Wilfred steams through Shakespeare Country

Hello!  It's me, Wilfred!  And I am still in England with my two dads.  This week, I want to tell you all about our great weekend in Warwickshire visiting our friends, Adelle and Moray in the land of Shakespeare! 

Me!  Still in London with my two dads!

We got up with the birds on Saturday morning so that we could get out of our flat early to catch our train.  All the time we were rushing around to get ready, Poppy kept saying, "Shakespeare, Shakespeare, Shakespeare" until I finally said, "Poppy!  Why do you keep talking about that Shakespeare guy!?"  We went to his theatre (the Globe), we saw his monument in Southwark, and everywhere we go in England or Scotland, Dad or Poppy will say, "Remember this from Shakespeare?  Take a picture!"

While Poppy squeezed the tooth paste on my tooth brush and Dad patted water on my head to plaster down my sticky-uppy hair, Poppy explained that Shakespeare has a lot to do with their work.  Poppy teaches actors and they spend hours and hours learning Shakespeare's plays and studying every word so they know what it means and how to say it.  Dad studied Shakespeare, too, and even though Dad writes stuff for other people to say and doesn't act himself, he said Shakespeare was one of the best writers ever.  I asked Dad if that's why Shakespeare is famous, because he made up good stories and Dad said Shakespeare didn't really make up the stories, he mostly used other people's...and then it got too hard for Dad to explain - but Dad said he still wanted to see Shakespeare's second-best bed anyway... which didn't even make any sense, but that is my dad.

Poppy was already down on the street with our suitcase, tapping his foot and going, "Where IS he!?" while Dad was upstairs finding his glasses and putting on his jacket.  I called back up that Poppy said we were going to miss our train.  Dad came down, grumbling that we still had an hour -- and we were off to the Gloucester Road tube station with our suitcase rolling behind us!
 
We took the Piccadilly line to Green Park and then transferred on to the Victoria line to Euston.  We hurried through long underground walkways and came up in Euston Station.


Me in Euston Station

Me on the London Midland.  "Get on Dad!  We'll miss the train!"

The train pulled out of the station and an hour and a half later, we were in Rugby in Warwickshire!  We know Adelle and Moray because they came over to Canada for a year-long adventure -- sort of like we are doing, but in reverse -- and Dad and Adelle sang together in our church choir.  Adelle and Moray are really nice.  When we first got to London, they came over for dinner and gave Dad and Poppy lots of good living-in-London advice; one time they took me to the British War Museum and Moray bought me a Lego that he helped me build; and then, they invited us out to Warwickshire for a weekend. 

This is my friend, Adelle, when she was in Toronto

Adelle and Moray were waiting at the station and they had our whole day planned.  First stop, their place to drop our suitcase and have a quick cup of tea. 

Rugby is a very pretty town near to Coventry and Leicester, Warwick Castle and Stratford-upon-Avon.  Adelle and Moray used to live in London but they bought their first home out here.  Adelle gets to take the train into London to work three days a week.  Can you even believe it?  EVER LUCKY!

As we whizzed through Rugby in their little silver car, Adelle and Moray pointed out the famous Rugby School and the playing fields where the game of Rugby football was first invented. 


Rugby train station

Rugby



The famous Rugby playing field

After our quick "cuppa" (and a visit with their kitten, Ravage) we were off to Shakespeare land.  Shakespeare wrote 38 plays while he was living in London, back in the days when the English theatre was first being invented, but he was born and grew up in the little market town of Stratford-upon-Avon almost four hundred and fifty years ago.  Stratford-upon-Avon wasn't much in those days.  Shakespeare's family lived on the edge of town.  His dad was a glove maker.  Shakespeare went to the local little school, but his family couldn't afford to send him to university.  He got married when he was just a teenager and had three children before he was 21, and then he left his family and went off to seek his fortune in London.

Stratford-upon-Avon is a town with a lot of old buildings from Elizabethan times, and earlier, and a LOT of Shakespeare stuff  -- too much even for Dad and Poppy.  Dad says that some people think Shakespeare didn't really write his plays -- that he couldn't be the author because he was from a nowhere town with not much education. Dad calls those people, snobs.  He says that a genius can be in anyone from anywhere.  And that is the real reason why millions of people come to this town every year -- to see that Shakespeare was real, an ordinary seeming person, who went to an ordinary school and still he was great.

One thing I can tell you about Stratford-upon-Avon -- it has Shakespeare stuff EVERYWHERE.

Stratford-upon-Avon has old stuff in every direction

Shakespeare's house where he was born and grew up was once at the edge of town



This place is Shakespeare overload...

