London 3rd Day: March 24, 2006

Today I ran out to Stratford on Avon to see how much trouble it would be to get there. Boy was I glad I did THAT on my own first! The 2nd time will be lots easier!

I was in a big hurry to get out this morning, because I knew it would take over 2 hours to get there on the train. I took the tube to Oxford Circus, changed tubes, went to Marylebone. Found the place to buy a ticket for Stratford OK, but the next train did not go for 1 hour. I found out later that 9:00 is the first direct train of the day, so it would not have done me any good to get there earlier.

After wandering around the Marylebone station for awhile, I remembered that Dad's people come from Marylebone, so I decided to go find the church. It was only a few blocks away, so with my trusty maps, I walked over and found it. That's what you see in the picture at the left. I could not get in; it's not really very big or fancy, and all doors were locked, though I could hear someone in there working. I took pictures (of course.) I did find two schools next to it, and wondered if any of Dad's ancestors went to those schools.

On the train I quite enjoyed seeing the English countryside again, with hedgerows and sheep and rolling hills. As you get farther away from London, the trees start to leaf out; must be warmer out of the city going north?

Train stops on the way included very familiar names: High Wicombe, Banbury, Warwick, and a bunch of others. The ride was really quite smooth with nice blue plush seats - lots more room than an airline!

In Stratford, I walked half a mile from the station into town and bought a ticket for the bus that runs you around to all the Shakespeare Trust properties. I hopped on and found that it drives right past the train station on the way out to Anne Hathaway's house. I could have saved myself the walk. Aargh!

I liked all the houses, but Mary Arden's home was the very best. It's the girlhood home of Shakespeare's mother. It's several miles out of town in a little old village, and they have a working medieval farm with several barns and 2 houses. There are rare breeds of sheep and "longhorn" cattle and all kinds of hawks. I watched an owl with orange eyes fly and catch a piece of a yellow baby chick and eat it all, even the beak! All the birds started squawking when a heron flew over and the owl ruffled out his feathers to make himself look bigger.

The Shakespeare Trust had an embarrassing moment in 1999 when they discovered that the house they'd been telling people for over a hundred years was Mary Arden's house, actually wasn't! The real one was next door. Fortunately they had bought the right house in 1966 to prevent new development next door. So now you get to go through both houses and several barns, and there is even a nice walk out through the pastures in back, which I did of course take.



Back in town I went into the village church where Shakespeare is buried and then walked all along the River Avon. There are houseboat-barges tied up there and swans and it's really quite colorful and picturesque. After waiting around in town because my train back to London didn't go until 5:40, I discovered the last bus back to the station had gone at 4:00. Aargh again! So I had to walk probably a mile back to the station. That's what the British call "a short 10-minute walk." It actually took me about 20 minutes.


On the train home I was so tired I kept falling asleep. Home by 8:45.