For those of you who don't know, Stratford upon Avon is the birth and resting place of William Shakespeare. There isn't much else to the city. It's a very pleasant city, the Avon river is full of swans, all of whom seemed to figure out I had granola bars on me and swamped me! Not that I minded. While I was there, we saw the Royal Shakespeare Company perform A Midsummer's Night Dream. It was very impressive. While in England, it does seem that I went to more Shakespearian plays then I've ever gone to before in my life. Not that it is exceedingly hard to do so, I've only seen parts of Hamlet and Love's Labors Lost. Trinity Church is in Stratford Upon Avon and that is where Shakespeare and Anne Hathaway (his wife) are actually buried. They're buried right in the chapel. Shakespeare laid a curse on his grave as well. Back in those days, people were left buried for ten years, then their bones were exhumed and a new body would be buried. Shakespeares curse is on anyone who removes his bones. So since he died, he's been in the same grave. Unfortunately, while we were there, the place was swamped with Italian tourists. No offense to anyone, but it seems Italian tourists have no sense of propriety. They were sitting on people's graves in the graveyard, clumped together so people couldn't pass on the roads, and shoving and pushing when trying to get into the church.

The cottage that Shakespeare was born in still stands and there is a tour through it, but I didn't attend that bit. Now, this photo looks a bit odd, namely my legs, because when I was moving to take the photo, my friend who was taking it, didn't wait for me to actually get into a pose. She snapped the shot when I turned around. So I'm still in the process of turning about. Anne Hathaway's Cottage is also still in Stratford, viewable to the public. This picture is indeed the cottage that Shakespeare was born in.

© 1997 kithan@hotmail.com

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