Wednesday, April 8: It's All Well That Ends in Wales

It was hard to leave York today. It’s a beautiful city, and we had only seen a tiny fraction of what there is to do and see. We needed at least another day to even get started. But reservations in Wales awaited us, so off we went.

From York, we intended to drive to Stratford-upon-Avon to visit the plentiful William Shakespeare sites. What I hadn’t noticed before is that we would drive right through Warwick, where there is a big medieval castle that Brian and I visited about 15 years ago. Natalie had told us she wanted to see as many castles as possible, and this one would really fit her particular definition of a castle. So we stopped in to see it, after we ate our lunch standing

in the parking lot next to the car. Allison says she is getting all of her nutrition from bread, cheese and ham this week, and I think I’m in the same boat!

I won’t give you the whole history of Warwick Castle, mainly because I haven’t read the whole guide yet, but I can tell you that William the Conqueror gave orders for the first portion to be built on a high mound in 1068. Same William the Conqueror who gave orders for the York Castle in the same year. This guy made his mark.

Since we were last there, it was taken over by an entertainment company, and it’s been Disney-ized a bit. The luxurious state rooms are all still there, but now in many there are wax figures who have been given a back story. You can walk around the rooms and not everything is off-limits for those who like a closer inspection. Granted, the wax figures are a bit creepy sometimes, but then it’s sort of entertaining to watch parents try to take pictures of their kids next to them, while the kids are looking at the “people” and saying “no way.”

Even if the kids don’t like the impressively decorated staterooms, they are bound to love the play area, or the castle walls you can walk on, or the falconry displays, or the jousting, or the trebuchet. The trip was a success if only for the narwhal tusk that hangs on the wall and, you guessed it, the armor room. There are events scheduled constantly, and we could easily have spent a whole day there. In fact, if I’d only known in advance, we could’ve camped there for a night or two in medieval tents that were sort of downscale versions of what the Weasleys use for camping in the “Harry Potter” books.

But we couldn’t even stay for the day, because we had already planned to go see some Shakespeare stuff.

Now, let me just say that my husband again wins my award for fearless driver. He wasn’t actually fearless, but there is no way I could possibly do the driving he did today. It’s one thing to have your Google Maps navigate you from London to York, with little stopping and/or parking involved. It’s completely another thing to be pulling over in towns that have sites, not sure where they are or what you will have to do to park. On top of that, the roundabouts today seemed to come about every mile and a half, each one a nervewracking decision of which direction you are going to exit.

It wasn’t so bad in the morning. It seems like I’m a better navigator here than at home—maybe because I have to pay more attention. Either that or driving everything backwards suits my driving abilities. Not sure. But we really didn’t make any big wrong moves today, even when it got dark and tense and the phone could not make a connection with Google maps.

 

I’m getting ahead of myself. We made it to Stratford-upon-Avon, and first we stopped at Anne Hathaway’s Cottage, the home where Shakespeare’s wife grew up and where they courted. When they married, she was the typical-of-the-time age of 26, and he was 18. This Tudor-style home is so interesting, and it is furnished with a lot of the family’s belongings from the 1500s to the 1700s.

From the cottage it’s a short drive to the town center and Shakespeare's Birthplace. Of course, that short drive was still a difficult one, as we had to try to guess where we were going and where we should park. But again, a fascinating house, one that was added onto quite a bit and does not have many furnishings from Shakespeare's time there. But it did make me glad to be a woman in the early 21st century. The thing that is amazing is his influence over culture 500 years later.



Stratford is a beautiful old town, and it retains a lot of its historical appearance. The funny thing is how so many of these old storefronts have signs advertising Indian/Bangladeshi cuisine or Chinese takeaway. These thoroughly English towns have influences from all over the world, which might explain part of the reason that immigration is a hot political issue.

By the time we finished the birthplace tour, it was close to the 5:00 closing time, and we still had several hours of driving ahead of us. On top of that, Brian could hardly keep his eyes open during our quick dinner. I wondered if he was really up to this.

We somehow made it, tag-teaming the directional information and somehow ending up pointing the right direction. Out of all the driving he did, he only had one incident of turning onto a street at the wrong part of the corner, thereby causing a bit of honking from other drivers. Hopefully we can remember how hard it is to synchronize all those things when we get home and have our teen drivers in the seat again!

Finally we have arrived in Aberdare, Wales, to our little “cottage”—a sort of homespun condo with a loft for the teens, a living room with couches we can sit on (it’s been almost a week since we’ve had a room devoted to sitting space, and we are grateful!), and a bedroom that only houses three of us instead of all five. Plus an actual refrigerator. And they have a field with sheep, chickens and ponies, which should get the girls’ attention tomorrow.

On tomorrow’s agenda is hiking in the Brecon Beacons National Park, a Welsh park near our hotel. It sounds lovely, and we’ve been having phenomenal weather, so hopefully it will hold out one more day. 

But first, we have some driving to recuperate from.