Great Britain Road Trip, Part I

When we first arrived in England, I hoped maybe we would meet some Americans who would invite us over for a lovely 4th of July barbecue, allowing us to celebrate the holiday expat-style.  As July approached, it became clear that wasn't going to happen, seeing as we don't really know anyone here.  Even if we did, it's been so rainy that a backyard barbecue sounded less appealing.  The 4th of July just wasn't going to be an Independence Day celebration here in the country that fought to keep us dependent, so we rethought our plans and decided to take a road trip to Scotland.  What could be more American than a road trip?

Our itinerary was as follows.
Day 1: Stratford-Upon-Avon, sleep in Lancaster, just south of the Lake District
Day 2: Lake District, sleep in Glasgow
Day 3: Glasgow, sleep in Edinburgh
Day 4: Edinburgh
Day 5: Durham, sleep in York
Day 6: York and drive home

We were aware that this was an ambitious trip, but we decided it was the best, cheapest, and easiest (with the kids) way to see all the sights we wanted to fit in.  We packed up the family truckster on the morning of the 4th and we were off.

As we drew near to our first stop, Stratford-upon-Avon, I started to wonder if this would be a repeat performance of our trip to Paris.  After all, what young child do you know who is dying to visit Shakespeare's birthplace?  While the significance of Shakespeare's life and works were pretty well lost on the children, they actually seemed to enjoy seeing this incredibly old house where "Shakesbeard" (according to Soren) lived as a child.

The house where Shakespeare was born, built in the 1500's

 The garden

The courtyard, with this cool mini wall built of stones laid sideways.  There were actors in the courtyard performing Shakespearean monologues.

The house from the street view

We were not able to take pictures inside the house, but we learned lot of interest factoids.  For instance, children slept with their parents until the age of 5, and the girls were given the inferior room in the house with no fireplace, while the boys got the best room in the house.  We also got to see inside the exterior walls, which were held together by an amalgam of lard, hair, mud, and pretty much anything you can think of.  

We stopped for snacks at the Shakespeare center before moving on to see New Place, the house that Shakespeare lived in as an adult.  We should have read the brochure more carefully, because it turns out that all that remains of New Place is an active archaeological excavation.  A docent was describing the floorplan and what they had learned about Shakespeare, but it didn't capture anyone's attention for long.  We breezed through the gardens and did a little shopping on our way back to the car.

Snacks with Will

The coffee cups were adorned with characters from Shakespeare's plays.  This is Titania.

New Place has seen better days.

The garden at Nash's House, next door to New Place.

Stratford-upon-Avon is filled with ancient buildings still in use for modern commerce.

Many of the buildings in the area and neighboring Cotswolds have thatched roofs.

We had a lot of ground to cover that afternoon, so we hit the road after a too brief stop in Stratford.  We spent the night in a musty, mildewy room at the Holiday Inn in Lancaster.  Lancaster is one of the few places we've been to in England that I do not plan to visit again.  The town looked like it had fallen on hard times, and there were a lot of sketchy types wandering the streets.  On the bright side, we were not tempted to linger in the morning.