Some Rellies and back to Bath

After doing Cambridge, Stratford, and Oxford on my own I spent some time with some relatives on my mum's side. First I went to my Granny's sister Kate's farm in Leicestershire. I helped with some lamb weighing and herded some sheep and cows. Their granddaughter (M), who is 6, was also staying with them at the time, so I spent quite a bit of time playing with my second cousin. After a couple days at the farm, we took M back home for school. Her house is near Cambridge (I know! Back again), so Kate and I spent the day there. I took a tour this time, so got to know a bit more about the actual colleges and the city itself.

Then I went to my Mum's cousin's house in Hampshire. They also have 2 little girls, so I spent time playing with them. While there I went to Jane Austen's house, which was pretty cool. It's not the house she grew up in, but the house she lived in with her mum and sister later in life. However, it is where she lived when all her books were published and she did much of her writing. There was also a castle about a 10 min walk from their house, just along the canal. I think castles are the coolest things. I just love how there are just castles randomly around the place, and especially ones like this that are not ostentatious. There is no sign pointing to it and no ticket booth or anything. Yes, there were fences around it, but nothing could really stop you going up and touching it, because, well, you could step over the fences. Anyways, this castle was built by King John (you know, the bad guy in Robin Hood) in the 1200's.

Jane Austen's House

Odiham Castle - King John's Castle

Next I spent a couple days in Bath. Now, yes, I know I went there before on my Cornwall Crusader tour, but I really liked the city and felt that there was more to see than the brief couple hours I spent there previously. I just really like the atmosphere in the city. It's very pretty, and at the moment, since it's summer, there were lots of musicians out in the evening. I loved just wandering around and people watching.

The Pump Rooms - think Jane Austen books

Bath Abbey

My dad is a fellow castle lover (maybe it's genetic?), and he told me about this awesome castle that he went to when he was 16 and staying in Bath. So, I took his advice and went to Chepstow Castle. It was really cool! Much of the castle is still intact, so you really get the feel for how big and magnificent it was. And, it was sunny out, so I couldn't have asked for a better day! 

Chepstow Castle

Chepstow Castle

After Bath, I made my way back to London. My first stop was my Dad's cousin's place on the outskirts. Luckily for me they live about 5 min from Hampton Court Palace, one of Henry VIII main palaces, and later during the Queen Anne half of it was renovated, but they ran out of money to do the whole thing. 

Hampton Court Palace

Next up: some volunteering at a Cathedral and the Olympics!

Old Universities and Shakespeare

Yes, I am currently in Wales, and yes there's only 2 weeks until I come home, but I'm not going to post about that. It's time that I talked about Cambridge, Stratford-Upon-Avon and Oxford!

So, first I went to Cambridge. I took the map the hostel gave me and started wandering around. I was mostly just impressed by how old all the buildings are, and that basically the whole city is the University. It's not this enclosed, sectioned off campus that you normally think of. Cambridge (and Oxford) uses the collegiate system, which means you belong to a college within the University. I don't completely understand it... but it obviously works for them. Also, both Cambridge and Oxford were founded about 800 years ago. My university is celebrating 50 years this year, kind of made me put things into perspective.

One of the highlights of Cambridge was finding the college my great-grandfather graduated from in 1933 - Pembroke College. And luckily, it was one of the colleges that is free to go into and look around! Most of the others, I guess the more famous ones, make you pay a couple pounds to go in.

King's College, known for it's choir broadcasts at Christmas

Queens' College - it always has a Queen as a patron

The river behind the colleges, with punts

Pembroke College

Next, I went to Stratford-Upon-Avon, Shakespeare's hometown. Somehow I managed to pick a time between shows, so I didn't actually get to go see a play while I was there. I literally missed it by a day. I did go to most of the houses associated with Shakespeare, the ones in town at least. His birthplace obviously, the house his daughter owned, and the house his granddaughter owned. I also went to the church where Shakespeare and many of his family are buried.

Shakespeare's childhood home

The house on the left is where Shakespeare's granddaughter lived, and the space on the right is where Shakespeare's final house was

Shakespeare's Grave

Finally, I went back to Oxford. I did some more looking at colleges, specifically the ones where Lewis Carroll, and JRR Tolkien worked. I did want to go to the one where C.S. Lewis worked, but it was farther out, and pouring rain at the time... I also visited Alice in Wonderland's sweet shop to have a look around. I rounded out my evening by going to an A cappella concert put on by some guys from St. Andrew's University in Scotland, The Other Guys.

Christ Church College - Where Lewis Carroll worked, and where some of Harry Potter was filmed!

I then set off to visit with a bunch of relatives, this time on my Mum's side!