Road-tripping part 1

I’ve always been a fan of the phrase, ‘getting there is half the fun’.

But now I realise it’s probably because I’ve not been to many places and I guess I found it consoling to say the least.

Fortunately, this week I had the privilege of going on a mini road trip with my family around the South of England and I’m happy to say I can finally break down the meaning of that phrase. I say I found it consoling but despite some of the fun being in the journey, it’s the actual places that really made my experiences worth it all.

Our first stop was at Stratford upon Avon, Shakespeare’s birthplace and like many other people there, we also did the classic tourist things. The journey to Stratford was somewhat interesting though. We were supposed to leave the house at 8 in the morning to get there for 10 am and instead we left the house at 11. So naturally being the annoyed teenager in the family of 4, I didn’t take our lack of punctuality very well at first. About 30 minutes into the drive there I realised there was nothing I could do about what had already happened and so I calmed down like a cool person and decided to enjoy the ride. The usual cows and sheep either side of the motorway suddenly became 50 times more interesting to watch as did the endless green fields I wanted nothing better than to jump out of the car and roll around in. There were the odd lorries (aka trucks for my non-British readers) in front of the car ruining my view but- okay, there were lots and lots of lorries! The fact is, in between taking car selfies with the wind in my hair before my dad shouted at me for having the windows down, reading 10 pages of the book I told myself I’d finish on the journey only to get bored, arguing with my sister for letting her bag take up too much room in the empty seat between us, fighting over who got the last cookie in the packet and telling the lady in the sat-nav to shut up when her voice got too annoying, the car ride wasn’t all that bad.

We got to Stratford at around 2 o’clock and were still hyped about the trip despite being aware that all the attractions closed at 5 pm. So obviously, instead of getting straight into tourist-ing, my sister and I rushed around to find the nearest toilets. Thank god for the local BHS store that saved us from dying about 2 minutes away from where we parked our car.

We made our way through the city (which is rather small by the way) and found the main tourist site almost immediately. It wasn’t nearly as crowded as I imagined it to be and the singer who greeted us already got me in the mood to be all ‘Shakespeare-ean’. My sister and I spotted a very good looking knight to our right and rushed up to him being the 10 year olds we were and I dropped some change into little basket he had before going up to him. He held his hand out and it took me an entire 20 seconds to realise I was supposed to reciprocate before he took my hand and kissed it. I managed to hold in my squeal just in time for him not to hear it before he helped me up onto the little podium next to him for a picture.

We walked around the information museum first, which included a ton of very Shakespeare-ean stuff. Surprise, surprise! Quotes, original manuscripts, plaques, statues, artworks and the rest. I didn’t know about half of his sonnets and plays which led me to have spent a little longer than normal staring at any piece of work that had the words ‘Romeo and Juliet’ or Macbeth’ written on them seeing as they were the only notable works of his I was fully knowledgeable about. With everyone else around me seeming to know so much about the English playwright, I at least had to play the part of being a Shakespeare super fan, right?

Shakespeare’s house was amazing too. The best part had to be finding out why beds in his time were so small. It turns out, people in Shakespeare’s time had small beds because a) beds were incredibly expensive at the time and b) people went to sleep sat upright as they believed lying down and sleeping gave the impression that they had died and this would provoke the devil to suck their soul. And so to avoid the devil from mistaking death, people would sleep sat up-right so the devil knew they were awake. Creepy, I know. Explains why Shakespeare was so fond of killing off all his characters then.  The performances outside his house put on by actors were also pretty moving. My sister and I even managed to wait till after the performance to ask the actors for pictures with us. 

Another brilliant thing about Stratford had to be all the wicked shops either side of the road where Shakespeare’s birthplace is. We walked into the most amazing Christmas shop and at this point in this blog post I understand ‘amazing’ ‘incredible’ and ‘interesting’ are the only adjectives I seem to be using to describe everything, but there really are no words to explain how truly amazing and incredible and interesting the whole trip was. The door at the Christmas shop had the cutest Christmas countdown sign and I walked in wanting to buy everything. There were sweet shops and cute pubs and the locals walking around and about were ultra nice too. You’d think they’d get tired of all the people getting in their way every 2 seconds to take pictures in front of just about anything and everything in the city. ‘Oh, take a picture of me with this tree! Shakespeare must’ve walked past it! How about this random bush? Shakespeare must’ve stood near it! How about this pile of nothing? Shakespeare must've breathed here!’

All in all, the 4 hours I spent in Stratford upon Avon were certainly worthwhile even if we didn’t get to see all of the attractions, but considering any ticket you buy is valid for 12 months, we can always go back and finish touristing around. We’ve yet to visit Anne Hathaway’s Cottage and Shakespeare’s grave. Hall’s Croft (Shakespeare’s daughter’s house) has a gorgeous garden which was supposedly a sign of Susannah (Shakespeare’s daughter) and her husband’s prosperity. Their beds were also much bigger!

I think it’s also worth noting that this is my second time in Stratford. The last time I went was 3 years ago on an over-night school trip and I have to say the experience I had in the city back then was polar opposite to the one I had this week. The last time I went, the city was covered in snow and I’d had the pleasure of watching the best play I’ve seen to this day, ‘The Orphan of Zhao’. The streets might’ve been a tad too difficult to walk in being so slippery but the hotel and the play and the fancy dinner we had made it worthwhile for sure. I've added some pictures from my last visit too.

I’d definitely recommend a visit to Stratford upon Avon to anyone who’s looking for aesthetics, culture, rich heritage and a travel back through time for a day or an overnight stay if you’re in hopes of catching a late show at the Royal Shakespeare Company theatre. You won't be let down. 

And remember, getting there is only half the fun.