Stratford-upon-Avon, Day 2

Tuesday, June 24

Today was Shakespeare "immersion" day, as we headed into town to visit some of the properties relating to the bard. Stratford upon Avon really is his town, even though he spent a lot of his life in London to further his career as a actor, playwright, theatre owner and entrepreneur. He was certainly born here, christened as a baby and then buried in the local church as they still have the records to prove it.

Will Shakespeare's birthplace

First up was his birthplace, which is celebrating the 450th anniversary of his birth, and the exhibition they had for him was great. The Trust which administers his properties and everything else related to him has a treasure trove of items relating to Will, and many of these were on display. There was also a multi-media presentation of how many of his plays and writings have been adapted to the times over the years, for example there's a Doctor Who and Star Wars "translation", a hip-hop Shakespeare company, and even The Simpsons have "done" Shakespeare! We liked the display showing how many of the sayings we use today actually come from him.

Everyday sayings from plays by Shakespeare

The guides in this house (as well as the others we visited) were fabulous and gave us a great understanding of life in Tudor times and, of course, the history of Shakespeare and his family. The lady in the room where Will and his siblings were born was a scream and she covered all the nitty gritty, including the fact that the children slept in the trundle bed next to the parents, and then the servants would sleep on the floor, so it would have been a crowded bedroom with no privacy!

The room Will was born in

Although the house Will lived in was demolished in the late 1700s and is now a vacant block with a beautiful garden, the house next door was a great example of a Tudor house like his would have been.

Nash's house and the vacant block where Will's house used to stand

The next property was called Hall's Croft and was the home of Will's daughter and her husband, a doctor called John Hall. They were very well off plus Will gave the house to them as a wedding present. He bought it for £120 at a time when a worker earned £5 a year! It was a big house for the time - it even had glass in the windows, which would have been hand made in Germany and therefore only the very rich could afford it. The walled garden was planted with herbs and vegetables used by Dr. Hall in some of his remedies - a book on display was a record of how he treated some of his patients, and today it looked like it wasn't far removed from quackery!

Hall's Croft

Finally we reached the Holy Trinity Church where Will was baptised when he was 3 days old, and where his funeral was held 52 years later (he actually died on his birthday). The present building dates from 1210 but the Chancel where Will and his family's graves are was added in the late 1400s. The church still has the baptismal font that was used when Will was baptised (although it served as a cattle feeding trough for a couple of hundred years before being returned to the church), first edition King James Bible from 1611 that would have been used when Will attended church and the original records of his birth and funeral.

Holy Trinity Church

Will and Anne's graves

(On the wall is a bust erected in 1623 by Anne and some of his friends)

Our impression of Stratford upon Avon was that it has obviously always been a place that attracted wealthy people, and over the years, as it has expanded, it has continued to do this. We felt it had a great atmosphere with lots of history and culture, beautiful homes and lovely scenery. Definitely worth a return visit.

 

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Chester to Stratford-Upon-Avon, England

Monday, June 23

With the sun shining, we departed Chester via Sat Nav's "fastest route". Of course, this meant toll roads and motorways and therefore not a lot of scenery but we were keen to get to Shakespeare's birth place to do some exploring. We were surprised at how much traffic was on the motorways for a Monday morning but we still made good time and arrived at 12.30 pm.

After a quick check-in, we were off to lunch at The Crown, just down the road. It really was a funny lunch because there were two old boys at another table and we could have sworn we were on the set of "The Vicar of Dibley" with the chap that stammers "no, no, yes" all the time. It was difficult to concentrate on our meals because the very loud conversation going on was hysterical. Thankfully, they left so we could finish our meals.

When we left, the sky had clouded over and it was threatening to rain - definitely not forecast. We toyed with the idea of returning for brollies but decided to head the mile and a half into town without them. This proved a good choice because the sun came out again and it was really quite hot. The walk into town was great. The road we are on is in a very well to do area so we passed some amazing houses including one currently being renovated for James Bond - Daniel Craig (the B&B manager told us this).

