Saturday 26 May 2018

Stratford-upon-Avon - #4 Shakespeare's Birthplace

Hi there everyone

It was the second day of our mini-break to Stratford-upon-Avon, where we were exploring the Shakespeare Birthplace Trust properties. We had spent our first day visiting Anne Hathaway's Cottage and Hall's Croft and the morning of our second day at New Place.

Whilst our 'full story' ticket gave us entry to all five Shakespeare Birthplace Trust properties, we had decided that we would leave Mary Arden's Farm for another time, but we did want to visit his birthplace, which is very handily situated in the centre of town.

Having had a real good wander around the gardens of New Place we decided we needed a bit of a breather before looking at his birthplace and found a very nice spot in the High Street which fit the bill perfectly.
We were sat outside in the sunshine, pretty much opposite the birthplace ...

Once inside there is a bit of a film showing lots of different interpretations of Shakespeare's works and a colourful comic strip which summed up the plots of all of his plays ...

We were eager to head outside into the gardens at the back of the property ...
... where getting a photo without any other visitors in it was pretty tricky, as there was a very steady stream of student and school trips coming and going  ...

There was the occasional quiet and tranquil spot ...

We did look round the ground floor of the house, which was laid out as it would have been when Shakespeare was born ...

... but it was just so busy that we couldn't face queuing to climb the narrow stairs, so we ducked under the rope and we were soon back outside ...

We had a sit in the regulation deckchairs before being swarmed upon by a group of foreign students as they finished their tour of the house.

We managed to grab one fairly decent shot of the gardens and the house, apart from the Patisserie Valerie presence which kind of spoils the moment, before deciding that we'd had enough and moved on ...

Whilst I'm sure we would have enjoyed this property more if it hadn't been quite so busy it was most definitely the least favourite of all that we had seen and we were glad to leave and find a nice quiet spot on the terrace at the back of the RSC for a drink and go at the crossword.

Whilst it was still nice, the weather did seem to be taking a bit of a turn and it got a bit cooler and greyer overhead.

We managed a final wander around the canal basin, picking up a few Geocaches along the way, before heading back to the Premier Inn for a bit of a chill out before dinner.


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