Day 2 - Stratford-upon-Avon

"What light through yonder window breaks?"

Up early and ready to experience the London Underground for the first time, Jeannie and I took a two and one half hour jaunt on “the Tube” over to Stratford-upon-Avon, a little market town in south Warwickshire, best known as the birthplace of playwright and poet William Shakespeare.

This picture is of William Shakespeare's home. I won't bore you with the details of the literary history of Shakespeare, but I will share how surprised I was at the commercialism in the area. Though many of the shops housed his works and directly pertained to William himself (my favorite was an ice cream shop which specialized in William's Shakes), there were also those places that seemed so out of place...KFC, Burger King, Poundland (our Dollar General), and several gift shops that were filled with books, quill pens, postcards, Shakespearean bears, and erasers imprinted with "Out, damned spot...!", (another favorite). Nearby was the River Avon where we spent a good portion of our time walking around the basin, and relaxing while doing some bird watching and people watching. This is a picture of the brige over the canal that connects the basin to the River Avon.

Enough about Shakespeare. What about his other half? We continued our journey with a long and leisurely walk to the small village of Shottery to tour Anne Hathaway's Cottage.
The tour of the cottage was enlightening and enjoyable, but did not hold a candle to the luscious gardens. It was like walking into another world. The grounds were filled with flower gardens of all shapes, sizes, and colors, as well as spices and vegetable gardens. I wonder if there will ever be a day when we will be able to record aromas and post them virtually. It is difficult to express the beauty of the scents from the day.

"Parting is such sweet sorrow..."

As I had hoped, I was able to make a connection with a perfect stranger, and in this case, two perfect strangers. At the end of our visit when it was time for us to return to the train station, we were contemplating the long walk and thinking about calling a taxi. A very kind woman and her daughter graciously offered to give us a lift to the train station. We had a very pleasant conversation and I found myself wishing the drive had been a little longer. I thanked them profusely and said goodbye to them, the Shakespeares, the ducks, and this beautiful little town that touched my heart and my senses. (Check back soon to view a slideshow of the garden.)

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