Alas, another day trip!

Wednesday the 3rd of March

Longest day-trip in the history of the BYU London Study Abroad Winter 2010. Woke up at 6 am and didn't get home until 1 am. The best part: we still had regular classes the next day.

1. Warwick Castle. It was the British version of Disneyland. But not. Half of the exhibits were closed. There was a Princess Tower, but no one under four feet could go in, and there was a Castle Dungeon exhibit that reminded me of a haunted house. A really bad haunted house. Funny thing is...I have a ton of pictures from this place. Maybe that's because we had too much time to wander around so we entertained ourselves with our cameras. Yes...I think that's it. But we did get to go through the wax museum of medieval times. If only this wax figure were Josiah.

I was so happy to be going up these narrow spiral stairs! I wonder what really big people did who lived in castles like this...they wouldn't fit in the tiny stairways. I didn't know that they would make me dizzy. I'm so naive.

The top of the tower had the prettiest view of the little city and its cathedral nearby...good thing you can't see any of it in this picture. It was so windy at the top so we didn't spend much time there, but it was so pretty!

The world's largest trebuchet!...I look the same size as this catapult but it's bigger in real life trust me. This thing supposedly weighs 22 tons...I don't know how true that is. Does it look like it weighs 22 tons?

My favorite part of this place...the peacock garden! I have this weird obsession with birds. And these peacocks were just wandering free in the gardens, and one of them opened up for us! That made me so happy, peacocks are my favorite! I thought of little Madison because I passed my love of peacocks onto her. At least I take credit for her liking them a lot. And Josiah sent me a peacock feather in his last package...how perfect.

This is me with David and Louis, the man and the owl. They had a "birds of prey" exhibit and we ran into David while he was getting ready for the falconry show...so he let us see Louis! A real live owl and I got to stand next to it. And a real live person who's not a female.

2) Stratford-upon-Avon. The land of Shakespeare! We first went to Anne Hathaway's house (not the actress...but William's wife) and took a little look around her cottage! I am so thankful to live in a house that has more than one bedroom and a real kitchen and plumbing. I was born in the right century.

This is William Shakespeare's birthplace-I was in the bedroom where he was birthed! How many people can say that? There were two actors in the house/museum that did scenes from some of his works...they were really good! They just started a scene in the room we were standing in and acted like we weren't around. I loved that.

Another house! This is the Nash House, where Shakespeare died. What a good day, seeing the homes where his life began and ended.

I'm standing by Shakespeare's grave...this is in the Holy Trinity Church. I only had to pay 50 pence to see it too! So worth it. I got to see where the greatest playwright and poet was buried-that is his resting place. Right there.

We ended the night with an amazing production of King Lear. We had seats in the highest balcony in the corner but the theater was a black box so it actually wasn't that bad. It was an amazing show and I loved it even more because we just finished reading King Lear in literature.

I thought I would fall asleep but surprisingly didn't! It was too good of a show...so well done. It was a three and a half hour long production but went by faster than I thought it would. I was so happy to be reunited with my bed after the coach ride back home.