stratford-upon-avon and warwick castle

Stratford, or the home of Shakespeare, is an adorable little town (emphasis on little).  We saw two plays while there, both interestingly done but enjoyable.  The first was "A Winter's Tale" (the costuming was interesting) and the next night we saw "The Life of Galileo" which was not very accurate to history and annoyed me throughout the entire play.  I unfortunately voiced my opinion of it and found out about ten minutes later that the director was sitting right behind me.  Dang it.

Anne Hathaway's Cottage

Shakespeare's House

The rest of our time in Stratford was spent at Anne Hathaway's Cottage which sits on some beautiful land a little ways outside the town.  We of course saw Shakespeare's house in addition to a museum which detailed his life and his resting place in the church near where his daughter and son-in-law lived.  It was cute, but there's only so much you can see and take pictures of.

So after the sight seeing we went shopping! We ended up in a cute little antique shop where I found some fantastic earrings and a simple gold necklace with a single pearl on it.  I have literally been wearing it ever since.









From Stratford we headed to Warwick Castle which is a beautiful medieval castle with lots of activities and wonderful views.  I could not stop taking pictures.  The best part was exploring the town for lunch and then watching a falconry demonstration.  It was amazing and I got some good video footage of the birds in flight.  There were two different birds, one was a peregrine falcon and I can't remember what the other one was.  I kept an eye on Dexter most of the time but of course the one time I take my eyes off to check my camera, the falconer brings out some food and Dexter flies straight for it.  Unfortunately I was standing right in the way but luckily looked up just in time.  I dropped to the ground and then never took my eye off the bird again.

The bird that nearly got me.

Our last stop was Coventry, a bigger city that was the target of German bombs during the second World War.  During what is known as the "Coventry Blitz," 515 German bombers attacked Coventry because it was an ammunitions site and also manufactured bicycles and cars.  The cathedral was burned down and all that remains is the shell which is beautiful and hauntingly sad.  It was a little depressing but a good reminder of what happened in November of 1940.