Shakepeare's Birthplace

Next morning, the Inn offered choices of a Continental breakfast of fruit, pastries, yogurt, and cereal, or a traditional English breakfast of sausage links(bangors), slice of ham, fried egg, grilled tomato, mushrooms, baked beans, and toast (individually provided on a special rack, rather than lying on a plate). We hope that walking through Stratford's carnival-like streets will burn at least some of these calories! It was today that we visited Shaxpere's famous birthplace (one block from our Inn) a fascinating look back at the sixteenth century, along with it's wonderful grounds, and we viewed snippets of plays performed in the garden.There a cute young red-haired actress made Steve one of her accomplices in a brief look at what may have been perhaps "The Merry Wives of Windsor". When the red-haired character's rival called her a "Canker-blossom" for nuzzling Steve, I knew I would be able to double check the play's title when I got home. It's one of Shakespeare's most famous insults!

Stratford Upon Avon

Shakespeare Country! Saturday and Sunday August 8-9th, 2009. We spent the weekend at Stratford Upon Avon! If William Shaxpere of Stratford did indeed write Shakespeare, you can quickly see why he was so inspired. The rolling, picturesque countryside of Warickshire would trigger the craetivity of God's greatest dullard, much less someone of great talent. After a lengthy and tedious trip due to much construction and traffic (I felt bad for our wonderful driver, Steve, who drives a London cab for a living and didn't need to do this on his weekend!), we checked into the "White Swan", parts of which date to around the end of the sixteenth century. It is said that Shakespeare himself used to purchase his bread from the original bakery housed in this building. Ed read in the spectacularly-paneled sitting room beside a fireplace built at the time of James1. The book? Bill Bryson's new biography of William Shakespeare. It was a wonderful effort (it should be titled "The Life and Times of..."), but it didn't convince me!
On Saturday evening, we attended a performance at the "Courtyard Theatre" of "Julius Caesar" bt The Royal Shakespeare Compant, a very impressive, intimate (despite its fairly large size) house, one of three venues used by the RSC. Its biggest and newest theatre is now undergoing a major refit. Their offering was a mix of a bit of modern technology and traditional Shakespeare staging, just right in our view. The title sctor deserved an Oscar for a wonderful, protracted, agonizing death (et tu Brute').