This morning we made the short ride up to Stratford-upon-Avon, one of the places that Linda and I were most anxious to see.  Naturally, for the first time on our trip, the weather was murky. We learned several other terms for this type of weather: the English often call it manky and the gaelic term is dreicky. In any case, it was dizzling rain.

Stratford is now a town of about 25,000, and in Shakespeare’s time it had around 1,500 inhabitants. Peter guided us about the center of town and explained some of the history from Shakespeare’s day.

Since he has done some serious acting himself, Peter was especially keen on describing the history and operation of the Royal Shakespeare Center. In one of the exhibits at the RSC, Linda and I was startled to learn that Tchaikovsky’s skull was actually used in one of the performances of Hamlet. (Months later we learned that this was actually the skull of Polish composer/pianist Andre Tchaikowsky, not Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky.)

After a light lunch Linda and I returned to the Holy Trinity Church, where Shakespeare is buried. His grave is behind a low railing at one end of the church, with his wife Anne on one side and his two daughters and a son-in-law (I think) on the other. On the church wall near his grave is a monument dedicated to him. Apparently, this was commissioned during his daughter’s lifetime and is thought to be good resemblance of The Bard.

Most of the group went on the the Hidcote Gardens just a short way from the hotel.  Because of the dreicky  weather (and to enable me to catch up on this darned blog), Linda and I decided to skip the gardens. Obviously, we will now hear how lovely they were.

After still another very good meal at the hotel, we headed back to our rooms to pack up and prepare for our move in the morning–luggage is to be outside the room at 7:00am.