England Trip - 7th August 2006 (Stratford-upon-avon + Warwick castle)

~~Nnnnn~~~Paulie didn’t go to my dream place, Stratford-upon-avon, with me so I went there alone today.

In order to get more time to walk around there, I woke up at 5:30a.m. and took the 7:15a.m. train to Stratford. Stratford is a market town dating back to medieval times (1100 – 1400), it is today most famous as the birthplace of the Elizabethan playwright William Shakespeare.

I am interested in looking at houses built in different period. You can see a lot of Victorian houses in London, they were made of stones. In Stratford-upon-avon, you can see a lot of Elizabethan houses. I was amazed by the firmness and steadiness of them; they remained as stable as rocks that people are still living in now.

You can see the differences of interior of houses according to people’s social status there. For low social level, short height, rough wooden floors, simple and crude rooms and hay roofs. For high social level, high height, smooth stone floors, big and tidy rooms and brick roofs. Interesting!!!!! I discovered the differences through visiting Shakespeare and his wife’s houses. Status changed, the quality of his house changed.

People in Stratford are nicer than people in London. Long faced London people, no smiles and suspicious. On the contrary, people in Stratford are relaxed, kind, broad-minded and outspoken.





After that, I took a bus to Warwick castle. In my mind, I wanted to see the ancient interior and structure of the castle but I was disappointed that many rooms of the castle have redecorated to attract more people (one of them became a dungeon; I entered it unintentionally and frightened by the ghost inside). To me, I like to see something original. Now, the castle looks like another Theme park. I HATE IT!!!