Kayla Snyder

Day Six: From a small town to a slightly bigger city…

I’m a city girl at heart.

Everyone knows that.

But sometimes it does the soul good to get out of your comfort zone and explore. Waking up in a small town like Stratford-upon-Avon is something of a dream. The quiet, petite town attracts millions of visitors every year because of its most famous resident, William Shakespeare.

At first the idea of a walking tour around a small town didn’t seem the most intriguing. However, through learning more about Shakespeare’s life and getting to see firsthand the roads he grew up on, I became extremely interested in the history of the town.

Stratford was a spectacular place not only because of its rich history but because it’s a functional small town that isn’t just for tourists. Yes, there were a lot of tourists that were specifically there to see Shakespeare’s birthplace.

However, walking through the shops around his birthplace, we were met with so many locals just doing Saturday errands around the town.

I have a deep affinity for tea so the small tearoom that was offering tea tasting was exactly what I needed. In addition to the two types of tea I had, we also tried two types of hot chocolate. We also stopped to get gelato before making our way back to the hotel to board the bus for the next stop on the itinerary: Liverpool.

It’s interesting to see that in every town we’ve visited thus far, there are Ferris wheels of some sort. Much to our surprise, the streak continued as soon as we approached Liverpool. After the almost 2.5-hour bus ride, we were aching to get outside and explore the beautiful city that rests along the River Mersey (thank you Google Maps).

After checking into the hotel, we departed on foot to a Greek restaurant about 30 minutes away. None of us were prepared for the amount of food that we received tonight. The three-course meal proved to be nothing I’ve ever experienced before. It was genuinely some of the best food we’ve had on the trip thus far.

With our morning completely free of anything, I think we’re going to find a little breakfast area around here before we regroup for our Beatles tour tomorrow afternoon.