Adventures in London: Even More Shakespeare! And Lots of Yummy Food!

My full English breakfast

Started the day off with a full English breakfast: sausage, bacon (ham), stewed tomato, cooked mushrooms, an egg, baked beans, and toast. So much food. It was good though. Toured Shakespeare sites today. We started at his birthplace. It was the house he grew up in. It was amazing to stand in the place where he grew up.

After that we went to Nash’s House and New Place. New Place was where Shakespeare’s house used to be. One of the men who owned it tore it down because he was sick of all the tourists coming to visit. So, the site had been converted into a little grassy area. But the gardens in the back were gorgeous. Very simple, but beautiful. They also had a mulberry tree grown from a clipping of Shakespeare’s mulberry tree. It was pretty cool. Nash’s House was simply there to show what Shakespeare’s house would’ve looked like. They were very similar. Then we headed to Hall’s Croft, which was where Shakespeare’s daughter lived.

My raspberry tart!

After that we went to find lunch. For lunch I had a jacket potato with cheese (a baked potato) and splurged and bought another raspberry tart. It wasn’t as good as the ones by my flat in London, but it was much bigger. Then we went to Trinity Church to see where Shakespeare was buried. It was cool, but not as cool as I would’ve thought. His grave was just a blank stone with the engraving copied and printed out on a sign next to it. But, I still saw Shakespeare’s grave!

Then we went shopping, because after you see the Shakespeare sights in Stratford there’s not much else to do. It’s a very small town. We went to H&M where I bought a gorgeous dress! I’m so glad I bought it. Then we wandered around trying to find somewhere else to shop, but ended up only finding super expensive boutiques. So, that didn’t work out too well. We came back to the bed and breakfast and took a well-deserved nap.

My Beef and Ale Pie

Then dinner at the oldest pub in Stratford. I had a beef and ale pie with mashed potatoes and veggies. It was really good. Then we got more gelato, because why not? This time I had a fruity flavor (can’t remember what it was called, but it had raspberries, strawberries, blueberries, etc. in it) and the peach again because the peach was amazing.

Then we headed over to the theatre to see our final play as a group. But, first we witnessed a hysterical encounter that one of girls in our group had with a swan. She was trying to feed it her muffin and it was not amused. She would get really mad when the pigeons would eat the food she had intended for the swan. She named it Dumbo. It was so funny!

Then we went and saw Arden of Flaversham. It was one of the weirdest/funniest plays I’ve ever seen. They had a moment at the end of the play where they lifted the back curtain and there were rows and rows of large golden waving cats. I have no idea where it came from but it was so out there that it was hysterical.

And that’s it for today. Enjoy the pictures!