The house Daniel Craig is having renovated for himself

Because the weather was so gorgeous, we decided to do a boat trip on the Avon - us and nearly everyone else in town! The first company we approached did not have a boat leaving for an hour or so, so we continued on. Finally we selected a boat that was leaving in 15 minutes so we got on board to wait in the shade and have a leisurely look around at what was going on beside the river. Deck chairs were available for £2 an hour and many had been hired. Again, there was a predominance of oldies around. Next thing there was a thud and an elderly man had tripped on a step in our boat and hit his face on another man's knee so was very dazed and bleeding. This caused a flurry of activity but also meant that our boat wasn't going anywhere in 15 minutes. An ambulance was called and the elderly man was helped off and attended to on one of the deck chairs - hopefully at no charge! (It certainly brought back memories for me of times with Dad and I felt very sorry for the two women whose Dad it was). We were finally away about 20 minutes late but the beauty of being on hols is that time doesn't really matter. It was a really pleasant, relaxing trip and we were pleased that it took us along the river running behind some of the lovely homes we had walked past - how the other half live!

Al on the bridge over the Avon River

The tranquility of the Avon River

Noelle waiting for the boat trip to begin

After our boat trip we walked around Stratford's pretty town centre. There were lots of buildings like Chester has with striking black and white top storeys above intricate red brick ground floors. So many buildings had flower baskets filled to overflowing with bright Spring blooms so the streetscape was really picturesque. We stopped for a coffee in a quaint coffee shop and picked up a brochure there advertising an upcoming concert featuring Gerry & The Pacemakers, The Searchers, PJ Proby and a number of other 60's bands but, sadly, not happening until well after our departure - how we would have loved to go to that.

Al outside one of the pubs in Stratford

Noelle outside supposedly the most haunted house in Britain

Everything around Stratford has a very "Shakespeare" flavour about it - buildings featuring his portrait, food and beer featuring his name, etc. but tourism is so important to many English towns so if they have some important history or a famous personality, they have to flaunt it.

One of the "Shakespeare" signs

The HSBC Bank featuring a portrait of Will

And is that Henry Vlll?

Before heading "home", we stopped for dinner at a local pub and as we ate, watched Australia play Spain in their last game of the World Cup. Australia lost 0:3 but it didn't spoil our delicious meal. We are looking forward to an early night and a lot more exploring tomorrow.

 

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Chester, England - Day 2

Sunday, June 22

The weather was perfect for our walk around the city walls of Chester so we set off from a point near the cathedral. The walk is about 3 kms long and the Victorians used it to parade around in their finery and show off. We didn't feel dressed to do the same. It was interesting to see how the heights of the walls varied so much in different spots - from about 10 feet to well over 50 feet - with the higher points being along the canal and the River Dee.

The city wall near the canal

 

Along the way there were various information boards that gave us some history plus copies of paintings showing what that spot would have looked like in the past. As the town grew, newer and more efficient modes of transport were built and we were amused to see that when the railway came to this part of the country in the mid 1800's, the cutting for it went right through the old wall - imagine that happening today!

Chester was a bustling port in medieval times when ocean going vessels could sail up the River Dee and deliver a wide range of cargoes. The main quay was at a gate along the wall called Watergate (descriptions made sense back then), but in the late16th century the River Dee started silting up and Chester no longer could operate as a port.

The Watergate area today

Earlier in the 16th century a semi circular area nearby called the Roodee silted up and became the Chester Racecourse in 1539, making it the oldest racecourse in Britain. It is still in use today (well, next weekend actually) and in 1946 a crowd of 104,000 attended the Chester Cup. We got a great view over the racecourse from the city wall as we continued our walk along the wall.

Chester Racecourse, the oldest in Britain

We took a short break from walking the walls to visit the Grosvenor Museum which told the story of Chester from Roman rule to Victorian elegance, and included fabulous archeological finds from around the area. There was an exhibition on Roman Stones that were actually headstones from an early Roman graveyard in Chester. They were only found in the late 1800s when parts of the wall collapsed because they had been used as fill to repair damage to the wall centuries before. This helped preserve them as no-one knew they were there! The museum was in a great building and the exhibits very well presented. We really enjoyed it and ended up spending a couple of hours there. We now have a much better perspective on Chester's long history - people have lived there since the 3rd century!

