Thursday was a terribly busy day. First I had class from 9-11, and then it was time for adventuring! That was the day we went to Warwick Castle and Stratford upon Avon. We were to gather at the Porter’s Lodge at 11:45, which left just enough time to run down King’s Parade to the sandwich shop/ gift shop I like with the cheap sandwiches, then run back to the apartment to switch my bookbag for my purse.
We walked through Clare College again to get to the buses. I’m a little peeved that we have walked over Clare Bridge twice now and I have yet to find the broken sphere. I shall find it eventually!! I was very much a fool in the choice of my bus seat. I took the one behind the bathroom that has a table and no one in front of it. I thought the table would be lovely. No, it just meant there was less leg room and I was terribly uncomfortable for our very long bus ride. I think it took around 2 hours for us to get to Warwick Castle.
We had all agreed to dress up for this outing so that we could take a group photo in front of the castle (this will be somewhat relevant in a bit). Warwick Castle is currently celebrating its 1100th Anniversary which is super cool. Sadly, it has basically become a giant tourist trap. It felt like a cheesy Renn Fest but at an actual historical location rather than a fake medieval town in the middle of nowhere. For many it was their first castle, though, so they were very excited and their excitement was contagious so I was ok with the hokeyness. We only had a short time at Warwick Castle, so we had to do everything as fast as we could. First we went through this section of castle called “Kingmaker”. We didn’t have time to read any of the labels, so we basically ran around admiring wax figures in various medieval garbs. Then we climbed the Mound which was quick lovely and afforded a view over the castle on one side and beyond on the other. I really wanted a picture at the top of the mound on the front end, but everyone was rushing and communication was not at its best, so we got a ton of pics from the back of the mound and none of us at the top on the front end. Then we climbed down the mound on the other side of the castle. There was a gorgeous river (maybe the River Avon?) with lily pads all over the place and a mill, along with a trebuchet, which I loved since Dad and I used to make medieval siege weaponry, including a trebuchet. While trying to make our way back to the front of the castle we also saw a peacock, a haunted tower, and the mill, which had some sort of scary Victorian school mistress or something so we ran away. We split up then as half of us wanted to see the Rose garden and the rest of us did not. I had intended to reclimb the Mound to get the aforementioned photo I wanted, but other things came up.
Before leaving for Warwick, Briggs, the director of the study abroad program, had mentioned they paid for the historical stuff, and not the hokey stuff like the torture dungeons or Merlin’s Tower. Well, it turned out by Merlin they actually meant as in my husband, Colin Morgan, who played Merlin in a recent television show that I loved, not old beardy Merlin. I didn’t have a ticket though, so I just got a picture of myself with the (sadly very faded) banner with his face on it. I’m not sure if I would have been able to get in as they were timed tickets, but I found out after I got back that they have a wax figure out my husband, which I would have loved to have gotten a picture with.
I turned away from the Merlin area to walk to the mound when I noticed people walking on the ramparts, which Briggs had mentioned was included in our ticket. So I decided it would be nice to walk along the castle walls and get pictures. I ran into Anna and we both went. Well, I was a fool. There was a sign saying once you start you can’t turn back, it’s physically demanding, etc. I ignored it. I am a fool. There was a tiny stretch that was indeed leisurely walking along the wall and looking at the sights, but then came a tower. The kind filled with the evil, crumbling, twisting, tiny stepped stairs. I despise these stairs. Often times I am prevented from seeing history because of stairs (due to scariness, not a physical inability to handle them). These are my least favorite kind of stairs. It was a hot day so I was already sweaty, but I was now dripping in terror sweat with no choice but to climb on. And remember, I was wearing a skirt whilst trying to climb these awful stairs. It was pretty miserable and by the time I reached the top I was shaking kind of a lot. The view from the top was of course fabulous, but you had to wait to get your turn at a gap in the crenelation to get that view. This is also where my camera started malfunctioning a bit. I am hoping it was an issue of having too many pictures in my camera, but it just had a similar problem about an hour ago so I am starting to worry. We asked a couple to take a picture of us at the top and it started not taking the picture when you told it to and instead just getting pics of feet when you moved the camera as you gave up trying to take the pic. It may be because I was clutching my phone while trying to climb the stairs and it may have gotten a bit bumped in the climb. Here’s hoping it’s just full and not bumped. Then, surprise surprise, we had to climb down another set of evil twisty stairs. At least it was a separate staircase so they were one way stairs and the downward ones were less crumbly so it was much easier. By then it was time to meet up with the group and hop back on the bus to go to Stratford upon Avon.
We got off the bus and the Shakespeare professor gave us directions to the general effect of “Go down this street for food.” We wrongly trusted him and went that way in search of food. He sent us to the hinterlands where there was no food anywhere. There was a big group of us, starving, needing bathrooms, etc., and there was absolutely nothing. We did get to see Shakespeare’s birthplace, but I think from the back so it just looked like a creepy old abandoned house. We eventually found food, but we had very slow service. So basically we just had time to find food, eat, and go to the theater. Of course there was tons of food around the theater which made me upset.
We saw Henry IV Part I. Our seats were kind of ludicrously bad. We were up a level, which was fine, but we were in the backmost row of seats on our level. The seats were raised like high chairs so your legs dangled uncomfortably and you had to climb on railings to get into your seat. Also, the roof was slanted downwards, so the combination meant it was difficult to see the upper area of the stage. This combination made the first half of the play very uncomfortable. For the second half I moved to a closer seat that had gone unoccupied during the first half and was far more comfortable. The play was very well done and I enjoyed it. Having just watched Titus Andronicus, however, I felt like it didn’t have enough death. I was expecting gore and there was very little.
The next day I was a terrible student and just read for fun all day. I bought Death Comes to Pemberley, one of these modern sequels to Pride and Prejudice. I’ve never read one of these sequel things before, but this one has been made into a mini-series by BBC and has Matthew Rhys playing Mr. Darcy so I decided to get it. It’s a murder mystery so I want to know who dunnit! I can’t tell if it is one of those situations where the author is trying to make me think it is Person X but it isn’t really, or if it is a case of it’s obviously Person X and the characters are too stupid to figure it out till the end. Because at this point I’m ready to accuse Colonel Fitzwilliam. After dinner at Strada (a nice Italian restaurant around the corner) we went to a rooftop bar to watch the sun set over the Cambridge skyline which was fabulous but I forgot my camera which made me terribly sad. Today I feel was a terribly unproductive day as well. I went out in the early afternoon and visited the weeked craft market and got a few gifts. I also went to the Round Church but since it cost money to go in I just took pictures from the outside. Then a group of us went to Byron’s Proper Hamburgers again and then to Chill for froyo. My grandparents are visiting back home so I just skyped the whole family a little bit ago. A lot of the people in the program had their parents visit them here in Cambridge today so it has been very quiet here. I’m actually quite surprised at how many people have family visit them while they are here. Anyways, that’s about it for this post 🙂