Harvard Private Hotel Stratford-upon-Avon

With time rapidly dwindling I went down to Banbury way this afternoon to visit my brother et famille before I leave, taking the opportunity to say goobye to two young nephews - one of whom was able to appreciate some of the implications of what I am doing, "But what if you get sick?" he asked. :-)

Back up to Stoke in the late evening. Last day of preparations tomorrow.

Tuesday was another mostly uneventful day.

Yesterday, however, we took a 'field trip' to Stratford-on-Avon, the birthplace of William Shakespeare, and his residence at the end of his life. The strange '-on-Avon' addition simply refers to the fact that the town is 'on' the river Avon. There are many similarly-named towns throughout England, though not all towns on rivers are so named (for example, the last city I was in was not called 'London-on-Thames'). Unfortunately ...

... with French school kids that we got out of there pretty fast. The Creaky Cauldron was a kid magnet, with its mist and pumpkins display and its array of spells and potions, including for luck, romance and revenge. But our only souvenirs came from the Nutcracker Shop where we added to our collection of Christmas decorations. We seem to have the knack of finding the most expensive places to eat, and The Bell at Welford was no exception. For GBP95 ...

... over the castle that Nathan couldn’t even hold the audio controller any more. Our feet and hands were numb by the time we got into the car.










We went home for lunch of a pastie and eccles cake and then drove out to the Castle Inn at Edgehill where Stephen and Michele used ...

... and we had a great view of course over fields and little villages.













We did heaps of mud and stiles and Stephen entertained us with two face plants. We eventually found our way to the village of Weston-sub-Edge. It had a 13th ...

... back to the river. We went and did a brass rubbing for 7 pounds 50p ($17) of the Earl of Warwick from 1406. We were so cold when we got home that I had to put my feet on the central heating pipes for ages. Called Lavinia in London and arranged to have dinner Monday night. Went to the local for a drink and then home for Coq au Vin.

... mouth! Because we got so damp we decided to do the 2 hour walk and not the 4 hour one. Ended up taking us 3 hours. We passed through a field of sheep – white and brown ones – and there were a lot of cute lambs and all the sheep were 'baaing’ at us.








Stratford-upon-Avon, England, United Kingdom hilaryramsey

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We then went out to the Front Arena Area and watched a man use and tell us about the longbow and crossbow. The longbow changed warfare in medieval England as it could shoot off 15 arrows a minute, but as it was difficult to use it was compulsory for all boys from the age of 7 to practise every Sunday after church in ...

Woke up 3 am and dozed until 6am and then got up. Nathan slept until 8 am. Michele made us all porridge for breakfast. This morning we did a 2 hour walk around Stratford with Stephen. We went to Holy Trinity church where Shakespeare was baptised and buried. We had a look inside and read some of the old tombstones. We walked along the river and saw swans and ...

... who stood up during the Q and A period and recited some of Dickens' poetry. It was a good time. We were all tickled, including Roger Pringle, I think. Next we had coffee for ½ an hour. Roger Pringle said hello and he and Chris and I chatted a bit. I sat down by some folks to get some sugar and we chatted a bit. They were from London and it sounded like they were there for the weekend to enjoy the show (the night before) and to hear the lectures. I noticed there were quite a ...