A Week Out of London

Monday morning we left our flats at 9:00 for Stratford-upon-Avon, the hometown of William Shakespeare, the bane of most English classes. After a few hours on the bus, we saw:
Me and will.
Shakespeare's Birthplace. They make a big deal about this house because he grew up in it. The house that he lived in as an adult was burned down by the second owner because he was tired of people wanting to tour the house where Shakespeare lived.
Day 2. Warwick Castle.


I got invited to a Royal Party at Warwick Castle. This is me shaking hands with the butler. I think his name was Andrew.

Putting out a fire on the first floor, which is the second floor according to an American. There's the ground floor (which is 0 on an elevator) and the first floor is the floor above it.

I think that I should own a castle.


A Trebuchet. It's kind of like a catapult, but bigger, less mobile, and with much great range. In short: AWESOME. You can almost see me at the base.

Putting on my armor and getting ready for battle.


Don't take a picture of me on the toilet!
British language lesson: You don't say restroom, bathroom, or what not. You say toilet. Like: "Where's the toilet?" or "I'm going to the toilet." It's weird, but that's how it is here.


This is another Shakespeare property. It was some family member's farm. This picture is for Meg. Sheep.


This was a falconer and Becky the falcon. He talked to us for a while about falconing and also let us hold her. Falconers would use the falcon to hunt rabbits and other small animals for food.


Day 3. Bath.

There was a random stone head that was excavated with the Roman Baths. I tried to imitate its expression.


Here is the Great Bath, where the Romans and Britons would come to bathe. It's a natural hot spring, which is why the Romans built a big temple around it.


Bath Abbey. We didn't actually go inside because we didn't want to pay.

Day 4. Stonehenge.



It was REALLY cold. There was a little bit of rain, but it subsided after a few minutes. It was the craziest wind I'd ever experienced. And I have experienced some intense wind, before.

It wasn't quite as epic as I was expecting, but it was really awesome. I definitely think everywhere who comes to London should see it. It's so legendary that it's worth seeing for yourself.


Here you go, Meg. More sheep. They were all over the hillside next to Stonehenge.


Finally, we stopped in Salisbury. It wasn't a very exciting city. And we were all really tired and this point. We saw the Cathedral there, which held one of the four original Magna Cartas (an important medieval British Constitution-like document. We couldn't take pictures of it, though, so the only picture I have from Salisbury is below. In case you didn't know, in England, you don't spend Dollars, you spend Pounds. We called this Two Dollar World.

I have a couple more things that I still need to post on from the last two weeks, but I'll fill those in at some point in time. It was a fun four days, but I'm really glad to be back in London. Enjoy!