Roger Spurgeon on Jul 25th 2010 England
Shakespeare's Birthplace
Yep. I shouldn’t have said anything about traffic. We paid for it today, apparently everyone was coming home from holiday and decided to jam up the M25. The electronic road signs noted, “M25 Congestion, Junctions 2 though 30.” Bascially the entire thing.
Anyway, I wish that I could say that today was a thrilling adventure. It was a good day, the weather beautiful and the sights interesting. But we spent a long time on the coach, then a short walk through Shakespeare’s birthplace in Stratford-upon-Avon (along with hordes of other people), a little shopping around town, then back on the coach to Warwick Castle. Warwick is a real castle, but it’s been taken over by an entertainment company, and things are now a bit contrived (a bit? Nah, a lot). Straight from modern tourism–pay to park, pay to get in, and pay more for the “interesting” exhibits. No thanks. I even got asked today, “Why do we come here?”
The show at Warwick Castle
Don’t get the wrong impression, we had a good day–the students enjoyed the touring and the town, but it was a lot of coach ride and waiting in the queue for not a lot of return.
Roger Spurgeon on Jul 18th 2010 England
At the Globe
Shakespeare, a dabbling of modern art, and a trip the Henry VIII’s Hampton Court Palace filled the day on Saturday. We ventured into the square mile that is the City of London, near St. Paul’s Cathedral, to walk across the Millennium Bridge (you know, the bridge they blew up in the Harry Potter movie) and tour Shakespeare’s Globe Theatre. A nice guided tour and an opportunity to see what the view from the perspective of the groundling as well as from the first and second tier of seats. We didn’t have to stand through a play this time, thankfully.
The weather has taken a turn for the better, and it was pleasant to sit outside the Tate Modern and have lunch on the grass. A quick trip into the Tate Modern to see the great entry hall (the building is an old power station, and the enormous turbine room is the grand entrance into the modern art museum) as well as a some modern art.
The entire ISCA group at Hampton Court
Then something new for me, we ventured to King Henry VIII’s Hampton Court Palace, where the students had significant free time to explore such things as the King’s apartment, Queen Mary II’s apartment, the kitchens, and then the glorious gardens, including a maze. The palace is home to “the vine”–a grape vine planted in 1768.
Today was an on-campus day, where the students learned about cricket, fives and squash, among other things. Tomorrow it’s off to Bath and Stonehenge.
