Friday: Stratford-upon-Avon

After experiencing a fantastic production of Hamlet the night before, we got up early in the morning to walk to Anne Hathaway's family property. It was a 20 minute walk into another town via back roads and parks.

Park on the way to the Hathaway Cottage

It was a beautiful walk, most of it between walls because we were basically walking along the easements behinds private properties. But the path was well traveled, paved in some spots, and passing through a large green area where people were exercising their dogs.

The Hathaway Cottage is a property extending for some acres, containing formal gardens, wild gardens, vegetable gardens, herb gardens, wooded areas, and an open green for special events. It also has the original house that has been built on through the centuries. The house Shakespeare came courting in! Reminded me of walking through the Jacob Hamblin home in Santa Clara, UT only the Hathaway Cottage is older with more history attached.

upstairs chamber in old house

kitchen - that is a huge fireplace!

Mary needed to check the temperature

Herb Gardens

The Bowery

Gardens outside of Cottage

I was here!

fantastic!

Had to take a picure

over stream and into woods

This guy was showing me the way

to this lovely spot!

The light for the day was wonderful

inside this was recording of people reading Shakespeare's sonnets

The best part was the gardens, it was heavenly there. We spent around an hour or two exploring, and then all 36 of us trooped back to Stratford-upon-Avon for a short tour of Hall's Croft. It was the home of Shakespeare's son-in-law, Dr. Hall, who married his eldest daughter. Interesting, but putting the two together I much preferred the Hathaway Cottage.

Hall's Croft

bit of Hall's Croft back lawn

Hello world, I'm enjoying this town!

Then we had the rest of the day to explore the town until the show that night. I went back to the B&B for a few hours, then walked out to explore, grab dinner, and meet up at the Theatre.

Monument to Shakespeare and his works, this is Hamlet

This river is full of swans, they are all over the place!

What a beautiful scene!

The play was Shakespeare's Cymbeline. It is not one of his better known or often produced plays - because it is very busy and intricate. It is one of his later plays, written in the latter years of his life. Many of the actors we saw the night before in Hamlet were also in this production. Laertes in Hamlet was a villain named Cloten in Cymbeline, Horatio from Hamlet was the male protaganist Posthumos in Cymbaline, and Ophelia from Hamlet was the hidden princess and heir to the throne in Cymbeline.

Cymbeline Cast and Creative Team

For being such an intricate play, it was a good production. I had so much fun!!