The Cotswolds Part 2........

After a huge buffet breakfast we took our luggage and boarded the coach at 9 a.m to take us to Stratford-upon-Avon .

We passed through beautiful little villages such as Henly-in-Arden and Wootton Wawen, with their timbered buildings and thatched cottages and even a Saxon Church. Unfortunately we didn't have time to stop so I didn't get any photographs, which is why I've added links. We had two hours free time in Stratford and I did get lots of photographs there. Our first task was to find Shakespeare's Birthplace which we did, and I took lots of photos. I have always wanted to visit Stratford-Upon-Avon which is why we booked the trip and it didn't disappoint, of course the weather was just beautiful - sunny and hot - which made everything even better.

As we only had two hours in Stratford-upon-Avon so there wasn't time to do the tour of the inside of the house unfortunately so we decided to wander round taking photographs of the wonderful old buildings in the town, such as these.....

We found Trinity Church, where Shakespeare is buried but unfortunately we couldn't go into the church to see his shrine because there was actually a service going on at the time. We took some photos though.

There are some really old gravestones in the churchyard - these two are from the 1700's.

I'm not sure if that photograph will biggify so you can see what it says, so here's a translation of what can be seen, bearing in mind some of the stones are missing.

The one on the left says:

.....Lyeth the Body of

.....rd Gibbs W......................................

Life May................

Aged 39 yeare 1714

Mary his wife died

Dec 26th 1734 Aged 60

The one on the right says:

...........Lyeth............

.........Lord daughter......

.............Lord and Mary Lord

She dyed.....day of fe.......

.........17.......

In the Twelfth year of her........

In a little park nearby some actors were giving a free performance of Hamlet, yet again we didn't have time to stay and watch but I got a photograph of the actors psyching themselves up before the performance.

We then walked along the river and took some photos of the River Avon.

By this time we were desperate to sit down so we called in a pub for a quick drink. The pub was overlooking the river and quite unusual in that it had two names as you can see from the sign.

All too soon it was time to board our coach again for the 5 minute journey to Statford Railway Station to board the Shakespeare Express for the next leg of our journey. We boarded the coach for the 5 minute trip to Stratford-Upon-Avon railway station where we were to enjoy an hour's ride on the Shakespeare Express steam train, pulled by The Earl of Mount Edgcumbe, from Stratford to Birmingham through the lovely Cotswolds countryside. The Earl of Mount Edgcumbe is a Castle class locomotive which was originally built as Barbary Castle but later renamed after one of the directors of the Great Western Railway, who had complained that his name was on an old engine!

We settled in our seats and the train pulled out of the station getting up a good head of steam until about 20 minutes into the journey when it stopped at some points. Unfortunately the points were broken and we were stuck on the train for the next 45 minutes until they could get someone out to fix the points! Everyone was in good spirits on the train though and there was a buffet car selling snacks, soft drinks and wine - guess what we had? LOL

It was very warm on the train but they opened the doors after warning everyone NOT to get off the train. A huge cheer went up when they announced that the points had been fixed and the train chugged onwards reaching 76 mph! We should have had an hour's free time in Birmingham but because of the breakdown we had to get straight back on the coach at Birmingham for the journey home.

The journey home was pleasant once we got off the motorway (you know I hate motorways right?) through the Cheshire countryside and back to Bolton where we had started our journey. We then had a nice surprise as the coach was based in Heywood, where we live, so the driver said we could stay on the coach instead of having to get a taxi from Bolton to Heywood.

We arrived in Heywood about 6pm and called in our local pub for a couple of drinks before getting a taxi home for an early night.