March 29th 2016. Hamlet in Stratford.

We spent Easter weekend in Stratford. Robin made hot cross buns in honour of the occasion.

Nice buns!

The weather was changeable, including some thundering rain on Monday morning, but as soon as the rain stopped the trippers and their entertainments were out in force again. We ate our late breakfast to the sound of drumming and discovered Morris dancers doing their thing on the bank opposite.

We were serenaded by this lot all day on Monday! You can see the Swan theatre in the background.

We did some Shakespeare touristing; seeing his birthplace and the church where he is buried. We particularly enjoyed going up the tower of the Royal Shakespeare Company Swan Theatre and looking down on the town and the river. It was really windy and the noise up there was terrific, making it particularly atmospheric (Robin) / scary (Jo).

 

Looking down on the canal basin. Harold is hiding behind a tree.

The River Avon, just where the lock takes you through from the canal.

The River Avon heading South to Tewkesbury.
The church spire you can see is where Shakespeare is buried. 

However, the highlight of our stay was seeing a brilliant performance of Hamlet at the theatre on Monday night. It was Robin's first live Shakespeare play and he loved it!

 

We had considered going down the Avon to Tewkesbury, where we would link up with the Severn going North. However, it's not an easy river with fast changes in levels and perhaps best left to summertime. We'll be glad of an excuse to come back to Stratford anyway. So on Tuesday we left the way we came in, travelling 3.5 miles and going back up the 15 locks. It started to rain shortly before we reached the top so we moored near to what was supposed to be Shakespeare Mothers house which we'll go and have a look at tomorrow morning, just to finish off our visit to Shakespeare country.