The Grosvenor Museum

It was then back to walking the walls. Next, we came to the Grosvenor Bridge which was the longest single span arch bridge in the world when it was built in 1833, and it retained that title for 30 years. Not much further along the wall we came to the Old Dee bridge which was built in the late 14th century and is still used today. There was originally a bridge on this site dating back to the Roman era, so it has always been a very important crossing over the River Dee.

The Grosvenor Bridge

The Old Dee Bridge

Another detour from the walls took us to St. John's church. Its history goes back to Anglo Saxon times but a lot of that earlier church was destroyed or has collapsed over the years but was rebuilt in a major way in the late 19th century. We were fortunate when we entered that a rehearsal was taking place for a concert tonight and the orchestra was practising some beautiful classical music which added to the experience of seeing the majesty of this church.

We completed our walk around the walls then headed to an old pub under one of the shops along the historic Rows for a traditional English roast dinner. On the way back to our B&B we checked out the Chester Railway Station which was built to cater for the increasing number of visitors in the late 1800s but unfortunately it had lost a lot of its character due to the inclusion of modern facilities. Stone Villas wasn't too far away so we were happy to put our feet up and enjoy a sherry and a cuppa to end another great day of exploring.

The end of our walk around the walls, and farewell to historic Chester

 

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Conwy, Wales to Chester, England

Saturday, June 21

Last night we "googled" Chester and found there was a Midsummer Watch Festival happening today that was starting with a parade at 2pm. With not much idea about the Festival, we decided that, as it was a once a year event, we should make the effort to get there. The distance to Chester is only 55 miles so we headed off around 10am and arrived about 11.30am - too early for our room to be ready at Stone Villa - our home for the next 2 nights, so we left our car in their car park and set off on foot.

Stone Villa

Happily, we found we were only a 15 minute walk to the city centre - and what a city! A large percentage of the buildings are Tudor style with the ground floor being constructed in red brick and the floors above being in the traditional black and white - a real feast for the eye. We walked over a road bridge and saw a large barge tourist boat turning around in a canal bowl. We stopped and watched the driver manoeuvre the barge very deftly - quite fascinating. We continued on into the walled city centre that was absolutely buzzing with people enjoying their weekend in the sun. The streets in the centre are mostly cobblestoned so it required watching our footing as well as looking in the quaint shop windows and also looking at the buildings the shops are housed in - not an easy task without eyes in the top/back of your head.

Clever manoeuvring of a canal barge

 

The star attraction in the shopping area is the famous Eastgate Clock, built to celebrate Queen Victoria's Diamond Jubilee in 1897. After taking photos from the street level, we climbed the steps to take us across the bridge that the clock sits on for a different perspective of both the clock and the city streets.

The Eastgate Clock

An info board told us about the unique 700 year old Rows shopping galleries that take retail therapy to another level - a very clever marketing pun as the Rows are actually overhanging buildings that create a colonnade beneath thus giving more than one level of shops. Some of the intricate designs on the ceilings of the colonnades are really lovely creating really beautiful galleries that the majority of store owners have taken full advantage of by dressing their windows to suit the style.

Some of the Rows shopping galleries

As it was nearing 2 pm, we made our way to the Town Hall, another very attractive building, from where the parade was to start. We saw floats, "giant" people, dragons, etc. but apart from it reminding us of Moomba in Melbourne, we had no appreciation of it at all. We were handed a brochure that explained that back in Tudor times (the parade was first recorded back in 1498), Chester's Midsummer Watch Parade was renowned throughout the country. It was organized by the various trade guilds in the city - a spectacular street procession, joyous and colourful, to celebrate Midsummer's Eve. The outstanding feature of the parades were the Giants. Chester had a whole family of them - father, mother and two daughters - and there were also enormous beasts - the unicorn, the camel, the dragon and an elephant. Apparently the parades were abandoned in the mid 1600's but revived again in 1989, loosely based on records of the original parade.

