Day 4

Friday, July 14, a few of us realized that we could avoid standing in the queue at the cafeteria by just going on in sometime after 7:30. I learned through the grapevine, that we could use the computer lab at the college from 8:00 to 9:00am, so I went over and used my eudora account since webtv is not externally accessible and I hadn't set up my computer's prodigy account for external access. I had a nice little stroll through the gardens of Hartpury, which is an agricultural college. The flowers in England are beautiful and were everywhere, especially the dark colored flowers, like blues, purples and violets. I even saw what I think was a black flowered hollyhock. We had our morning rehearsal from 9:00 till 11:00.

We had a sack lunch packed by the college and were off at 12:00 noon for Stratford upon Avon, Shakespeare's birthplace. It was QUITE chilly. I went into a souvenir shop and spied a black polyester velour zip front jacket that had a London crest on the chest. SOLD! (For 23 pounds.) The shopkeeper knocked off a pound from the original 24 pound price, I guess because I bought a few other small items and also because I had a kind (and cold) face.

Ok, now I was ready to ride in the double decker red bus on the open top to view all the Shakespeare stuff, his birthplace, his home, his wife's home, birthplace, etc., etc...the whole nine yards. Several of our small group made the circuit twice. I made it twice, once inside the bus, before I bought the jacket, and again on top after my shrewd purchase.

Dinner was on our own, so we started thinking about where we should eat. We finally settled on a pub. We went in and sat down for a while, but no waiter or waitress appeared to take our order. "Oh yeah", I thought, I remembered reading somewhere that you are supposed to go to the bar to order your drinks and food. So that is what we did. I had "Toad in a Hole" which is link sausages in a ring of mashed potatoes. I had a glass of red house wine to drink. The meal was pretty good.

We trekked back to the bus for our 8:00pm departure back to Hartpury. I think we arrived at the college about 10:00, and I was in bed by 10:30.

End Day 4.