Birmingham Part 2 (and a half)

Anne Hathaway's cottage.
After we visited Shakespeare's Birthplace we went of to see the home of his sweetheart Anne.

 It is such a beautiful building, again sadly no cameras were permitted so I can't show you any pictures of the inside but there is a lovely little story that one of Anne's relatives used to tell visitors to the cottage in the 1800's about one of the seats. She claimed that Anne and William used to sit on the seat next to the fire when they were courting. She used to carve small pieces of the seat off and sell them!

This window was my favourite feature of the house, the roses climbing up the side add such a romantic feel to it.

The Gardens were wonderful too.

They were based upon a 19th century country garden.

Me posing with a rather serious face.

This grosses me out a bit but I finding fascinating, I've never seen a fly this close up before. My camera is great!

A giant thistle, you can't really tell how big it is in the picture but honestly, it was taller then me!

Again, fascinating but a bit gross.

How cool is this? A giant shoe flower basket!

Sweet pea. 

My favourite flower.

Hope you enjoyed!

Till next time folks,

Laura Lou x

Birmingham Part 2

Thursday found us on our way to Stratford Upon Avon which excited me more than the safari park.
We were on on way to the birth place of my ultimate hero and idol the one, the only, William Shakespeare!
For a long time now I have been obsessed with the works of William Shakespeare. My love affair started when Bethan was an extra in a local Bard in the park production of Romeo and Juliet (not my favourite of his plays but wonderful all the same) and since then I have been a massive fan so actually getting to see the place where he lived was amazing.

But William Shakespeare's birth place wasn't the only thing that we saw in Stratford, there was also so cute little shops.

We found this, an all year round Christmas shop!

They had this life size wooden toy soldier that we got our photo taken with.

Truffles! Honestly the best sweet shop I have been in, the peppermint creams are to die for.

Shakespeare's house! I was over joyed when I saw it. It isn't all that much once you get inside but just knowing someone who wrote such amazing things as Richard II and Much Ado About Nothing was wonderful. Sadly though no cameras were permitted inside of the building so I couldn't take any pictures.
But I got quite a few of the outside, as you will see.

This is me about to enter the residence of Mr Shakespeare.

This is the back of the house, just to the left (the bit you can't see) was a little patio area where a group of dishy actors were preforming scenes from Shakespeare's plays.

Shakespeare's garden, it was beautiful and I got a few close ups of a few of the flowers.

And here's a few snaps of those dishy actors I mentioned earlier.

This guy was my favourite ;)

This guy here was so funny! He has such an amazing talent, one moment he was acting like a very convincing fool and the next he was a very serious King Richard.

I think Bethan was crushing on this one a little, can't blame her though can you really?

After Shakespeare's birthplace we went to the Fourteas 1940s tea room.

Ration book menus!

Bottoms up old bean!

If I had to wear this uniform to work I would not complain, I love them.

This has to be the funkiest hot chocolate ever.

Bethan being... Bethan.

After the tea rooms we took a trip to Ann Hathaway's cottage (William Shakespeare's wife) but I'll post about that another time other wise this will be a never ending post!

Till next time,

Laura Lou x

Birmingham part 1

So I am finally back home after a pretty exhausting little holiday.

I had a great time but I am so glad to be back home and I never thought I would be so happy to be back in South Shields!

We stayed at  the Hilton Birmingham Metropole hotel, it was pretty swanky and due to a little issue with a member of staff we received  free wine and cookies during our stay.

 

 

 

Me and Bethan posing in our hotel room.

On Tuesday we went to The West Midlands Safari Park which I had visited a few times when I was a wee nipper but that didn't mean I was any less excited! I was like a little girl, jumping up and down in anticipation to see all the wild aminals.

Sadly the weather decided that as we were on holiday that it had to rain but towards the end of the day the sun did shows its face.

Indian Rhinos. They are such beautiful animals

Cheetahs, lovely to look at but they didn't do much haha.

Us posing for a family photo on the way round the safari.

A stunning lioness.

The lion King!

White Lion.

A rather goofy looking camel.

The best picture I could get on the day of the white tiger.

A zebra's head, I swear the rest of the body is somewhere.

Me and Bethan inside the safari park.

A Meerkat. He's just chillin'

I was pretty impressed with this picture I took of the hippo.

And that was our first day in Birmingham.

Till next time folks,

Laura Lou x