Modernism (not to mention eavesdropping) is alive and well in Stratford upon Avon

Yesterday at 2:00 our bus left for Stratford upon Avon, home of William Shakespeare and Anne Hathaway. For those of you who are not of the literary persuasion, William Shakespeare is a poet and playwright, and Anne Hathaway is the star of The Princess Diaries 1 and 2. I though the bus ride was the best yet, since the girl I affectionately refer to as Satan's Bullhorn did not attend. Christine, however, did not appreciate the scenic backroads and spent the 1.25 hours curled up in a nauseated pile on my shoulder.

Shakespeare's birthplace has been turned into a museum that admirably demonstrates just how little we actually know about Shakespeare. It was almost as much fun as reading a Dorling Kindersley book on Shakespeare in a hallway with 50 other people, many of whom speak loudly in not-English and don't know what "excuse me" means (come to that, not many of the people who do speak English seem to know what that means). The house itself was very interesting, though. Sadly, they didn't allow photography inside, so most of the pictures are outside.

After touring the birthplace museum, we did some shopping and then had dinner at the Garrick Inn. During dinner, some of us were discussing literature and someone asked me to define horror fiction. This is always difficult for me as Andrew can attest, so I simply quoted H.P. Lovecraft who said that horror fiction includes "a profound sense of dread, and of contact with unknown spheres and powers," for example, I said, the spiritual realm. Later in the conversation, an elderly gentleman approached our table and said matter-of-factly, "I just wanted you to know, there is no such thing as the spiritual realm." That said, he walked to the bar and began (or, I suspect, continued) drinking. Well, that resolved it for me. I always base my beliefs on the unsolicited opinion of old, drunk Brits. I wonder, had he overheard us talking about Dracula, if he would have been compelled to tell us there's no such thing as vampires.

After dinner, we saw The Two Gentlemen of Verona at the Swan Theatre. It was updated to the 1940s and was pretty good. Shakespeare's comedies just strike me as silly. Cross-dressing, frolicking in the woods, falling in and out of love. This week in our Shakespeare seminar, Christine and I are presenting the supernatural themes in Hamlet, which is more my cup of tea.

Today I went back to the Natural History museum while Christine had her tutorial. It was a family day, so it was packed with people. The dinosaur exhibit seems to be growing, so I will have to check back every couple of weeks.

Christine's parents just confirmed that they'll be coming over to travel with us in March. We're very excited about that, and it should produce a lot of fun pictures.