Mary Ann: We’ve taken our first journey away from Birmingham and c
ouldn’t have picked a lovelier site to visit than we did—Stratford-upon-Avon. It’s less than an hour’s train ride from here so we hopped aboard the 10:31 Central Train leaving Moor Street station, armed with two boxed lunches and our small backpack loaded with rain jackets (always a handy thing to have here in England), maps, and cameras.
The day turned out to be wonderfully sunny and cool and Stratford was the perfect place to enjoy it. Of course Stratford is known for its connection to William Shakespeare who was born here in 1564 and,
although he lived for over 20 years in London, he maintained a home and strong roots in this small village. The home in which he was born still stands so we toured that, along with a very informative museum which is on the same property. We learned some interesting things there. His father John was a glove maker and was part of what we’d call the middle class. Willi
am probably started school about the age of five and finished by the age of 14 or 15. He never attended a university. He got married to Anne Hathaway when he was 18 and she was 26 (and pregnant) and they lived together until he died in 1616, bequeathing her in his will his “second-best bed”. The house is well preserved and the thing I found most interesting about it were the wall-sized painted linen clothes that hung in every room. They made it look a bit like they were covered
with wallpaper, except of course they weren’t pasted on. The outside gardens were lovely, as the gardens all seem to be here in England. I was happy to refresh my memory about Shakespeare’s life and to have visited this site, since we’ll be coming back here in early July to see the Royal Shakespeare Company’s production of Macbeth.
Besides being the home of Shakespeare,
Stratford is a beautiful village all on its own and has lots of well-kept shops, several 16th century buildings, colorful narrow boats, and best of all, a large, much-used park that meanders along the Avon River. Since the weather was perfect for eating outdoors, that’s exactly what we did. We took out boxed lunches and sat on a bench by the water, enjoying the sight of people feeding the long-necked swans, riding on the carrousel, and strolling leisurely through the grass and trees.
ouldn’t have picked a lovelier site to visit than we did—Stratford-upon-Avon. It’s less than an hour’s train ride from here so we hopped aboard the 10:31 Central Train leaving Moor Street station, armed with two boxed lunches and our small backpack loaded with rain jackets (always a handy thing to have here in England), maps, and cameras.The day turned out to be wonderfully sunny and cool and Stratford was the perfect place to enjoy it. Of course Stratford is known for its connection to William Shakespeare who was born here in 1564 and,
although he lived for over 20 years in London, he maintained a home and strong roots in this small village. The home in which he was born still stands so we toured that, along with a very informative museum which is on the same property. We learned some interesting things there. His father John was a glove maker and was part of what we’d call the middle class. Willi
am probably started school about the age of five and finished by the age of 14 or 15. He never attended a university. He got married to Anne Hathaway when he was 18 and she was 26 (and pregnant) and they lived together until he died in 1616, bequeathing her in his will his “second-best bed”. The house is well preserved and the thing I found most interesting about it were the wall-sized painted linen clothes that hung in every room. They made it look a bit like they were covered
with wallpaper, except of course they weren’t pasted on. The outside gardens were lovely, as the gardens all seem to be here in England. I was happy to refresh my memory about Shakespeare’s life and to have visited this site, since we’ll be coming back here in early July to see the Royal Shakespeare Company’s production of Macbeth.Besides being the home of Shakespeare,
Stratford is a beautiful village all on its own and has lots of well-kept shops, several 16th century buildings, colorful narrow boats, and best of all, a large, much-used park that meanders along the Avon River. Since the weather was perfect for eating outdoors, that’s exactly what we did. We took out boxed lunches and sat on a bench by the water, enjoying the sight of people feeding the long-necked swans, riding on the carrousel, and strolling leisurely through the grass and trees. 
1 comment:
Looks lovely. Would have liked to have seen Shakespeare's home. I read many of his plays in college. My favorite is Taming of the Shrew. I hope to see that this summer.
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