A long time ago when I was a headstrong college student I decided that I would become an English major and that was that. Shakespeare in Love had come out around that time as well as the first of the Harry Potter novels and being able to read and write and get credit for doing almost solely that in college just seemed like an absolute romantic dream. And I did a lot of dreaming. So much dreaming that it took me forever to realize that despite all my studying and reading about amazing things people wrote about, I actually hadn’t been to a lot of the places that I read about and I needed to fix that. So when we took our kids to England a few summers ago, I wanted to see the Globe Theatre and I wanted to visit Shakespeare’s house in Stratford-Upon-Avon and his birthplace and as much as it would be their first time seeing these incredible historical sites, it would be my first time too.
Visiting Shakespeare’s Globe Theatre with kids
When you travel with kids things don’t always go as planned. The day we visited the Globe Theatre I realized that my family was really tired and wouldn’t actually survive a real tour of the theatre even though I would totally love it. I snapped some pictures and someone let me peek in and see a little more. A few actors were actually heading into part of the theatre and this made everything really perfect. We spent some time in the gift shop and picked up a few kids’ versions of some popular Shakespeare plays but that was all my family really needed to see. We ended up eating lunch in the cute little Swan Restaurant where the food and decor was incredibly cozy and delightful and eating together so close to the theatre while we chatted about who William Shakespeare was ended up being one of my favorite London memories. The theatre has been here forever and I know I’ll be back one day so I wasn’t too depressed about missing the tour. (If I did this again I would also check to see if there were any family friendly plays going on when we visited too!)
Finding the site of Shakespeare’s Original Globe Theatre
But because of the kids, we took a shortcut near Borough market when we were trying to catch our bus and somehow we ended up near the site of the original Globe Theatre. I didn’t really think about this place existing (just like the “original” Starbucks is not really on its “original” site but that’s where we think it is in Seattle now) so this was such a bonus. We always notice signs and placards on buildings a little more when we travel with kids and I’m glad we kept our eyes open here.
Visiting Shakespeare’s House in England
We rented a car so we could continue our drive around England and that was a brave adventure in itself but because we had a car we found things like a monkey village and the mill where JR Tolkien grew up. I’m glad I couldn’t use the manual steering and that my husband could because driving through the Cotswolds seemed more of a Mr. Toad’s Wild Ride than a slow, leisurely jaunt through the countryside. We stayed a night over a pub in Stratford upon Avon at the Queens’ Head Pub so we could really feel the area where Shakespeare was born. Once again we ended up at this Shakespeare site just before closing and my guys were all a little tired so I thought it would be good enough just to get a few pictures of Shakespeare’s House.
Instead my husband bought me a ticket and told me not to give up on one of dreams even though we had to pay full price for a really short time. He and the boys dropped me off and I went in alone.
Somehow I ended up being the only person in the museum. I had it all to myself. It was so close to the end of the day that I could just wander through Shakespeare’s house and the grounds and talk to the docents for about 20 minutes, but it ended up being a far better visit than if I had dragged my family through this place on a hot crowded busy day as I imagine it gets in the summer sometimes. I thought it would be a waste to spend a full-price ticket to only see things for a short while. But if I hadn’t seen anything at all, I think I really would have missed out. I didn’t take a ton of pictures and just took in this once in a lifetime experience and thoroughly enjoyed fulfilling one of my dreams.
Has this happened to you when you travel? And if you are traveling with kids-are you seeing places you’ve dreamed about for the first time or do you tend to travel to places that you’ve already been? Do you have a favorite memory of a place you almost missed? Have you been to Shakespeare’s house too?
Terumi Pong is a Seattle-based family travel writer and mom of twin teenage boys. She loves coffee and pastries, shopping local and looking for greener ways to live. She is also known as Scout’s mom (Scout is a 5ish pound little black yorkie-poo)