The (First) Best Day

Everyone knows I'm really close with my family, border-lining on obsession. You can only imagine how wonderful it was to spend a week with Mom and Dad after not seeing them for six long months!

As Dad once worked in Gent and Mom had come to visit, they really weren't interested in another trip to Belgium. And I mean I love my adopted country, but spending a week away is a lovely treat. So we headed to England! Home of Shakespeare, Sherlock Holmes, and English speakers (no matter what my dad says, my parents only speak English). We spent seven glorious days together seeing the country and, more importantly, relishing in each others company:) For me, every single day was The Best Day.

Our trip started at Heathrow Airport, but our real adventure began about five miles outside of Heathrow when this happened:



Impressive, right? Don't worry, it didn't stop our week of driving all over the place! We visited Stonehenge, Oxford, Windsor Castle, Stratford-upon-Avon (!!), Cambridge, and of course, London. It was quite a week, and we spent most of our evenings dining in our pjs and watching West Wing DVDs on my computer to make up for all our running around.

Oxford and Cambridge were really great to see- they have very old college buildings, plaques where famous intellects once lived, studied, or discovered things, and a good amount of Indian food. Windsor Castle was incredible and comes highly recommended by the Waffle, especially St. George's Chapel, which holds Henry VIII, Queen Mary, the Queen Mum, and dozens of former Kings, Queens, Princes, Princesses, etc. The only downside (or upside!) is that Mom and I had "I'm Henry the Eighth, I am," stuck in our heads the rest of the day. And Stonehenge? Well, it looks...just like Stonehenge.



My favorite day trip to rule them all? Stratford-upon-Avon, birthplace of Shakespeare. It was overwhelmingly exciting. We saw where Shakespeare was born, where he was buried, and the Royal Shakespeare Company that carries on his legacy. It was good, nerdy fun for a Literature major and season-ticket holder at the Shakespeare Theatre Company in DC. I even worked on my iambic pentameter that day, just for fun.


This post is getting a bit long, so I'll let you ponder pentameter while trying to get Herman's Hermits out of your head as I break this in two.

xoxo
kw