Al with Mother & Daughter Giant & a friendly Pirate

We took our places along the roadside and watched a motley array of characters taking up their positions. Some of it seemed quite corny and the outfits amateurish but we couldn't fault the enthusiasm of participants and spectators alike. We saw all the characters and beasts mentioned above but there were also a lot of demons and angels with no explanation of why. We also saw pirate ships and pirates - perhaps because Chester was an important port.

Chester's 2014 Midsummer Watch Parade in full swing

Next stop for us was the Roman Amphitheatre where an info board told us that 7000 spectators could enjoy circuses, festivals, gladiator fights and the public doling out of punishments there. Not much remains today but it certainly would have made a statement for the Romans in its day! A mural depicting what it would have looked like has recently been added to a section of the remains.

The remains of a Roman Ampitheatre - the largest in Britain and the mural along one side depicting how it would have looked

.... and a new victor!

We then walked to Chester Cathedral which is over 1000 years old and very impressive both inside and out. We saw that Evensong was starting in 20 minutes so decided to stay and listen to that. The choir sounded wonderful and we enjoyed the whole thing.

Chester Cathedral

Evensong Organist at the magnificent pipe organ

It was then time to return to Stone Villa and check in formally. There seems to be a lot more to do in Chester tomorrow so an early night is in order tonight.

On our way home, we spotted this sign at a very entrepreneurial coffee shop - very handy for bored husbands on shopping trips!

 

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Conwy, Wales - Day 4

Friday, June 20

Another day, another castle, this time Conwy Castle. This was also built by Edward l in the late 13th century and only took 4 years to build at a cost of 15,000 pounds (about 45 million in today's money), and is now part of a World Heritage site. The castle is in a fantastic position on the River Conwy and is built on an outcrop of rock for its foundations.

Looking over the Conwy River (in the wind)

View of Conwy town

It's located within the walls of the town of Conwy, which is one of the finest remaining medieval walled towns in Britain. Access to the town is via one of 3 bridges: the suspension bridge built in 1826 and up until 1958 was the only road bridge across the river to the town; the rail bridge built in 1858/9 and is still in use; and the road bridge is modern.

Road bridge, suspension bridge and enclosed rail bridge

 

In the castle there were towers to climb, fantastic views from the turrets, walls to walk around and rooms and corridors within the towers to explore. The royal apartments were the fanciest we've seen as this castle was the only one completely finished. Amazingly though, only 3 kings have ever stayed here in the castle's 700 year history!

The apartments inside the castle

 

The custodians of the castle have integrated some interesting works of art into the story of the castle, sometimes using similar materials to that originally used, others evoking the spirit of the Welsh and English princes and kings, while others highlighted the scenery of Northern Wales with poetry. A really good thing they have done for kids is to have a quiz card for them to fill out with clues that can be solved at various sites around the castle making it interesting for them while teaching them some history.

Noelle and friend made from beams of oak

King Edward l hovers over his Chamber

 

After exploring the castle we wandered through the town which contains the smallest house in Great Britain (it only measures 10 ft by 4 ft 2 in), a lovely square, some 14th century houses and some classy shops.

Lady in Welsh costume outside the smallest house in Great Britain

Lancaster Square in Conwy

 

It was time for a change of pace so we headed back to the seaside resort of Llandudno to visit some of the attractions we didn't have time to see yesterday. We drove up the Great Orme (the big hill overlooking the town) to see a 4,000 year old mine which is the world's largest Bronze Age mine. It was only discovered in 1987.

The Bronze Age mine on the Great Orme

While we were there we saw the cable cars going up and down from the town to the summit. The tramway opened in 1902 and was an engineering marvel of its age - it is the only cable-hauled tramway still operating on British public roads. The track is only 1500 metres long but it climbs over 200 metres in height, and it was easy to see why it was built - the gradient of the road was 20 degrees in some parts! The views from the summit were spectacular.

Al and a cable car on the Great Orme Tramway

 

Being a Friday and in a seaside resort, we couldn't go past fish and chips for dinner, and found a pub located in a renovated old theatre called The Palladium. What could be better than cod, chips and peas with a pint of ale to end another sunny day.

Inside The Palladium pub in Llandudno

 

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