A Castle, Henry the VI, and Shakespeare! (with a little bit of "Lion King" thrown in...)

Early Wednesday morning we departed for a full long day of activity, all away from London. We loaded the coach for our BLC field trip for a visit to a castle, a town, and a playhouse. I was pleased to discover that my favorite tour guide was on our coach! Deborah is a fine story teller and a very friendly Londoner. We drove the little-over-two-hours to get to Warwick Castle, which I quickly discovered must the said like this - "War-ick," ignoring the "w" in the middle.

The castle was amazing! Unlike so many of the previous places I've visited, this one was great because there were very few workers standing around telling you "you can't do this" or "you can't do that." They pretty much allowed me free reign to go explore wherever I wanted. Laura, Elisabeth, Amanda, Crystal, and I all went to the biggest tower first and climbed up the spiral staircase to get to the top. It was so neat because there were crosses carved out of the sides enabling the archers to shoot at people from up there while being protected at the same time! There was also a lovely view, for the castle was built on top of a hill to allow those protecting the castle to see if any invaders were on their way. From the tower we went to the downstairs inside the castle and wandered around some more. They had all these people working the various jobs that would be done in a medieval castle. The archer looks like he's having a particularly good time! After about 8 of these rooms, we ran across a real woman dressed in period clothing who let us dress up too! Can you guess which one of us is real?

It was fun to walk through all the rooms, and when we came out, we explored the outside of the castle a little more, including the astounding view of the town and the water wheel room. It was moving the water in the little stream where this boat house was. I just liked how the reflection looked on the water too! We walked by the river for a little, but the other girls got impatient and wanted to leave so I just stayed and lifted my head to look at the beautiful blue sky God gave us for that day trip, and thanked Him for it all! It's wonderful to see all the gifts He's given me in allowing me to see such astounding beauty.

I caught up with them a little later on, and then Elisabeth, Laura and I went to see the dungeon. We got a little sidetracked and got to see a dramatized video on what it would have been like to be a young boy in the time of the knights. He would have been only 12 or 13, but would be expected to fight right alongside the men in battle. The picture on the right is the dungeon - the thing hanging from the ceiling is a metal body cast they used to hang prisoners in to let them die. Depressing, huh. But on a upbeat note, we got to try on some helmets. Here's me looking particularly fierce.

And now on to Stratford-Upon-Avon! Stratford today is known for being the birth town of William Shakespeare. It is actually a nicely sized town, much different than I expected it to be. We stopped first at the cottage of Anne Hathaway, Shakespeare's wife. This was her family's home and where she lived growing up. They were in the middle of replacing the thatched roof - a project with a price tag of only 70,000 pounds, or in U.S. dollars, $140,000! Hard to believe, but this place makes good money just touring people around. We had a slightly guided tour that lasted only about 10 minutes. In fact, the whole visit only took 45 minutes!

We moved on next to the middle of the town of Stratford-Upon-Avon. (Avon means "river," and it is obvious why it's named that because a river went right through the town!) We went to the birthplace of Shakespeare and saw a small museum about his life and the time period during which he worked. We also went through the cottage he was born in and one of the workers there who was explaining one of the rooms to us was from West Virginia! That was a quick tour as well, and then Laura and I were left on our own to explore the town and kill five hours while we waited until the play that evening. We window shopped a lot.

The play was a Shakespeare play - "Henry VI." Laura was required to see it for a class, and I just decided to sign up for it because the Royal Shakespeare Company is the group of actors that were performing the play! The group has boasted actors in their company such as Jude Law, Judy Dench, and even Patrick Stewart! It was pretty neat to know that the play I was going to see would be acted by people who may even become famous one day! So Laura and I walked around the town, visited Holy Trinity Church and saw the place where Shakespeare is buried, which is pictured here. (Yes, the rope being crooked bothers me too for those of you fellow O.C.D.ers.) The other picture is the church inside. We left there and walked along the river for some scenic shots. We were taking pictures of each other next to the river under a beautiful old tree when across the river in this park like area we heard a few comments from some Britons - "Look at those girls taking pictures of each other under the tree!" It seems we are sometimes more of spectacle than we wish we were! But oh well!

After a delicious dinner of Chicken Kiev at "The Rose and Crown" restaurant, Laura and I made our way to the theatre and sat in the coffee shop there chatting with some professors before the play began. We made it to our nose-bleed seats and prepared for a wonderful show! We were not disappointed. The group made great use of the stage in all aspects, from running to and fro to landing on the stage by swinging from a rope attached to the ceiling! There were quite a few fight scenes, enhanced by fog, live cymbals and drums, and of course the wonderful actors and actresses themselves. The story line was a bit hard to follow, as they all used traditional Shakespearean speak, and I had never read the story before. But they were all so good! Very convincing actors delivered their lines flawlessly (from what I could tell), with creative props and scenery that helped the story come alive! There was a fifteen minute intermission during which time many people resituated themselves so they could see better. The play was finally over around 10 or 10:30, after which time we made our way back to the coach, exhausted and ready to be home! The two and a half hour ride never seemed so long, but we made it back!

The following day I had class as normal, but woke up with a slightly sore throat. Classes went fine, but I was exhausted so I came back and took a much needed nap. Laura and I fixed a nice dinner and got all dressed up for our evening out. We went to see another play - "The Lion King" at Lyceum Theatre in Covent Garden! This may not mean much to you, and I wasn't overly excited when I found out we could go to this play, but I thought it'd be neat if nothing else. Little did I realize what I was in for...

The play was amazing! There were lots of people there, to begin with. We got good seats in the Grand Circle, which translates to being the balcony. The play began and we were awestruck! The stage moved - parts of it lowered and spun around and a staircase came out of the floor. The actors were dressed up as animals yet you could still tell they were animals and there was a giraffe and a cheetah and zebras and birds and monkeys and gazelles and whatever Pumba is, and vultures and toucans! It was so neat...there were kids playing the roles of young Simba and Nala, so it was great to see how good they were at acting! The story line was great and easy to follow, almost exactly like the movie for those of you who have seen it. The play did not cease to amaze me though, with the lighting and costumes and makeup and scenery and staging. They had people dressed as grass, playing important roles in the scenes, as well as funny lines and actors who really knew what they were doing! Several of the actors were actually using puppets, but it's not like they were trying to hide the fact that a person was controling the puppet, so it was neat to see them work so well with their puppet. There were also two acts for this play. It was so amazing, I could talk about it for hours! So if you want to know more, call me!

Suffice it to say that if you ever, ever have a chance to go see a play in any big city, whether it be in the U.S. or here in Europe, DO IT!!! I can't wait to see more plays! It's kind of a shame that I saw both of those back to back because it would have been nice to get a little more excited about "The Lion King." I was so excited all day Thursday, so I guess being so excited longer would have been torture! Here's Laura and I standing in front of our seats, all dressed up, with the stage in the background. (But I'm sure you can't see it, sorry!)

More to come soon about Camden Market and the Chinese New Year Festival. Watch for it and make some comments!