Stratford-upon Avon: to tea or not to tea?

Shakespeare's ghost who we ran into on the way to his birthplace.
River Avon this time not the Thames. Why do we always end up at a river with ducks?

ok, ok silly title. first stop in Stratford-upon-Avon, birthplace of Shakespeare? the farmer's market. we arrived 45 minuts early and so had time to loook around this cute town with old, really old buildings everywhere. But after a quick coffee break we were off to Anne Hathaway's cottage which is a bit outside of town and not really a cottage at all. In Anne Hathaway's day it was a two room cotage but after her brother expanded it it turned into more of a good-sized farmhouse.
Anne's father owned more than 90 acres and was a sheep farmer which is likely how Anne and William met since his father was a wool merchant. The cottage has been a tourist destination for many years. One decendant of the Hathaways used to cut bits of the bench by the fire off inorder to sell to tourists. Like other houses of the time the cottage was built of wod that was still green and over the years would expand and contract leading to the crooked look of these types of buildings. The highlight of the cottage may have been the wooden trencher used to eat off of. It had a litle indention for salt too! I really did think about buying one in the gift shop. Sadly, no pics allowed inside. The gardens around the cottage are supposed to be very pretty. But, this is in the spring. Once again, we found ourselves visting gardens in the winter whcih are much much less impressive. There were some pretty snow drops though. Its the closest I got to snowmageddon.

The cottage, more intersting than flowers and signs

Next up was a walking tour hitting most of the Shakespeare sites. Not only did we learn about Shakespeare and Stratford-upon-Avon in his day, our guide, another little old lady, regaled us with the failings of Labor governments. How this made its way into the tour, I'm not quite sure. Startford-upon-Avon is the cutest town and everywhere you turn there are more 13th-16th century buildings, well maintained due to the town's tourist history. One of the first was Holy Trinity Church, where Shakespeare was buried. Anne Hathaway and his eldest daughter, Susanna are here too. We came back later to check out the site in the chancel. The stone slab covering his graves includes a curse against removing his bones. It says:

"Good friend, for Jesus' sake forbear,"

"To dig the dust enclosed here."

"Blessed be the man that spares these stones,"

"And cursed be he who moves my bones."

The chancel also had some cool misericords (carved wood seats) from the 1400s with various scenes. And, the rood sceen from Shakespeares' time is still in place. A real rood sceen! ok, I've been spending too much time looking at churches in art history.

Shakespeare. His wife is on the left.

misericords

rood screen!! I've never seen one, its exciting.

We also saw the site of the larger house where Anne Hathaway lived, Dr. John Hall's (the husband of the eldest daughter, Susanna) House, the grammar school likely attended by Shakespeare and which had been a guild hall, and Shakespeare's birthplace. Although we didn't get to go in, we did peek in the windows at the glove-making materials inside (his father was a glove maker and wool merchant).

John Hall's House

grammar school

birthplace

And just for good measure we also saw the late 16th century house which belonged to John Harvard's mother. John Harvard's bequest made it possible to establish Harvard (the school). Also, the house is really cute.

Its the one with the flag pole. but I like the other too.

After the tour, it was time for tea! Rose and I fund an adorable tea shop in an antique shop. Everything was so cute. After puzzling over what exactly a tea cake was, I decided to get one so we could find out. It wasn't bad, rather like rasin bread.

Royal Doulton in the antique shop. no hand paited periwinkels though.

All tto soon we had to hurry back to the meet the bus or risk getting left behind. Really, we did leave two people behind on the way to Anne Hathaway's cottage because they were late and didn't answer their phones. Between tea and Shakespeare, Stratford-upon-Avon may have been the classiest and prettiest day trip yet.