The hotel wifi is still not cooperating, and I cannot upload pictures right now. I may try from my phone later.
We haven't talked much about the excellent weather we have been having here in England. Believe it or not, today's tour of Stratford represents the only time we have had any precipitation fall on our tender heads... and that rain barely lasted ten minutes. We have been gifted with sunny skies and temperatures in the high 50's/low 60's. It has been a bonus that in no way we could have expected, considering the normal weather in Northern England at this time of year. Even after the brief rain this morning, the sun came out over Shakespeare's hometown, jackets were stowed in backpacks, and students enjoyed another beautiful day on tour.
Obviously we are carefully tracking Tuesday's storm. We have been in contact with EF about possible changes to our travel plans. It is impossible to say right now what is going to happen. We will have a better sense tomorrow afternoon; when I get any updates, I will certainly let you know as soon as possible. I don't even want to hazard any guesses at this point. I think it's probably safe to say that we won't be at Logan on Tuesday at 4:48pm, but stranger things have happened.
As far as today's activities are concerned, the students had another wonderful day. We met our local guide Alan, and he led us through the sleepy village (nothing happens in a European town before 10:00am) and showed us the multitude of the locations related to Shakespeare. We had the opportunity to walk in two of the three homes that Shakespeare lived in during his time in Stratford: Anne Hathaway's Cottage and the Shakespeare Birthplace. The third home, New Place, was destroyed as the result of a nasty neighbors' dispute long after Shakespeare's death.
Local docents gave the students humorous lessons about the various shady dealings of both Shakespeare (Shakespeare's first child was born only six months after Shakespeare got married... wink, wink) and Shakespeare's dad (the guy spent more time in prison than one might think) and some of the more smelly parts of their lives. Shakespeare's dad made gloves for a while... leather gloves... if you know anything about how leather was tanned in the "old days", you understand what I'm talking about... if you don't know, let's just say that no animal waste products went to waste, so to speak. The docent at Shakespeare's Birthplace gave a multi-sensory demonstration of how it worked... the sense of smell part of the presentation was handled by cute little boxes the students could sniff... not the actual waste product.
After the guided portion of the tours, the students had another nice chunk of free time to explore Stratford on their own. We are all now back at the hotel waiting for dinner... nice to get the blog done before dinner... may actually sleep tonight! 😉
Again, I'll let you know as soon as I hear of any changes to our travel plans. Until then, enjoy the rest of your Sunday. We go to Warwick Castle tomorrow; it's one of the best preserved medieval castles in the United Kingdom, and there are numerous interactive exhibits, including a gruesome dungeon! I will keep you posted. Thanks again for reading!
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