To Blog Or Not To Blog

No question.

We're in Stratford and I have half an hour before I meet McH to catch a bus for Chipping Campden, a small village in the Cotswolds. We're going to have lunch there, and walk arm and arm through the country, like Jane and Cassandra would have done.

Stratford is charming, though rather touristy. Our timing is perfect though, there aren't many tourists here yet. Last night we took a twilight river tour on a barge and we were the only ones. This morning I was all about the Bard. I visited Anne Hathaway's house--it was lovely. I learned where the expression, "don't throw the baby out with the bathwater" comes from. Back then, they bathed once a year. Father would go first, and all the scum and lice would float to the top. Then mother, then the children (many) with the baby going last. The water would be so filthy by then, you could barely see the babe. Cakes, you have it good.





I also visited Shakespeare's birthplace and the museum. It was a little under-whelming. Last night we visited his grave, at Holy Trinity church.

We had another killer meal last night. We found a lovely restuarant with fresh fish--I had a platter with seabass, dorade, and trout. We had a wonderful Portuguese wine (Quinta Da Muta 2006) with it. We're finding the house wines are cheap and fabulous here.

Our bus ride from London to Stratford was very scenic. There was a traffic jam on the main highway, so we took a meandering route that was lovely. The fields are so lushly green, and there are whole fields filled with yellow flowers (rapeseed or canola).





Tonight we see a Royal Shakespeare Company play (The Seagull--they're doing Lear this summer but not right now). Spamalot was a blast. The musical numbers were fab and all my favourite bits were there--the killer bunny, the black knight, the french guards.

That reminds me--just before we left, Cakes said her first sentence (in front of her grandparents too). It was--wait for it--"I fart". Now, I just need to train her to say, "I fart in your general direction."

Pub tally: 23