On Saturday morning, we dragged rolled our suitcases to the lobby to be loaded onto the bus. We headed to Stratford-Upon-Avon. This was a day filled with all sorts of cool history.
We are in line at the cottage/home of Anne Hathaway. It was a brisk morning, but we were dressed appropriately (ish).
They provided a basket of windfall apples. Those are the apples that have fallen from the tree, but are still edible. It was one of the best apples! It was fresh and juicy.
There was a fun photo op while we waited. Mark and I had a friend snap our photo.
And then the three musketeers (Lisa, Laura, Terrie - we all work on the church staff) had someone snap our photo.
I loved going through this old home. The original cottage was built in 1463. Anne's grandfather moved to the home in 1542, and the family lived there for 13 generations. The home was modest at first but received additions in 1610 and 1624.
They even had a laundry room!
The beds in all of these old homes were tiny. A house tour guide told us that they slept sitting up. They often did this for a mix of health beliefs, superstition, and practicality.
Can you imagine cooking in that ginormous fireplace. A fire that big would make a room really warm.
After we toured her home, we headed down to see Shakespeare's home. This is from Wikipedia: The house itself is relatively simple, but for the late 16th
century it would have been considered quite a substantial dwelling. John
Shakespeare, William's father, was a glove maker and wool dealer,
and the house was originally divided in two parts to allow him to carry out his
business from the same premises.
His dad was a glove maker and he could do business through a window.
They even had examples of how the animals for meals would be stored.
After touring the home and exiting through the giftshop (I didn't buy a thing), we asked the tour guide (Helen) from the other bus for a lunch recommendation. Mark loves Thai, Indian, etc. and we were told that the best in the world would be found in England.
We headed to Sabai Sabai. There were four of us - Ian, Nathan, Mark, and me.
It was delicious!
Our lunch took us right up to the moment where we needed to board our bus. I snapped a few photos of the scenery through the bus window.
I took this photo and texted it to my sister-in-law. She is from a town (in the U.S.) that has the name Clopton. Lo and behold -- Clopton was on this road sign.
I love looking at the pastures and sheep and other livestock. This looks so peaceful to me.
I've always heard of The Cotswolds, but had no idea what to expect. This village was so quaint and pretty.
I loved this display in front of a deli.
I don't think I bought anything in this town either. I love how this tree is growing up against the building.
We passed someone we know and we asked her to snap a quick photo of us.
We were almost back to the bus when I spotted this door . . . another lovely door!!
We arrived at the Delta Hotel in Swindon - a Marriott. This would be our home for a couple of nights.
This was the view from our window in our room.
I don't know if you noticed that this was Saturday. We all live right in the middle of SEC football territory and both Auburn and Alabama were playing in the evening. We took over a lounge in the hotel and had two Ipads - one with each game. The room was almost equally divided. A miracle happened. Alabama lost and Auburn won. People kept stepping into the room to see if they were missing a party. We tried to explain our football vs. their soccer(football or is it futbol? how do you spell it?)
It was a fun night.
Several had stepped out for more beverages, the bathroom, etc., in these pictures, plus more of us joined in. We apologized for being loud Americans.
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