Last Saturday it was semi-sunny out so we decided to do some local sightseeing. We drove about 40 miles northwest to Stratford-upon-Avon, the hometown and burial place of William Shakespeare.
The drive was almost all on country roads and we enjoyed the English scenery and quiet little villages along the way. I did my usual drive-by shooting, which never makes for great photos but are some of the pictures I enjoy the most later.
The drive was also my first experience with David's new toy, a sat nav (satellite navigation) unit that displays a moving digital map and gives you verbal directions like, "in 500 yards, cross the roundabout and take the second exit." It's very cool, and they are all the rage here in the UK.
Stratford itself was nice. It is a huge tourist destination because of Shakespeare, but thankfully the biggest crowds come in the summer. We found it to be a lot like the old center of Oxford, but with lots more half-timbered buildings than we have. Even the Pizza Hut was built into the lower level of a genuine half-timbered structure (I thought the timbers were painted on until I looked close).
This building below had interesting designs carved into its timbers, which looked oddly Mayan to me. Unfortunately I don't know its date.
As you might guess, nearly every business in town is named after Shakespeare or related to him in some way. Anne Hathaway's Tea Room looked like it had some lovely goodies, but was rather crowded.
Of course the most important building in town is the birthplace of Shakespeare, which is right in the center of the city on a pedestrian street that reminded me a lot of Oxford's Cornmarket (only less crowded!).
The poet was born here in 1564. You can go inside the house, which has been furnished with antiques from that Elizabethan period, but apparently there isn't a lot of original stuff to be seen. 
A huge modern museum has been built next door. Neither of us really cared to see the museum or inside of the house - lines, people, admission fee, not much to see anyway - so we didn't.
We were both more interested in seeing Shakespeare's grave, which is in the Holy Trinity Church on the outskirts of town. The church itself sounded like a good one, and we're having fun collecting grave visits of English luminaries: we had Winston Churchill, C.S. Lewis and J.R.R. Tolkien so far and Shakespeare seems like an excellent addition.
On our way to the church we passed the Guildhall and Guild Chapel, which were really interesting. The complex dates from 1269 and consists of a Norman-looking chapel (far left) connected to a really long half-timbered building that was a hospital for the poor and a grammar school.
Inside the Guild Chapel were some neat old murals, carvings and some nice stained-glass windows.
Then it was another 10 minutes' walk to the church, through pleasant streets and buildings.
Holy Trinity Church was very cool, even with its unfortunate scaffolding covering much of the exterior. It is approached by a nice little avenue lined with big lime trees and the old tombstones of the churchyard. The trees apparently represent the 12 tribes of Israel on the left and the 12 apostles on the right, with a holly bush representing Judas! As a person named Holly, I must ask: what's with that?!
The church was built in various stages from 1210 to 1520 and it's very pretty inside. The entire length of the nave and chancel are solid stained glass windows, which brought in a lot of beautiful sunlight. It also forced me experiment with my exposure settings - something David already does but I had been too lazy to learn yet. Viva la difference:
The nave of the church was free to visit, but there was a £1.50 enforced "donation" to enter the chancel where the grave of Shakespeare is (straight ahead under the arch and organ).
Shakespeare's tomb has pride of place in front of the altar in the beautiful chancel, along with several members of his family. The epitaph has been all but rubbed off
so they've reprinted it on a placard. On the wall above his grave is a monument with a portrait bust and nearby is the font he was baptized in and a replica of the baptismal record with his name in it.
On our way home we stopped by a wonderful hotel we'd seen from the road on the way up, which looked like it was once a castle or a mansion. Looked like a nice place to spend the night!
We made a wrong turn near the driveway of the hotel, and when we found a place to turn around, we had two donkeys staring at us! They were so cute and friendly, and a nice way to end a good day out.
There are more photos on Flickr.
