Today after breakfast, we boarded the bus for the two hour trip to Stratford-Upon-Avon. Situated on the River Avon, and commonly known as just Stratford, the charming market town is in the county of Warwickshire most well known for being the birthplace and burial place of playwright and poet William Shakespeare. William and his wife, Anne Hathaway are both from Stratford and went on to raise their children here. The group spent the morning exploring Shakespeare's family home, which at one time also housed his father's glove making shop. William was born in the birthing room and lived in the home all the way through his first five years of marriage to Anne. Their own children, Susanna, Judith and Hamnet were also born in the house. After passing through the family for several centuries, the home was sold to Thomas Court in 1806 and then put up for sale by Court's widow in 1864. In order to save the building a public campaign was launched, supported by Charles Dickens. The property was purchased at auction by the Shakespeare Birthplace Trust in 1847 for £3,000 and has been cared for by the Trust ever since.
After leaving the Shakespeare home, we were free to explore the quaint little downtown area of Stratford and, as luck would have it, there was a food and drink festival this weekend. More that a hundred vendors were set up selling just about every kind of food, drink and trinkets that you could imagine! A few of us even stopped in for a bite to eat at the Boston Tea Party Cafe.
On our way out of Stratford, we stopped for photo op at the childhood home of Shakespeare's wife, Anne Hathaway. Tomorrow we will spend our last full day exploring Winsor Castle.
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