Long walk for lunch

Hey everybody. So yesterday we had a day off and no plans so we took a look in the National Trust book and headed off to Baddesley-Clinton House. Its an old tudor manor house which is surrounded by its own moat! The nearest train station is 2 miles walk away but that was fine so we bundled up in our warm coats and scarfs and hats and set off down the country road. It was another one of those estates that has a really long drive way so that when we actually turned off the road we still had like another mile to walk! Then we got to the house and found out that the house was closed for the winter. Oops. Only the garden and restaurant were open so we had a nice lunch and a walk around the garden and the fish pond. We did get to look around the outside of the house so I guess that's not too bad. So afterwards we walked back to the station and luckly caught the 2:35 train back to Warwick (because the next train wasn't for another 2 hours!).

So thats our story.

In fair Stratford, where we lay our scene...

Today we visited the home and birthplace of the worlds most famous playwright! thats right William Shakespeare himself!! we stood in the very room where he was born and walked on the same floor that he once had!

We went to Stratford on Avon today.! It was pouring with rain and freezing cold but it was a great day out! Having decided to go today on our day off a wee bit of nasty weather wasnt going to stop us.

There are three Shakespeare trust houses in the town which we visited all of them, the first is The Birthplace. This was the house where Shakespeares parents lived and he grew up. They had costumed guides on each room telling you about the life and times which was quite interesting, including John Shakespeare (williams father) telling us all about his house!!!

Along the main street there was a Christmas shop!!! with so many christmas decorations it was awesome, it even smelled of christmas. i reckon it would drive you insane to work there tho with the music all the time!!!

We had lunch at a quite quaint tea rooms where the lady was really chatty and friendly and all the locals were popping in and out to exchange news and gossip with her.

after lunch we made our way to New Place which is were William Shakespreare and Anne Hathaway lived for the last years of their marriage untill his death. All the buildings (in fact most of the buildings in the centre of Stratford) were in the black and white tudor timber style which was really cool! all of the houses have really amazing gardens too so it was a shame we were visiting in the rain and winter.

The last house was Hall's Croft which is where Shakespeares daughter lived with her husband who was a doctor in the town. there were some interesting displays of doctors equipment and again a really informative guide who explained the history and stories of the house to us.

We then made our way to the church of the holy trinity other wise known as shakespeares church to see his grave and had a look around what is a really lovely church.
We walked along th banks of the flooded River Avon past the Royal Shakespeare Theatre company theatres. Romeo and Juliet is playing next montha nd January so we might come back for a performance sometime.

By this time we were freezing and a bit damp so we made our way back to the station and home again.

This is an Ox, This is Gravy, This is Oxford

Ok so we have a weird sense of Humor, but what can you do....?

We visited Rosie in Oxford last week. it was fantastic to catch up with someone from home and get all the news and really there is nothing like hanging out for a day with an great friend that we've known for ages after spending so much time lately with new people. Not that we mind meeting new people and making new friends but hanging out with old ones really rocks!! We miss you all.


Our pro tour guide Rosie got us a walking tour of the town so we followed that around and tried to look at stuff while we caught up on each others lives for the past few months!!! this only resulted in us getting lost once so pretty successful, not anything to do with my geographical skill at map reading i might add!! my bad that we went the wrong way!!!!

We saw all the main sights, the outsides of all the colleges and other old buildings. like its arch rival Cambridge Oxford is a really beautiful town and the Architecture is stunning. we think it would be awesome to have studied in one of those old buildings (wouldnt you be gutted if you got put into a new modern college building) but reckon that it might be atad daunting having to do exams in the "Examination School" as if exams weren't bad enough just having to go to the C block!!!

We had lunch at the pub where C S Lewis and Tolkien and various other famous academic ex students once hung out a lot in there time, randomly named (as many english pubs are, yesterday i drank at the slug and lettuce, but i diverge) the Eagle and Child!!! lunch was a prolonged affair cos its easier to chat when not trying to cross roads and it was freezing outside!!!!! The weather even threw a random Hail storm at us!!! BRRRR

Then sadly Rosie had to go back to being a diligent hard worker and so me and J investigated the inside of Christchurch College. Really how could we not? As expected it was stunning and especially the chapel/catherdral!

J and i decided to make the most of being out so we went to the movies in the evening. really i couldnt believe that they actually played over half an hour of adds before the actual movie!!! no kidding cos i looked at my watch!!! the movie was 'how to loose friends and alienate people' it was hilarious.!!! and on that highly unacademic and scholarly note we ended our Oxford day out!!!!!