To be or not to be, the tourist edition

Another weekend, another day trip. This time I headed to to Warwick and Stratford-Upon-Avon. After a lengthy early morning bus ride, we arrived in Warwick around 11am. The main tourist attraction in this small English town is "Warwick Castle", a medieval castle that has been revamped to suit all your touristing needs complete with a dungeon turned haunted house and a turret turned "Princess castle". Though an intense hike in admission price came with this transition from traditional to touristy, it was worth seeing if for no other reason aside from the fact that it was my first English castle experience.

The serene,

The stunning,

and the strange

Despite the intensely creepy wax figures, the people dressed up in medieval costume who I kept getting confused with the wax figures, and the slightly questionable dioramas, the castle was well worth it. Walking around the turrets and castle walls, with the English countryside on one side and the typical English village justified the price of admission.

Next stop, Stratford (the real one, not the one in Ontario).

Shakespeare's birthplace and childhood house

Stratford is essentially Shakespeare world. The streets were lined with B+Bs not-so-cleverly named after characters or places from some of more famous plays, and around each corner, you can find a building boasting some distant connection to the literary master. I mean, who wouldn't want to visit Shakespeare's granddaughter's first husband's house (Nash House)? Though the town was saturated with literary references and grasped onto any and all Shakespearean connections, it was a nice place to stroll the streets and a good way to wind down the day. Though the main areas were the definition of touristy, I can now say that I have seen the very house where Shakespeare was conceived and later birthed. Now that's something to boast about.

Highlight of the trip: Enjoying English pastries in both Warwick and Stratford. Nothing beats a strawberry tart with fresh cream.