Where There's a Will, There's a Play! Oct. 14, 2008

Linda at Shakespeare's grave at Holy Trinity Church in Stratford-Upon-Avon.

Paula checks out a typical English garden at Anne Hathaway's cottage.

Today was Shakespeare, Shakespeare, and more Shakespeare!

We had a lovely typical English breakfast at the Salamander this morning--fresh squeezed orange juice, eggs, bacon, sausage, toast, and wonderful coffee. Our host, Pascal, a Frenchman married to an Englishwoman is delightfully funny and an awesome cook. We sat with Brent and heard quite the preview of the much anticipated Hamlet we planned to see later tonight.

The day was sunny with a bit of chill in the air, but what a perfect day for a ride on the open-air "hop-on hop-off" bus we elected to travel by. Sometimes for part of the ride there is a 'live' tour guide, and at other times, we had headphones that gave us all the stories as we road out to the countryside for a look at two of the Shakespeare houses--

Anne Hathaway's cottage (she is the woman who married Shakespeare) and Mary Arden's house (she was Shakespeare's mother. The cottage gardens were lovely, and we met a great tour guide,






Madeleine,


who answered our every question and gave us lots of anecdotes to remember about the house and grounds.













About an hour later, we headed to see the Palmer Farm and Mary Arden's house. Linda remembers being in the Palmer Farm


and being told during her summer in England in 1988 that it was actually the farm of Shakespeare's mother. It turns out that it wasn't at all. In the year 2000, all the studies and verification were completed that that house had to be built in the late 1700s--long after Mary and Shakepeare, too, died. In fact, the house owned by another famiy on the property was actually dated to that late 1500's, and the fact that that property was actually Mary's family's was authenticated!

It was so awesome to be there when we were because groups of school children were on a field trip there that day.

Our tour guide explained to us where the expression "to put her up on the pedestal" came from--these shoes called Patinn's who had a heel called a pedestal. The shoes were so wobbly that to go out, the lady had to be put up on her pedestal!














The tour guides and the chilren, too, were all wearing the actual peasant-style clothing of the Elizabethan Age, and in each room at Palmer's Farm, there were smaller groups of kids learning how to bake bread,




dip candles, make a bed with the fabric of the times, and feeding the sheep.

















It was amazing how short the doorways were.












The tour guides catered the lessons and the information to the children, and it was fun hearing
their questions and answers, too.


We finished up our day at Mary Arden's house out in a meadow where a woman demonstrated falcolnry.











As she explained (again complete with charming anecdotes), children and adults who wanted to (Linda!) came up from the group and put on a falconer's left glove, and a beautiful, trained Bengal Owl flew from one to another as the trainer placed food on the glove.







What a majestic bird! Before we left, we had a lovely lunch of plum tomato basic soup--apparently a favorite here in Stratford at this time of year.

On the way back from the village, it began to rain and the microphone didn't work, so we sat under a canopy covering on the top of the bus and listened to more stories and were treated to a first class view of the sights.

















We got off the bus at Hall's Croft, which was the residence of Shakespeare's oldest daughter Susanna and her husband, the weathy physician John Hall. We learned a lot about the differences between a house of this stature


and those dwellings we saw out in the country. There was a lot of artwork and even a facsimile of the first folio!

There was also an exhibit about the plague and what doctors had to do in order to contain it. This was fascinating.














Then we took a stroll down toward the Avon River where the famous

Holy Trinity Church,

where Shakespeare and his family, including Susanna and John, were buried. Susanna never had children who survived and neither did her sister Judith or brother Hamnet who died in infancy. That means the blood line of Shakespeare disappeared after his children died.

The church was lovely, and we were treated to a string ensemble's practice for an upcoming concert. It was heavenly to listen to their music while looking at the gravesight where Shakespeare was buried. Needless to say, we took tons of pictures of all different combinations.

We met Nigel there, a proprieter in the gift shop in the church, who gave us many ideas about our visit to Bath and the Cotswolds. He should have been a stand-up comedian. He had us laughing and marveling at his myriad of puns sprinkled through his stories. We cannot get over how very friendly and warm each and every person is whom we have stopped to talk to.


We came back to the Salamander to rest up for Hamlet, check e-mails, and see whether our Cotswold Tour for Thursday was on! We were so happy to find out that it was and had to do some scrambling to find accommodations in Bath for Wednesday night instead of going to London. It looks like we'll be staying at a youth hostel in Bath that night since most everything else is either booked or too expensive.

Paula was up for traditional English fish and chips before Hamlet, so we went up Sheep Street and found Barnaby's--highly recommended for value and taste. It was just the ticket. Next we were off for Hamlet, and it was awesome! We sat up in the 2nd row of the gallery, but we could see and hear just fine and were so impressed with

Patrick Stewart as Claudius,








David Tennant as Hamlet,


















and especially the two actors from whom we got autographs after the play--Penny Downie as Gertrude, and a Royal Shakespeare Company member for 26 productions, Oliver Ford Davies!

Linda had them sign her old Hamlet book, and Paula had them sign by their pictures in the program. She even met Peter De Jersey who played Horatio. We even ran into our new friend June, whom we had met on the train from London, and went down to the stalls (3 rows from the stage) to see what the view was life that close! Had we had more time, Linda would have LOVED to see it again.

We walked back to the Salamander down the walking street Henley and really liked seeing all the stores and bed & breakfasts and restaurants named after things connected to Shakespeare from names of his plays Twelfth Night B&B, to parts of famous quotes (a chocolate shop called "If Music Be the Food of Love," to characters in Shakespeare's plays (a museum of local history called Falstaff's Experience).

Tomorrow, we're on to BATH! This will be our last night at the Salamander!