Old Men and their JAZZIES

And you remember the original?

Every time. Such happiness.

Stratford-Upon-Avon

This week our entire program went to Stratford-Upon-Avon to see the birthplace of that one famous guy, who may be the cause of this whole program and my being in London, that Shakespeare dude.

We went to see every farm, garden, house, and piece of land connected to him and his life (or his daughters, or his mother's). It was intense and exhaustive, but I made it through the Shakespeare mania.

This house is pretty much the format of every thing we went to see. A large, beautiful garden, and an old school thatched-roof house with some old furniture and fake bread inside.

But before we went there we stopped my Coventry Cathedral, which has been a religious site since the 1100's. It has been 3 different cathedrals, and was bombed in WWII and they kept the outside standing, and simply built a new one on the inside of the shell.

There was a lot of modern art inside, and I really loved their stained glass window.

Next we went to Kenilworth Castle. It was the home of some famous guy in Queen Elizabeth's court, the one she actually liked and wanted to marry, but luckily didn't.

This was my favorite part.

I turned a corner, and who should be there but Robin Hood? Vastly appropriate.

Here is the inside. Pretty cool huh?

The British really like their gardens, and even offer books about it in the Kenilworth museum.

Then we made our way to Ann Hathaway's home. We saw the chair she and Shakespeare might have sat in. It's all very exciting.

Here is a man with an interesting shirt. I suppose his wife was glad enough to have him along so she'd take him in what ever form he came in. Look. She's so excited ("Oh look! Plants Shakespeare might have had, enjoyed, or even seen! Let's take a picture.") He's not much of a gardener, ("Yup. That one's purple.")

So Robin Hood & Gang donated this bench. They must like Shakespeare.

The Old English people were rather lax when it came to building homes. Nothing was straight, even, or even similar. Beams were whatever length suited the day, every floor slanted sharply (missing pocket change? Look to the southern wall), doors could be specific to the one person who made them. No hallways (room --> room --> room) to which our guide said, "You saw something *shrug* you saw something. But the curtains were for a bit of privacy. You'd still hear it though." (us: MAKE HIM STOP! MAKE HIM STOP!).

This is the Holy Trinity Church where Shakespeare is buried. Pretty.

The last day we went to Blenheim Palace, which was a much more appropriate version of Versailles, except for this odd creature:

We are all curious as to why anyone would choose a harpy statue. "Oh please. Apollo? Again?! I'd prefer something much more original. And creepy. Yes a harpy will do quite nicely."

A lake in their garden. On our way here we found a tree someone had given to the Duke in honor of something significant. We thought it rather amusing. "Oh yes, thank you. I do love a good tree, and my yard is somewhat sparse. This will do just wonderfully."

The last bit of our trip was spent in Oxford. We went to the Natural History Museum (those are the most entertaining).

Behold giant spider crab that I attempted to pet. He was not kind.

I like mimicking animals' faces, ok? Don't judge me and my three chins. And don't stare, either.

Oh, this is a kind of stork. I call him Darrel.

This is a bad picture of some shrunken heads. I would have gotten a better one, but it was 4:28 and the guard was yelling, "The museum is now closed!" also meant as, "get the hell out of this building so I can go home." But apparently the shrinking of enemy heads was in practice up until 1960. At least that's what our picture of the caption says.

That's Right, I went to the home of the illustrious JANE AUSTEN

So now I realize that all my blogs tend to be a large number of pictures with medium length captions. I don't know how we all feel about it, but as you make no comments, I feel it's fine to continue on in this fashion. If it upsets you, you had your turn to speak, so just deal.

Here is her house, right on the corner. It wasn't as cute or quaint as I was expecting, but it was her last house, and generously given by her brother. So it'll do (pig, that'll do...). Notice how everyone is just flocking towards it.

Behold: the plaque

Behold: Me by the house.

Around the back they have these interactive things for little children (hence me). Can anyone guess the scene?

How about this one?

The outside appearance of the house was completely made up for by the spectacular garden. The flowers were absolutely stunning, all just in bloom. The gardeners took special care to have flowers that were popular during the regency period. And by each flower they have a plaque of its official name, what is was called in Jane Austen's time, and when it was brought over to England. Amazing, right?

Beautiful. I'll spare you the thirty odd flower pictures I took, and just give you the general idea.

Look at this! This picture shows a lock of Jane Austen's hair, her and Cassandra's topaz crosses, and a bracelet of hers. Bah!

Even better, the writing desk!!!! The writing desk where she reworked her novels into publication state. The power of this desk....

Me being Jane Austen

This was a lovely quilt sewn by Jane, Cassandra, and their mother. It took some serious dedication. The other side is highly impressive, as well.

This is Cassandra's handkerchief, embroidered by Jane. Can you believe it? The hand that penned Pride and Prejudice sewed those letters.

These items were found under the floorboards. It looked as though Jane was very capable of looking after herself.

Little knife for making quills and quill nubs, I think.

Can you read the card in the pic, cuz that'd be easier.

This is Martha Lloyd's recipe book. She lived with the Austen women for quite a while, and wrote down all the recipe's they used, so we know what kind of foods they ate and made.

I love this. It's one of Jane's stories when she was 14, illustrated by her sister. Isn't that adorable?

For me it was wonderful to see the actual artifacts that made up Jane's life, and influenced in the creation of her amazing books. Sometimes it feels like these great influential people were always somewhat big and important. To see their human side almost makes me feel more equal with those greats, like maybe we could have been friends. It was like seeing Chaucer's sarcophagus coffin thing, and realizing that that man was terribly short. It was just a really cool experience.

I honored the venture by buying a long-desired quill and ink.

I just thought this was funny. On our walk there we went into this subway, where it looks as though a horse had previously been. No one could have been riding him since the ceiling was too low. And it also looks like the horse was so scared going under a busy road that the horse literally crapped himself. Pah ha ha ha.

Tower of London

Tower of London, Baby! That's right. It's exciting (in that awkward need-to-pee kind of way that my face seems to be expressing. Also, the good food I eat non stop would explain the chubby expressing the need-to-pee).

The ravens were HUGE. This picture does not do them justice at all, but they were frighteningly large. It doesn't help there's a sign near by saying that they bite.

Me and a ready-made friend I found. He was nice, but rather bland.

This was King Henry VIII. Do you spot something awkward? Yeah... Well, he was Henry VIII.

The biggest and the littlest suits of armor they have. The big one was for a man who was 6'8".

In many of the buildings there are wall carvings from the prisoners kept there. Crazy! Some of them had quite some time.

Some people who were in there on account of witchcraft would carve these astrological diagrams and such. I don't know about you, but such things I doubt were beneficial in proving their innocence.

Chopping block. For heads.

So many tight spiral stair cases. I thought I was done after Paris, but oh no! It was the only staircase known to man until the 1600's.

Notice the size of my foot and the size of the stair. Either these people were really small or the contractors/commissioners were chincy cheap skates.

This is the coat of arms of my ancestors. That's right. Awesome. Never mind that they were involved in malicious plots to murder the throne's direct heirs. It's awesome.

Pretty guns. Two of them.

And look! This is an experimental gun from like 1450. It didn't really work, but just look at the design.

A very large and long lance.

And all the gruesome gore ends in a pretty and serene chapel. What?