The boyfriend and I went exploring in Stratford-upo-Avon the other day. It's known as the birthplace of Shakespeare and is the cutest little English town I have seen! I absolutely loved it. There are a lot of cultural things to do, such as the Royal Shakespeare Company, the MAD museum, and the Shakespeare Birthplace Trust.
I'm not sure if this is on every weekend, but there was a nice little market while we were there. They had everything form handmade pottery, to jam, to Peruvian Alpaca jumpers! I loved it, it was nice to stroll down there for a few minutes and look at everything people were selling. There was one stall selling Christmas jumpers, and I was definitely eyeing up a couple of those!
Look at these amazing Harry Potter themed signs! I know some people who would love this, and I wish things weren't so expensive to ship back to Canada.
This pulled pork looked so delicious! I definitely should have tried some.
See how cute the streets are? It looked like something out of an English postcard.
The Royal Shakespeare Company is host to many plays, and there was a free Bruce Bairnsfather exhibit while we were there. It's nice because you can also walk around the building and see costumes from the plays. If you want to go all the way up the tower, you have to pay an entrance fee, and they offered a tour as well. We were having a "cheap-y" weekend, so we passed on that.
Captain Bruce Bairnsfather was a prominent British humorist and cartoonist. His best-known cartoon character is Old Bill. I had never heard of him before, but it was still very nice to see the old cartoons from the era. Some were actually quite funny!
We coloured in our own cartoon!
They had a nice gift shop at the RSC, which had so many cool things for the Shakespeare fan in our life. I don't think I know anyone who's a huge fan of him, but they still had some nice gift ideas. Stationery, DVDs, mini-books that featured his plays, pens, and great artwork. They even had Christmas decorations!
Found some ducks outside. There were also a couple of swans in the canal, which made it look even lovelier. We missed the canal tour, but maybe for another time!
Shakespeare's home.
There was a Christmas shop just in front of Shakespeare's home, and it was so full of decorations! Everything inside was so beautiful, it reminded me of the shops back home.
Later that day, we went to the Butterfly Farm. It was basically an enclosed space where butterflies fly free, and you can watch them. It's really exciting to go in, because there are so many butterflies fluttering around! If you stand still, one might even land on you. The entrance was about £5-£6 (I had a student discount!), so it's really affordable. Plus, they also have some Koi fish you can feed, a spider/scorpions section (don't worry they don't run free!) and an insect section (also behind glass, thank God).
Cocoons! I had never seen these before, they looked so strange.
My camera died shortly after we arrived at the Butterfly Farm, so I couldn't take any more pictures. I used my phone to snap a few pictures before the day ended. We finished our day out with a nice meal at Pen & Parchment, which was really delicious. They had great deals on, and we both ate for less than £15! I'll definitely go back there if we ever pop down to Stratford-upon-Avon because they had a great pub menu. Plus, the staff was super nice and friendly!
I love these little day outs in Britain, I'm hoping to do a few more in the New Year now that we're really settled down. The Midlands is pretty good like that - everything is just a short drive away! Next on our list? London!
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