Barbette Guest House 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.

... Then you rub a lot harder with the colors you want each part to be. We chose Thomas and Margaret de Beauchamp, the Earl and Countess of Warwick. No special reason really, just because I could color in the dude and Sarah could color in the chick. Check out the other photos for various stages of our progress. Here's the finished product. Hey, it's not polite to laugh. 1. It was ...

Well, the World Cup finally started today for England. You can imagine how bad it has been. The folk here are obsessed. The fate of Wayne Rooney's broken toe has gripped the nation for the past week - we had live updates from the hospital all through Thursday! It turns out the broken bone has healed in 38 days (I have my doubts...42 is generally the minimum). The whole of England breathed a collective sigh of relief. They are now hooning around and tooting because they won 1-0 ...

Woke hearing the ringing of church bells from Holy Trinity for the 6am and 8.30 am services – such a lovely sound!!. Lay in and read for awhile before heading out to Kenilworth Castle (about 20 mins. away) with Stephen & Michele. Cost 4 pounds 95 for me and 2 pounds 50p for Nathan (total $17.50)



Stratford-upon-Avon, England, United Kingdom hilaryramsey

... 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 ...

Brad called & woke me up at 6.30 am... looked outside and there was snow on the cars and rooves.... so pretty. Today was 3 degrees but minus 3 with the wind chill. Stephen and Michele had things to do today so we were entertaining ourselves. We had a lazy start and Nathan did some homework. It was freezing out today and so cold that Nathan just wanted ...

... we were quite damp. It was fun though and pretty walking across fields with stone walls and through forests.













Of course, there was a lot of slippery mud. Stephen's shoes didn’t have a lot of grip so there were always expletives coming from ...

... through the Armoury and Torture Chamber. In the Kingmaker section and Royal Weekend Party they had wax people showing two different eras in the history of the castle. They were both really interesting.






We went down to the Mill and Engine House on the River. The Mill was created 600 years ago to grind grain. In the 1900s ...

... and ducks and beautiful big old trees and willows, past the Shakespeare Theatre up to the locks and then into town past lovely stores, pubs, Shakespeare's birthplace and lovely Tudor buildings .










We stopped at the Crabtree & Evelyn Tearoom for a hot drink. Tried a warm apple juice with cinnamon – bit ...

... Mews. They have a lovely one bedroom upstairs apartment. Nathan and I sleep on a blow-up bed behind the map divider in the lounge. The map divider is great – wallpaper of the map of the world. Makes you want to explore the world. Had a dinner of Roast Chicken and veggies – all premade and just heated up. So yummy! In bed asleep by 8 pm UK time – 12 midnight Dubai time.