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squiz Member Member#: 6644 Location: Registered: 27-05-2007 Diary Entries: 2896 |
31st May 2018 Hiking - Walking: Stratford-upon-Avon Wind Direction: Wind Stength: Surf / Sea State: Air Temperature: Sea Temperature: Weather: sunny periods and warm:) Max Speed: Distance Covered: Thursday 31st May – walks **** Anne Hathaway’s Cottage to Stratford-upon-Avon & along Stratford-upon-Avon Canal at Edstone Aqueduct – sunny periods and warm:) Our second night at Clayton Middle Lock. We had got over our weird experience from last night when a couple of old hippies arrived for the night on their narrow boat- he had a long white beard and she had dreadlocks – she proceeded to pull her leggings down showing her bare arse by their car then walked off to the boat with a metal colander on her head, dragging a large man at work triangle and a traffic cone with her. I don’t think they even knew we were there! Relaxing morning with a good start when 2 beautiful Bullfinches gave us a great display right by the van:) Breakfast, check the map for the next destination and decide to head towards Stratford upon Avon with the idea of parking above it on the canal and then biking back into town. We took mainly back roads through some lovely old villages full of stone cottages and some amazing large houses in beautiful rolling English countryside. We also noticed a brand-new housing estate with a beautifully newly thatched show house – don’t think we have ever seen a brand-new house with a thatched roof. We used the Stratford ring road to avoid the centre and spotted a sign for Anne Hathaway’s cottage so made a small detour there in the village of Shottery. After paying £2 for three hours in the private carpark we walked the hundred metres to the stunning cottage knowing full well that it would cost an arm and a leg to get in. We were not disappointed at the entrance building when we saw it was £22 per adult, that affected us very deeply and we were in deep shock, we later learned that was the price for a collective entrance fee to four local Shakespeare attractions so it wasn’t so bad after all but I still think it was £14 to visit the lovely cottage and pretty Tudor garden. Mag had seen a walk across the road so we investigated and discovered you could walk into Stratford in just over a mile so we did that instead so we could get good value from the carpark. The footpath past yet more old cottages, parks and housing estates bringing you out near the town centre. A sign directed us to Shakespeare’s burial place at the Holy Trinity Church. It is an impressive old church built right next to the River Avon and is approached along a nice tree lined avenue. We were shocked that it was free to enter but then you had to make a £3 donation to see his grave. I paid while Mag headed outside as she is not a lover of churches! He is buried under the floor in front of the alter next to Anne and to be honest it’s a little underwhelming but there was a nice stained-glass window and a lifelike monument of William made just after he died so it was £3 not completely wasted! We are cultural philistines knowing next to nothing of the works of William Shakespeare but we amused ourselves with the old rhyme I said at school including the first line - Shakespeare was a man of wit and on his shirt, he had some ?????? shirt buttons actually:) Also made several references to Morecambe and Wise ‘the Play What I Wrote’!!! :) Leaving the church, we walked along the river with so many different nationalities enjoying their day of culture. There was a fun fair, a large millennium style big wheel and a variety of boats to hire at extortionate prices! To say that Stratford is Shakespeare crazy is an understatement with references everywhere – even the hire boats had Shakespearian character names! As we passed the Royal Shakespeare Company theatre we were not tempted to book a night at the theatre! At the marina at the start of the Stratford Canal we crossed a lovely pedestrian bridge and returned on the busy version used by the traffic. We stopped at the Canal trust narrowboat, spoke to a nice lady and got a Midlands Canal map. Then it was off in search of Williams birthplace. The centre of Stratford is odd really - wide streets with beautiful old Tudor houses including his birthplace mixed with the usual tat from the modern world. It was much too expensive to stop at his birthplace and Mag is never a fan of going into old buildings – she only likes the outside (a cheap date!!). So, we continued back to the van where we still had an hour left on the car park so Mag made a delicious mackerel salad:) According to our UK canal map there is an interesting cycle route on the canal above Stratford so we headed north. We followed the signs to Mary Arden’s House, who you may well ask, we have no idea either but there was a picture of her on a pub and she is some Tudor lady, we will google her later! Her house turned out to be a stunning Tudor Cottage that is part of a working farm and looked well worth a visit even from a couple of tight arses like us, but we passed and continued to look for a spot to park. As usual with stopping by canals we ended up driving around for a bit before ending up at the small carpark for Edstone Aqueduct, apparently the longest in England and impressive it was high above the van. We quickly climbed the steep steps to the canal just as a narrowboat crossed making for some nice pics. We spent a nice couple of hours in the warm sunshine relaxing and reading, I even managed to do my exercises the first time for several days. Then we had a mile or so walk along the canal which was pretty much deserted and not busy like the last canal. Tomorrow if the weather is kind we will bike north where there are a couple more aqueducts and a set of several locks hoping to make it to Kingswood Junction where it meets the Grand Union Canal! Photo Gallery Here |
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