Stratford Upon Avon

Well, It's Saturday now and as you can guess we've been busy.  Well, hmm...We were last in Cardiff with the Woods family and their friends and then on Thursday, Ken drove us all to Stratford Upon Avon.  It was raining cats & dogs the whole way here.  We checked in and then walked down to a pub for dinner...The Thatch Inn.  It was good food.

A bit of history of Stratford...it was the home of William Shakespeare.  JB has been in rehearsals and concert and recording sessions while I have been playing tourist.  As a favor to my darling spousal unit for bringing me along, I played tourist at all the sites that he would have liked to have seen...he'll get to see the same pictures you do...he'll put them on the same flickr site you've been going to for the other pictures.

Here's a free advertisement for the historical sites for William Shakespeare's life in Stratford Upon Avon...if you spend the money on the ticket, you don't have do do everything on the same day...it is a ticket that is valid for an entire year!  Way cool!  I didn't miss anything after some adventures and it was a nice surprise for today.

Yesterday, I went to the house he was born and raised in.  He also lived there after he was married.  I was going to go to the other sites, but JB requested an insulated coffee mug...apparently they aren't something that the Brits use on a regular basis because I couldn't find one for several hours and eventually found a Starbucks that, of course, had them.  Whew!  That search was very frustrating, but all was well in the end.

Last night was the concert...Mahler's Das Lied von der Erde (Song of the Earth) as performed by the Orchestra of the Swan with Ken Woods conducting and Brennen and Emma singing.  It was really well done and we all enjoyed it.

Today, was also busy until about 3:30.  I started off by being sent on another mission for JB...he needed more dirt tea for his throat and I didn't mind going to find it as I knew where to go after yesterday's search for the cup.  I barely made it to the sidewalk alive as I tripped just leaving the property of the B&B...it was reallly graceful!  The ankle is still sore, but I put over 4 miles on it after I tripped, so it wasn't too bad and I'm taking it easy tonight.

After that, I got to play tourist again and thought I should restart the day at Starbucks.  Well, I thought about going to another coffee shop, but Starbucks brought me luck yesterday.  I also went to Hall's Croft, the home of the local doctor at the time of Shakespeare...my brain is forgetting the details.  I did that with Andy, Emma's husband, and then we went to the church where he (Shakespeare) and his family were buried.  After that we walked along the Avon river and took photos of the buildings that the Royal Shakespeare Company perform in, but we didn't go in to them due to road construction.  From there we went to Nash's house and the New Place.  Nash's House is where Shakespeare's daughter and her husband lived.  The New Place is the house where Shakespeare died and is currently under excavation as it is an archaeological dig in process.

Well, after that I did something for my mother...please be kind and mark it on your calendar.  After organizing our travel for Sunday, I went shopping at Morrisons.  It is England's version of Safeway, including gas stations.  I bought food for a late lunch and some dinner as I was (and still am) planning a quiet night in front of the television and tackling the daunting reorganization of our belongings prior to our destination change in the morning...we're headed back to London.

When JB gets a chance, I will have him throw the pictures back up on flickr.  Until then, have some fun!