I woke early this morning. Each morning as I wake up it
slowly dawns on me where I am. It's a strange sensation
I struggle with what is reality and what is dreaming.
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| Shakespeare's birthplace |
Breakfast wasn't a dream though it was delicious.
As I walked around the town of Stratford-upon-Avon, I found myself slipping back into Tudor times. Helped quite a bit by the staff dressed in period costume - although one of these gave me quite a fright as I entered Shakespeare's bedroom.
Some thoughts about Will Shakespeare.
Second best bed.
Willy only left his second best bed to his wife upon his death. This isn't necessarily a sign of his lack of regard for her. It was their marital bed. The one they slept in. The best bed was for guests.
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| Susanna Sakespeare's place - Tudor building with one of the original powerpoints still there |
Descendants.
Will had three children. His son - sounds like Hamlet - died young. His two daughters. Susanne married Dr Croft. They had two children who died young. His other daughter had two husbands but no children. So Shakespeare has no descendants. Imagine that.
Sleeping sitting up.
Now this is peculiar. People, particularly young boys, at this time usually slept sitting up so that the devil wouldn't take them during the night - if they were caught lying down the devil could mistake them for being dead. Don't forget this was around the time of the plague.
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| Part of the garden at his "New Place" sculptured tree made of Iron |
Dressing as girls.
Same as above. Devil might not take them if they were. Girls didn't rate very highly in Shakespeare's day.
Travelling home from London.
It was a four - five day ride home for Will from London to Stratford - dangerous too - so he wouldn't have made it home too often I expect.
After visiting a few of these places I headed off for the nearby Warwick and it's castle. Jane from work recommended it and it didn't disappoint.
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| Warwick Castle |
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| The Tower |
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| ... was a long way up |
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| Thinking about where I'm going to sleep tonight |
I had a look around the town after that including a nice coffee and scones in a quaint tea room, I decided to hit the road again and see where I would end up.
Good in theory but after 2 hours of driving around on motorways and through quaint towns I still hadn't found a B&B. I was beginning to panic a bit I must admit, but eventually I settled for a motel in a town called Rugby - famous for being the birthplace of the game with the same name. "Famous for it, yes" said the lady at reception, "too bad most people around here only follow the football ..." Meaning soccer of course.
The long awaited meal didn't quite live up to expectations and I ended up turning in early. A TV in the room, but not much to offer on the BBC on a weeknight. No soccer either, even though I knew Chelsea were playing. Had to go to a pub and watch it on Sky apparently. Not happy Jan!
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