See that diamond-paned window on the right side of the frame?  Someone very special was born in that room.

This is the house that the legendary Bard, Will Shakespeare, was born in.  It’s been a dream of mine since high school to see this place.  Hubby and I hit Stratford-upon-Avon for a day trip to see some of the Shakespeare sights.  Ironically, although hubby was an English major, I was the one jumping out of my skin and squeaking with excitement.  (Well, maybe that’s not ironic.  Hubby doesn’t do those things even when he is super excited.)

We toured Shakespeare’s house and saw “the birth room” where the Bard was born, then checked out another room that had been given over to a little Shakespeare trivia.  None of the Shakespeare sights in town are particularly “done,” but it was magical just being in the same place where Shakespeare once walked.

We also visited Anne Hathaway’s cottage, where the teenaged Shakespeare courted his eight-years-older wife.  The cottage is not really the same as it was at the time, since subsequent generations of the family changed it a lot and added on.  There was an old wooden bench that our guide somewhat skeptically told us the family claims Shakespeare and Anne would have sat on.  I don’t know if they really did, but I’m choosing to believe it and say that it was extremely cool.  But it was in the gardens that I really felt I could get into the mindset of imagining Will and Anne… walking here, trying to get away from her big family…

Visiting Stratford was a dream come true!  I’d recommend the trip to any English literature geeks out there.  And next Friday, come with me to one of the cutest towns in the Cotswolds…