Romeo, Romeo and Oxford.

Mary Ardens farm was the first stop on my last day in England. Mary Arden was Shakespeare's mummy and they have set her farm up just like it would have been in 1573. All of the people working there were dressed up and we supposed to talk to you like it was 1573 but we were pretty much the only people there so they didn't. Mum, dad and I spent the majority of the time in the kitchen talking to the ladies there. They were cooking the farm workers lunch with the equipment and food a working farm would have had in 1573. it was really interesting to find out what kind of food they were eating and how they cooked, you know without electrical appliances and supermarkets.







After Shakespeare's Mums house we went to Anne Hathaway's house, Shakespeares wife. Who was older than him and preggers when they were married. We also went to the house Shakespeare was born in. It amazes me that these houses are still around. A ton of famous writers in history have been to Shakespeare's birth place. I guess they thought it would be inspiring.

Dad checking out the Hathaway Home which has stood the test of time rather well.

We kept driving through the countryside to Chippingham Campden where we found the church and Dad started the search for one of his ancestors. Turns out that she was baptist and not buried in the church cemetery. what a rebel. However its kinda sad since i think it is the nicest cemetery I've ever been to and it has my new house across the street.

After not finding our relatives we stopped at Blenheim Palace for a quick look (meaning we didn't go inside). This place was given to the Duke of Marlborough after he won a big fight. Which i would say is very generous of her because after seeing Windsor castle and Buckingham I would have kept Blenheim and given those away. Really it was gorgeous and I was sad that we didn't have enough time to look through it. oh and Winston Churchill was born there.

This is just part of the house. I'd need a fancy lens to get it all in one shot.

The lake and the monument way back there.

Off to Oxford. Mum and I went on the most informational tour of Oxford. Seriously no juicy tidbits at all. The best piece of information was given by Josh before we went. He told me that Bob Hawke had the drinking record at one of the pubs (for all you Americans reading bob Hawke was the prime minster of Australia) which explains why he was/is such a idiot. Oh and in the middle of the tour it started raining! the first rain we had for the entire trip. so the only picture I took in Oxford was of a rainbow. I'll have to go back there because the Alice shop was closed and by the time we found Blackwell's book store they were closed too.

Oxford Rainbow

We drove back to Heathrow, I packed my bags and lamented the fact that I can't pack up my family and move them to London. Maybe I'll convince Sean to become a writer then we could move anywhere. Or maybe I could start dreaming about vampires and write a bestseller then cast the ugliest guy to play the lead in the movie but tell everyone hes super hot now and make enough money to live in London.