Stratford Upon Avon

A day trip to Stratford-upon-Avon was on tap for today. We left Oxford this morning on a private coach that we had arranged a few months ago, that picked us up right in front of Oriel College. The driver stashed all of our luggage in the voluminous “boot” of the coach, and I kept thinking that I must be forgetting something as I boarded a bus carrying only one bag! Private coach is certainly the way to travel—it beats a 20 minute walk to the train station pulling and carrying 70 pounds of luggage any day! I speak from experience, I’m afraid! Once our group was settled in on the bus for the hour-long drive and we were on the road, the students started to sing “Happy Birthday” to David, and broke out bottles of champagne! They all toasted him, and passed out drinks in plastic cups, then gave him a very nice card and a dinner out when we return to St. Andrews…babysitting included. I’m assuming one of their mothers’ tipped them off to this idea, because only parents understand how critical the babysitting piece can be to a good night out! And the nicest part is that John and Emma love being around the students so much that they will start prodding him to go out and have the students over the minute we get home fro m our trip….

We arrived in Stratford in late morning, and walked through the streets of the small town in search of some lunch. The students split up into groups, and we ended up eating with about half of them at a café across the street from Shakespeare’s childhood home. Stratford-upon-Avon is of course synonymous with Shakespeare, and the whole town is devoted to all things Shakespeare. Apparently, visitors flock here by the thousands to cure their Willy-fever, and form a permanent queue for sites like his birthplace on Henley Street, the house where he courted his wife in Wilmcote, his mother’s childhood home, and even (taking the award for dubious historical connection) the house where his daughter once lived with her husband. Aside from the Royal ShakespeareTheater, the biggest draw in town is the Shakespeare Center, which holds collections and archives related to the Bard and the history of the town. But for me, the best part is that the town is just quite lovely, full of timber-frame houses and cobblestone
streets, with flower baskets and boxes everywhere!

The students and David were going to a 1:00 pm performance of King Lear at the Royal Shakespeare Company, so the kids and I were on our own for the afternoon. We took a quick walk to Will’s birthplace for a perfunctory photo and some souvenir books—all kid versions of Shakespeare plays. Then we hit a small shop next door for some “sweeties” and walked through town a bit, towards the River Avon (hence the town name…). There’s a canal basin just to the side of the RSC which is lined with gardens and paths, and full of canal boats—both residential boats and those selling ice cream to the flocks of tourists. We walked down the path to the Stratford Butterfly Farm, which is a huge indoor tropical garden with ponds and waterfalls and loads of flowers, and thousands of butterflies flying everywhere. Emma loved it, but John was freaked out, because they kept landing on him or fluttering right in front of his face. I convinced them both to hold very still so the butterflies would stay on their clothes, but they mostly stayed on me because I was wearing a blouse with a flowery pattern. John was still bobbing and weaving the whole time to try to avoid having them land on him (see video below), and Emma and couldn’t stop laughing at him—the fearless kid who will go off the Olympia waterslide that drops you out three meters above the water was turned to mush at the thought of being touched by a butterfly!

After the farm, we walked along the river to a playground, where the kids spent an hour running up and down with a zipline, while I read a bit about London. It was warm and sunny, about 60 degrees F, and the playground was in a beautiful spot along the river and near a line of green weeping willow trees—quite lovely! At four, we all reluctantly decided to leave to meet the students at the theater, but we did stop on the way for some coffee and white hot chocolate, which we drank along the canal basin to watch the canal boats go through the huge wooden locks. I read “King Lear” to the kids from the book we had bought at Shakespeare’s house, and I gave each of them a line to memorize from the play. Emma was given, “How sharper than a serpent’s tooth it is to have a thankless child,” and John had, “Howl, howl, howl, howl. O! you are men of stones!” and I was impressed that they actually remembered them for the rest of the night.

We met with the students and boarded the coach, and while the students promptly fell asleep, I had some work to do, so spent the two hours on the way to London on the computer, writing a

performance review. No fun! David was talking philosophy shop with one of the students, and John was perched at the front of the bus, alternately playing with his DS and looking out the window for lambs. We arrived in London at 7, and entered from the west so drove through Notting Hill on the way to our hotel, which is between Notting Hill and Kensington Gardens, off Leinster Square. We quickly dropped our luggage in the hotel after checking in with the receptionist, who kept expressing how thankful she was that we spoke English as she had just checked in a huge Danish group that hadn’t spoken a word. I wanted to tell her that I was so thankful to be in London, where I could actually understand the English that was being spoken…no Scottish accents here!

It’s quite refreshing…Then our group walked a block to Ping Pong, a dim sum restaurant, for our evening meal. The food was great, and we had a great time—we had fortunately been placed in a big room in the back that we had to ourselves, so we could all get a little crazy…John and Emma even put on a dance contest for all the students, and the students sang Happy Birthday two more times to David with two more cakes…one they had brought and one from the restaurant. I’m a bit afraid that, after spending his birthday at a performance of King Lear in Stratford, then having dinner in London for his birthday, David may be a bit disappointed in whatever we decide to do for future years’ celebrations! I also couldn’t help but think how lucky Emma and John were, to be eating dim sum in London at the ages of 7 and 11. When I was this age, I think the most

worldly thing I had experienced was New England clam chowder at the Red Lobster that had just opened in my hometown. The kids loved dim sum—Emma loved the tea flowers and John loved the white dumplings, and they both loved the lemonade that was served accompanied by a small shot of morello cherry and lychee syrup that they added themselves! It was a great night in the end, and a great way to begin a London adventure!