 

Shakespeare's school

Look what you started, Will

Me with "Shakesbeare..." sometimes there was too much Shakespeare
even for Poppy and Dad

After we wandered around the town centre, we walked down to the Avon River, where I saw boats for rent and boat rides.  I asked Dad if we could go on one and he said, sure.  The next departure was in twenty minutes, so we got an ice cream cone and then came back to board.  For half an hour we floated down the Avon --  to one end of the town and then, back up to the other, taking in all the sights from the river.  Lovely.

Me with Adelle on the boat dock..lovely...but breezy...

The boat!

Dad and I on the boat

Poppy on board

Where Shakespeare was baptized, married and buried

On the Avon River

From the river, we could see the big theatre that is the home to the Royal Shakespeare Company.  Poppy is very excited about the RSC.  He is meeting someone from there for his work and he and Dad are big fans of the company.  Of course, we had to go inside it and have a look around. 

There was a play on and we could watch some of it on TV monitors in the lobby.   They were doing a play called "The Merchant of Venice" and we saw a scene with two girls talking Shakespeare language sounding like they were teenagers at a club and then a disco ball started flashing...  I guess you'd have to see the whole thing to get WHAT was going on. There was also a gallery we could go through and a gift shop with -- what else -- MORE Shakespeare stuff!
 

RSC from the water

More RSC

I was anxious to go inside... I needed a lavatory...

Poppy is meeting someone from here for his work

By then, it was getting time to go.  On our way out of town, Adelle got Moray to drive past the house where Shakespeare's wife grew up.  It is called Anne Hathaway's cottage.  NICE cottage!  It is HUGE!

Anne Hathaway's not so little cottage 

We hurried back to Adelle and Moray's to get ready for a barbeque.  Adelle's parents came over and they brought Adelle's little brother, Sam, who is six.  And Sam is mad on trains, too!  He even brought some trains over for us to play with! CAN YOU EVEN BELIEVE IT?!


Dad helps Adelle make dinner

Sam and I eat our burgers in our back garden tent

The next morning, Adelle wowed us at breakfast with a "fry up" of the full English breakfast,and then she and Moray told me they had a surprise for me.  We drove over to collect Adelle's parents and Sam in the nearby town of Hinkley and then the eight of us headed off to a place called Shackerstone in Leicestershire and guess what was there? The Battlefield Line STEAM TRAIN! 



The steam train at Shackerstone

The Battlefield line is a heritage railway that runs for four and a half miles on its own line from Shackertone Station -- which is a real life Victorian railway station -- through Market Bosworth to Shenton.  Shenton Station is beside a field where a famous long ago battle once took place, the Battle of Bosworth, which was the final battle of an English war called the War of the Roses.

I could hear the steam whistle shrieking, as we jumped out of the car.  Sammy and I ran ahead.  While Poppy was getting our tickets, I went out on the platform with Sammy and his dad, Trevor, to watch the old steam train shunt the cars into the station.  We clambered across an iron and brick pedestrian overpass so that we could board. 

Although it is only 4.5 miles, the train doesn't go very fast so it takes about twenty minutes to make the trip.  It passes through fields and forests, belching steam, with its whistle screeching at every crossing.  It was the best train EVER!

Shunting into Shackerstone



Shackerstone Station is a grade II listed historical building

Everything is just as it was over a hundred years ago

The train stops at Market Bosworth

Sam and I are both mad about trains

Lovely...but loud

At the other end of the track, we got off at Shenton Station.  We had an hour to look around before the train came back, so we walked down to King Richard's field.  Not far from Shenton Station, in a meadow beside a farm cottage, is a big stone with a plaque on it.  It marks the spot where King Richard III is supposed to have said, "A horse, a horse!  My kingdom for a horse!" and then he fought to the death -- and LOST!  Dad and Poppy said that Shakespeare wrote it in a famous play, so they had to take a picture, of course!

Shakespeare wrote about this.  Quick, take a picture!

Hundreds of years ago, there was a big battle with over a thousand knights in armour, fighting with swords and cannons and bows and arrows.  This was a vicious fight and the winner would be king.  Now, it is a sheep pasture and it is hard to imagine that this was the site of a bloody war.

Walking along the edge of the battlefield

No battles today, just sleepy sheep

Sammy and I wanted to stay at the station and wait for the train with Sammy's mom and Moray, but Adelle and her dad and my poppy and dad hiked around the battlefield, reading the markers about the great battle and looking at the views of the Leicestershire countryside.  Soon, the time passed, the train whistle shrieked and the steam train puffed into Shenton Station to take us back.

Dad waits for the train at Shenton

The train pulls back into Shenton Station

Well, that is pretty much all for this week.  Thanks, Moray!  Thanks, Adelle!  Thanks, Sammy! And thanks to Sammy's mom and dad.  Hope I see you some time in my kid's life again soon.

So everybody, I will be back next week.    Stay tuned for more adventures in the UK.  Bye for now!

 Wilfie