A Fortnight with Whit - Stratford-Upon-Avon

Day 4 was a quiet day for us, we hopped on the train and headed back up to Loughborough.
We used the quite day to catch up on blogs, do some laundry and Justin showed me around Loughborough.

I know from reading the blog you wouldn't actually think that Justin is here for school but he took me to his soon-to-be Alma Mater, Loughborough University.

JP and I at the university square

WEDC (Justin's program) has a pump garden out back so, we pumped it

Day 5, we rented a car and headed up to Stratford-Upon-Avon, birthplace of William Shakespeare. This was another must-see spot on my list - the bucket list of an English major.

We started with a tour of Old Stratford (for any of you who know, this is the inspiration for Stratford, Ontario which is complete with it's own Avon river and Globe theatre).

The tudor style houses were definitely Justin's favourite. He couldn't get over how the buildings have heaved and buckled over the last 400 years but are still standing.  The wood-beams were useful in the day but definitely didn't keep everything square.

Bendy Tudor houses

Our tour ended at Holy Trinity Church which was the final resting place of *most* of William Shakespeare.

Where the bard was laid to rest 

I say most because there was a recent scan done of Shakespeare's grave by academics doing a BBC documentary to commemorate the 400th year of Shakespeare's death, who have found out that his skull is actually missing from the rest of the skeleton.  The church has claimed for many years to have the undisturbed bones of Shakespeare, even though there was a rumour that has been around since the early 1800s that some grave robbers broke in a took Shakespeare's skull as a trophy.  While this has been widely dismissed by academics until the results of this BBC documentary came out, it seems to have had some truth to it. One the cool things about the whole story is that, on Shakespeare's grave, there is a curse, that reads:

Good friend for jesus' sake forebore

to dig the dust enclosed here

blessed be the man that spares these stones

and cursed be he that moves my bones

I'm not sure where his skull ended up but the English major in me hopes that at some point, there has or will be an actor who stands on a stage and recites Hamlet's soliloquy whilst holding the skull of Shakespeare. The ultimate of poetic treatment.

After the tour, we were soggy enough to need some warm food and a pint to keep us going. While there, I used the opportunity to ask Justin to be my best/only man for the wedding - he agreed, complete with a contract binding him to servitude for the next year and a half.

Signing his life away to be the Only Man, at my wedding

We visited Shakespeare's birthplace after that, seeing the spots that his parents lived and he grew up. Stratford-Upon-Avon is a quaint place that while it only has about 24, 000 people, entertains about 4 million tourists a year.

Shakespeare's birthplace 

We took a stroll around the river, saw a beautiful old carriageway bridge and posed with the bronze of young Will for posterity.

Compatriots, we be, young master Will

JP tried to fight him, poncho and all

It was a proper English day, so by the end of it both JP and I were tired, wet and cold. I definitely appreciated the sun we had days earlier after trekking around in the rain all day.