Birmingham, Stratford-upon-Avon, and Warwick Castle

This past Thursday I hopped on a train to Birmingham for a fun weekend of shopping at the Bullring (don't worry, I managed to only buy one scarf!), visiting Shakespeare's birthplace, exploring Warwick Castle, and attending a Ben Folds concert.  On Friday Curtis and I went to the Bullring, and it's huge!  One store called Selfridges was practically a mall in itself.  It had restaurants, clothes, electronics, candy, stationary, furniture; you name it, they've got it!  The indoor market was also very large and cheap, so naturally I had to buy a purple scarf (for only one pound!). :) We stumbled upon an art museum near the city centre, so we checked that out, too.  We later got to walk along the canals to try to find a restaurant called the Handmade Burger Co.  The view along the canals was really neat, and the Caribbean salsa burger I had was delicious!

Me at the Bullring

Canals

Fountains near the restaurant

Fountains in the city centre

 On Saturday we got on a bus to go to Stratford-upon-Avon with many other international students.  When we arrived at the town, we headed right to the Shakespeare Center, which had a great video presentation about Shakespeare's life and works.  After that, our ticket allowed us to go through the house in which Shakespeare was born.  I can now say I've walked on the same floors that Shakespeare once walked on!  Some famous people who visited the house include Thomas Jefferson and Thomas Hardy (I was excited about that!).  One of the tour-guides, so-to-speak, explained why the beds of the time were so short.  Most people think that it's because the people back then were shorter, which is not the case (the average height for a woman was 5'6'', so I'd be considered short even then!).  People used to slept sitting upright because they believed that the only time people should lie flat with their eyes closed is when they are dead.  They were afraid that if you slept lying down, the devil would mistake you for being dead and take your soul.  I found this fascinating!  We also made a quick visit to the Creaky Cauldron (I couldn't resist!).  This store sold wands, spells, Butterbeer, etc, which was neat to look at.  We also visited Nash's House and New Place, where Shakespeare later lived.  The gardens here were very pretty, despite the cold, wet weather and renovations taking place.  We saw a bit of the canals in Stratford-upon-Avon and enjoyed getting an up-close view of A LOT of swans.

Me at Shakespeare's birthplace

Shakespeare gingerbread men :)

Outside of the house

The Creaky Cauldron (for all you Harry Potter fans!) 

Me in the gardens at Nash's Place and New House

Gardens- so pretty despite the bad weather

Swans in the canals at Stratford-upon-Avon

Next stop: Warwick Castle!  This castle was huge and very cool to see!  There were many actors demonstrating what life was like back in the times when the castle was inhabited.  I enjoyed going through the Great Hall and other parts of the castle as well as climbing the various towers around the main building of the castle. We also got to see a medieval trebuchet, and considering that I spent the end of my ME170X class working on a program to maximize the throwing distance of a trebuchet and modeling it in Solidworks, I found this extremely exciting!  Pardon my nerdiness :)

Outside of the castle

Me in the Great Hall

The bird weighs 17 pounds!

Castle and courtyard

Trebuchet!! A medieval weapon used to attack castles

View of the castle from the river

Game of cards in the castle

 On Saturday night, we went to a Ben Folds concert at the HMV Institute in Birmingham.  Katie Miller-Heidke, a singer from Australia, opened for him, and she was absolutely fantastic.  My favorite song she sang was one about an ex-boyfriend adding her as a friend on Facebook; it was too funny!  Ben Folds was fantastic as well!  He sang two of the songs I really wanted to hear (You Don't Know Me and Fred Jones Part 2) and other songs I really like.  His piano-playing skills are amazing!

Katie Miller-Heidke

Ben Folds

 I hope everyone had a fantastic weekend! :)