In Search of The Bard

SHAKESPEARE'S BIRTHPLACE


VINCE AT SHAKESPEARE'S BIRTHPLACE

The train from London to York was rather crowded. When we arrived in York we discoverd our luggage was underneath a huge pile of other luggage so had to wait till most everyone else had disembarked. As it turns out we had more than an hour layover for our train to Harrogate, so we nipped over to Puccino's Cafe for some cappuccino. I ran into Les, one of the committee members from my Harrogate RSPB group, on the train from York to Harrogate. I think Vince enjoyed chatting to Les, though he told me he understood only about 80% of what Les said. I'm finding I have to do a lot of translating from British English to American English for Vince. We had a leisurely evening at home and had some pasta fazool I had put in the freezer for dinner.

We left for Stratford-upon-Avon around 11 a.m. It was a beautiful day for a drive. the night before we had consulted Google maps for directions and we had no problems whatsoever in getting to our destination. We arrived around 2:30 p.m. and checked into B&B, The Sequoia House Hotel. It was a pleasant enough B&B, nothing too fancy or frilly, clean and comfy. It is situated right on the River Avon across for the Royal Shakespeare theatre. It was an easy walk into town which had a rather touristy feel to it. We had lunch at Garrick Inn, a pub in an attractive half-timbered Tudor building.

After lunch we visited Shakespeare's birthplace on Henley Street, a lovely old half-timbered house with a modest garden in the back. After the tour of the Bard's birthplace we stopped off at library to check email. Stratford has a really nice library, just a few doors down from Shakespeare's birthplace. We only had a short wait for our free internet session on the computer. After our library visit we went back to b&b to rest up.

We had dinner at Thai Boathouse, just a short walk from our B&B. There was a rather overstated sign out front proclaiming the restaurant had been voted the best Thai restaurant in the world. Hmmmm... well my glass noodles with veggies and tofu was rather tasty but I suffered from an MSG headache afterwards. Vince had order stir-fried beef and veggies. The beef was okay, but the veggies turned out to be a side salad. How bizarre.

The highlight of the day was yet to come: Romeo and Juliet performed at RSC Theatre. The cast put forth an excellent performance (with the exception of Juliet whose acting was a bit weak). The costumes were modern and the staging quite innovative with a rather dramatic scene in the crypt at the end. There were musicians on stage singing and performing unusual yet enchanting folk music. The play was three hours long. We learned later that we had seen the unabridged version.