm of the area. It really is crazy to think about all of these buildings being around for so long – I was reminded more than once that a building I was standing in was older than my country haha. We really don’t have anything like that in the US and I think it is so interesting to learn about how people in the past did things; it’s also weird to think those same streets I walked up and down today, people walked up and down 500 years ago. And not just anyone, but Shakespeare himself! What was he thinking, where was he inspired? Plus as cheesy as it is, I think it really has inspired me to get better acquainted with more of Shakespeare’s plays – when you really think about all that he wrote and the themes that he explored, he really was a genius! And especially for that time period, that is really impressive. Perfect little spontaneous getaway from the city (it was so calm and idyllic) and made for a really nice day trip!
Final thoughts: I’m really glad I got to go to Stratford-upon-Avon if not for all of the Shakespeare knowledge, then for all of the historic buildings and the charm of the area. It really is crazy to think about all of these buildings being around for so long – I was reminded more than once that a building I was standing in was older than my country haha. We really don’t have anything like that in the US and I think it is so interesting to learn about how people in the past did things; it’s also weird to think those same streets I walked up and down today, people walked up and down 500 years ago. And not just anyone, but Shakespeare himself! What was he thinking, where was he inspired? Plus as cheesy as it is, I think it really has inspired me to get better acquainted with more of Shakespeare’s plays – when you really think about all that he wrote and the themes that he explored, he really was a genius! And especially for that time period, that is really impressive. Perfect little spontaneous getaway from the city (it was so calm and idyllic) and made for a really nice day trip!
Thanks for reading!
-Katie 
Katie, a senior Biology major, is spending the Fall 2017 semester studying Health & Society at King's College in London through Arcadia University.
Read more from Katie at https://katientheuk.wordpress.com/
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