Tourists in Shakespeare Country.

Monday 28th to Wednesday 30th July, 2014 in Stratford-upon-Avon.
We planned to spend the next two days exploring Stratford, but first we had to move MM as our three-night permission to moor opposite the Theatre had expired.
R thought that there might be nice moorings a bit downstream and a short stroll on foot confirmed that this was so. Only 300 yards downstream we found another lovely spot, next to a park and opposite Holy Trinity Church where Shakespeare was baptised and where he lies buried. This is such a beautiful and peaceful place.

We took the quaint little chain ferry across the river at the vast cost of 50p per head.

It was installed in 1937 and is the last surviving chain ferry in the country - powered by "one man power" - turning the handle!

On the other bank, we walked back towards Holy Trinity Church through another small park containing some very majestic trees.

One in particular caught our eye (some sort of maple) and it was so large that M had to lie down to try to get it all in the photo.

Holy Trinity Church was a delight. Shakespeare and a number of his family are buried in front of the altar and there is a memorial to him on the wall above which was made within only a few years of his death, so it is believed to be an excellent likeness. The feather quill in his hand is replaced each year on 23rd April (the date upon which Shakespeare was born and also the same date upon which he died) by the Head Boy of King Edward VI School. It is believed that Shakespeare went to this school and it is still teaching children today.

Below the statue is the font in which Shakespeare was baptised and copies of the parish records showing his baptism and burial.

By now it was lunchtime and we found a very unusual restaurant with a 1940's theme called "The FourTeas".

The charming waitresses were dressed appropriately...

And there was even an Anderson (Bomb) Shelter in the garden where you could have your tea.

We walked on to Hall's Croft, the house of Susanna, Shakespeare's elder daughter, and her husband, Dr Hall. It is a fabulous house with a magnificent "magnolia grandiflora" growing outside the front door.

We were particularly impressed with Susanna's epitaph, a copy of which was in the house.

Then on to New Place, the very grand house to which Shakespeare retired. Unfortunately, the Reverend Francis Gastrell who owned it in 1759, hated Shakespeare's works and became irritated with people knocking at his door wanting to see Shakespeare's house. He tried to use these interruptions as an excuse not to pay his property tax and when challenged by the council, he simply pulled the house down, saying that they couldn't tax him on a house that didn't exist. Sacrilege! So now, there is just a beautiful garden to mark the spot where the house once stood.

Shakespeare's birthplace, however, does survive and is furnished in contemporary style. It includes the workshop where his father worked as a glove maker.

The extension on the right was added by William in his later years when he inherited the house, and he turned it into an inn called the "Swan and Maidenhead".
The original window from the room in which William was born has been preserved, including all the thousands of messages and names scratched into the glass over the years.

In the room where he was born, we were talking to a young guide when a Chinese family walked in. He greeted them in Chinese and they were most impressed with his accent and asked him how long he had been studying Chinese. His answer was - three weeks!
A beautiful evening sky rewarded us for all our trekking round the town.

On Tuesday, we gave our feet a rest and took the open-top tour bus round all the places that we had visited yesterday and out to Anne Hathaway's Cottage. It was surprising how much more we learned from the excellent commentary on the bus.

Although Anne was born and grew up there, the "cottage" was never "hers". Also, when she lived there, only the right half existed and then only as a single storey "hall" house. It was greatly extended by her brother after he inherited it years later. The furniture inside includes two of the contenders for his "second best bed" that William left to his wife Anne in his will.

As the "best bed" would have been reserved for guests (to show off their wealth and status), his "second best bed" was probably their marriage bed - and therefore the most appropriate to leave to his widow. The kitchen floor is original and would have been the one on which Shakespeare walked when he visited to court Anne; it was polished shiny by the the footfall of four hundred and fifty years.

We spent most of the day at the cottage. There are extensive gardens with orchards, an arboretum and a sculpture garden; there are traditional flower beds, a kitchen garden, an avenue of sweet pea bowers, orchards of old fashioned apple varieties, pears, greengages and a lavender maze. M was in her element!
We also chatted to an Elizabethan who was reciting poetry and turned out to be very keen on narrowboats! He did a special "performance" for us of the opening lines of "Twelfth Night" (M's favourite).

We had a cream tea in the tea room opposite before reboarding the tour bus that took us past Mary Arden's Farm (which felt like coming home again) and then back to Stratford.
On a  whim, we decided to eat out in the evening. Fortune led us by chance to what must be one of the best places in town - Marlowe's, rebuilt in 1595!

The atmosphere, service and food was all first class.
M asked if we could have one more day, just to do quiet things like reading. So on Wednesday, we had a quiet day. Truth to tell, we are both reluctant to leave this lovely town.
Apart from a brief visit to Waterstones (R is running out of reading material!) and the mandatory visit to M&S for a "few bits", we stayed on MM enjoying the sunshine.

In the mid afternoon we were passed by a Gondola complete with Gondolier and wind-up gramophone! Were we dreaming?  Had MM floated off to Venice without us noticing?

We did consider going to see "Two Gentlemen of Verona" at the RCS in the evening but thrift, and the fact that it was apparently in modern dress, led us to decide against it.
Three blissful days with just 7 hours on the engine for power.