Shakespeare day

Tuesday 10th October

We did not wake up until quarter to nine! Luckily we were doing our own breakfast and did not need to be in the dining room at 8.15am as has been the case in most of the B&B's. Consequently we did not finish breakfast until 10.00am - unbelievable! The world as we know it is falling apart. Before you know it we will be having Brunch and thinking this is the norm. We were soon in Stratford to buy our 3 attractions Shakespeare Pass and then straight away we found the Anne Hathaway Tea Rooms for morning coffee - it was now 11.30am. Finally we entered the Shakespeare Museum which included the house in which he was born and lived in as a child. It was interesting to learn that his father was an influential businessman in the town - he made kid gloves and was Mayor at one stage, and also young William, unlike most of his peers in the 1600's, went to the local Anglican Grammar school six days a week.

 

Next we walked up the very interesting High Street and happened to end up at Anne Hathaway's Tea Rooms for sandwiches for lunch - Beef with a little horseradish for me and cheese and tomato on brown bread for Merilyn who by this stage was starting to wake up. Further up High Street was Shakespeare's New House - actually it was just a block of land, the house which had changed hands several times since Shakespeare's time had been knocked down by the last owner because he hardly used it and didn't want to pay the Council Taxes, a sad loss. It was still quite interesting because recent archaeological digs and old sketches have enabled experts to determine what the house probably would have looked like and where various rooms would have been. It is now a lovely garden with appropriate statues depicting characters from some of Shakespear's plays. William S had married Anne Hathaway when he was 18 and she 26 and pregnant. They later had twins, a boy who died aged 11 and a girl, and they had bought the house when the children were young and Shakespeare had become successful in London. At the time it was the biggest house in Stratford and had a very large orchard and vegetable garden - Anne was a farm girl. After a fairly quick walk through gardens alongside the Avon, and watching a boat go through a lock to join a canal which could take you into London - about 18 days travel and 85 locks later, we drove out to Anne Hathaway's Cottage for a nice tour and a walk through some shady woodland. Tonight in the hostel lounge we have had a lovely chat time with 3 men, one of whom was born in Australia and lived at Koo Wee Rup and then Cranbourne but came to England as a young man, married and now has three kids. We talked about the cost of living in each country. One fellow, a business man, lives in Reading and to go into London for the day at peak time on a fast train, a 28 min trip, costs him 75 pound - 23 pound for parking and 52 pound for the train -  makes our free parking at Geelong South Station and $6.00 train ticket look pretty good. Overall a good, fairly slow day and feeling quite tired - showing our age.

 

Shops in High Street

Anne Hathaway's Cottage

Canal boat going through Lock