St. Mary's Church in Warwick and Stratford

The first week I went on a dry run for my first field trip to make sure of all the Tube and train connections and the site conditions where we were going. That meant that since I was on my own, I could see some other stuff that I wouldn't usually get to see when the students are along on an "official" trip. This cathedral in Warwick is where the Earls of Warwick Castle are buried. Much of the building goes back to the 1300s. The tomb with the hand-holding is one of the earls, Thomas Beauchamp and his wife Katherine. The symbolism was as much the union of two powerful families as it was about affection.

The tomb of the six year old who would have become a later Earl of Warwick--He's referred to as "The Noble Imp." He has a suit of armor up in Warwick Castle. Somebody wanted to know if the children fought, too, when they saw the armor. Sure, sure, but they only rode ponies and fought other children.

After the Puritans took over for a while in the 1600s, they smashed all the stained glass windows and statues that they thought were "idols." After England got over that little fit, they started repairing the damage. This window has a praying Earl of Warwick, but they had no male stained glass heads available, so they used a woman's head that they did have in stiock.

Stratford Upon Avon, a little town on the Avon River where some English playwright lived.

Oh, yeah, it was this guy.

This is the house that Shakespeare was born in. It also contained his father's glove-making business. It is pretty much the original structure with a lot of maintenance along the way.

Ann Hathaway's cottage. Shakespeare came here to court her. The place stayed in the Hathaway family for 13 generations and has lots of the original building as it was in the 1500s. It's a mile hike from Stratford through hill and dale and what looks like people's back yards. I thought I was never going to find my way back to the railroad station, but the varied vague directions of three or four kind English souls finally got the lame and disoriented American back to his ride home.

Look! All the luxuries of the wealthy in the 1500s. A fancy potty right there conveniently located in the bedroom.

Yeah. More flowers to make me eat my heart out. Watch out, Jamie, it's my plan for next season.

Holy Trinity Church, where Shakespeare was baptised as an infant and buried as a middle-aged man. I mean, he was actually dead; they didn't just bury him because he was middle-aged.

On the wall in the church.

That's it--Shakespeare's grave. Kind of reminds you that he was just human, too. Next to it on both sides are his wife, daughter, son-in-law, and grandaughter. Then it was back to London and a night of reading classwork for me. Hmmmm, a bit of a comedown from the day's trip.