Our Easter
break finally got going after a mini drama at the National Car
rental office. Unfortunately the bank take the idea of monthly
minimum payment very literally and despite Gavin having overpaid
the month before, his credit card was blocked. After some phone
negociation the bank agreed to waive it. But that wasn't the
end of the drama, as by now the Car rental office was closed.
The really lovely manager (while having a cigarette) did agree
to let us back in and so we were off, about 3 hours later than
expected.
We stayed
at the Curtain Call B and B in the Teddy Bear room. Really cute,
everything in the room involved teddy bears.
Curtain
Call B and B
Click to
enlarge
The town
is really lovely although a bit too many tourists for our liking,
in fact in many cases it's been spoilt because of the high profile
Shakespeare link.
On Friday
we were wandering around the streets and rounded a corner to
see Shakespeare's birth place. It is an extremely old building
as you can imagine and yet here it was in the middle of a lot
of more modern buildings, quite a unique site. We spent the
rest of the day looking at the various building connected with
Shakespeare.
Guild
House contrast
Click to
enlarge
Saturday
started off in a very lazy manner with an afternoon drive to
Leamington Spa, a close by town. On the way back we stopped
off at the Kenilworth Castle ruins. The weather wasn't great
but in a way the light suited the castle perfectly. You can
see all the arches and the great gardens.
Castle
Click to
enlarge
That evening
we went to a play in the Swan Theatre which is modelled on the
original style Shakespearean theatres, although there was a
roof and seats. We were sitting one row from the front and it
was excellent. The play, Love in a wood, wasn't actually written
by Shakespeare but by someone around the same time as he was
writing, so we had to get use to the funny language. It was
a very raunchy play about Noblemen and women going to St James
park in masks so they could convort with each other anonymously.
Lots of intrigue and partner swapping.
On Sunday
we went to Ann Hathaway's cottage ( Shakespeare's wife) and
saw the chair where they used to it and court each other.
After
visiting the cottage we saw real life thatching. It looks like
a time consuming practice. I didn't realise houses were still
being built in this style.
Roof
Thatching
Click to
enlarge
Monday was
quite interesting as we went to Warwick
castle (click here to see photo's) where a medieval type
weekend was taking place. We saw a bowman showing his skills
in full old style amour. A bird man showed us his birds of prey
and made them fly over our heads. The castle itself is very
well preserved and had different periods represented and displayed.
I also visited
a Teddy Bear Museum which had famous bears such as Sooty, and
bears that belonged to famous people. Worth a visit if you have
spare time.
Teddy
Bear Museum
Click to
enlarge
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