Shakespeare in Stratford

Here's another post all about something we did years ago (I mean, let's face it, there isn't exactly a huge amount of trips, holidays and visits I can write about from the last 18 months! Fingers crossed for the future though)

So back in April 2015 we added on an extra week to our usual Easter holiday and meandered our way south from North Wales via the Severn Valley Railway and Stratford upon Avon. We used some Tesco Clubcard Vouchers and bought tickets to visit Shakespeare's Birthplace. 

When we visited the ticket price covered entrance to Shakespeare's Birthplace, Anne Hathaway's Cottage, Hall's Croft (which was the home of Shakespeare's daughter, Susanna and her husband) and I think a couple of other locations too. At the moment though, it looks like only the Birthplace, the Cottage and Shakespeare's New Place are opening this summer. 

(In the spirit of transparency as well I'll add a caveat here that I wasn't massively overwhelmed by Shakespeare's Birthplace; I much preferred Hall's Croft. The day we visited it was quite crowded and it felt very much like you were part of a production line following a snake of people around the one way system in the house. I suspect it was a lot to do with how busy it was that day though and it may well be different on another day). 

We only managed to visit Shakespeare's Birthplace and Hall's Croft as Anne Hathaway's Cottage was a short drive from Stratford. The Birthplace itself is a restored 16th century half-timbered house which you can take a tour around and there's also a museum dedicated to all things Shakespeare and literature. The garden outside has been planted with herbs and flowers similar to what would have been growing in Shakespeare's time. We did think it all felt a bit surreal though: 1) because so much of the house has been restored you're left wondering how much is actually still original and 2) the house is on Henley Street which is just a normal street with shops and cafes. And I know obviously the house wasn't surrounded by shops hundreds of years ago but still, it all feels a bit strange. 

The second place we visited was Hall's Croft, the home of Shakespeare's daughter Susanna and her husband John Hall for a few years. We enjoyed this place more than the official Birthplace as it was quieter and actually felt like someone had lived in it, sort of more authentic (rather than feeling a bit too much like a recreated tourist attraction). The building itself has had many different uses even being used a school in the 1800's and it's been restored really well with an excellent garden too. 

It looks like Tesco have temporarily stopped being able to turn Clubcard vouchers into an entry ticket but even though we weren't overwhelmed by the Birthplace, I think we'd still recommend visiting. It's still an interesting place with a lot of history, especially if you're a Shakespeare or literature fan! 

A Photo Every Hour - Saturday 22nd May 2021

Saturday 22nd May was the date chosen for May's photo an hour challenge. The forecast for where we live was originally rainy but it ended up being a nice day! We spent most of the day in the garden doing weeding, planting and shed-building before watching Eurovision in the evening with our bingo sheets and popcorn. 


Here's what the day looked like...

This month, 7 lovely people joined in:

Susie from Second Hand Susie on Instagram

Hazel from World of Joy on Instagram

Josie on Instagram

Christine from Christine Lucas on Instagram

Bev from Confuzzledom on Instagram

Jennifer from Pastry and Purls on Instagram

Jane from Is That You Darling on Instagram

And myself on Instagram and this blog post :-) 

June's photo an hour date is Saturday 12th - see you there!

 

The Very Blue Newport Transporter Bridge

Another place we visited many years ago on our 'Gavin and Stacey' trip to Barry was Newport Transporter Bridge. Not your usual tourist atttraction but an interesting historic place nonetheless. 

The bridge itself is Grade I listed and crosses the River Usk at its lowest point. It's one of only 6 still operational worldwide and only one of 2 left working in the UK (the other being the Tees Transporter Bridge in Middlesborough). It was built in 1906 and still carries vehicles today when needed. For a small entrance fee, passengers can also ride across in the gondola and access the high level platform and motor house platform. 

It was slightly windy on the day we visited so we just paid to ride across in the gondola and see the views. The trip doesn't take very long but is quite a fun thing to do! 

 

Secret Path to the Severn Crossing

In the month before we had our frozen embryo transfer back in 2015 (which ended up working) we had a couple of good holidays. One road trip after Easter from North Wales back home via the Severn Valley Railway and Stratford upon Avon. The other a long weekend in Barry Island seeing all the Gavin and Stacey sights (which I did actually manage to write a blog post about back in 2017). I took lots of pictures in lots of places and then never really found time to share them. This is one of the things I was going to write about. 

So did you know you can get out onto the old 1966 Severn Bridge and (if you really want to), walk all the way across it? (or at least you could back in 2015, I haven't actually been back to check since so this whole blog post could be misinformation).

Anyway, drive to Severn View Services (which is accessible from both directions on the M48) and park in the car park. From there you can take a short walk to the offical Severn Bridge viewpoint for great views of the bridge and water. Once you've finished at the viewpoint walk back towards the services building (keeping the building on your left) and on your right, there's a little public footpath down some steps which takes you over the motorway. On the other side, turn right onto Bridge Access Road and then you can walk out onto the bridge. If you really wanted to, you could stroll all the way across to Chepstow. 

We didn't go that far across, just far enough to see the views and take some pictures. It's pretty chilly up on the bridge and also, far more bouncy than you'd expect! 

There's a good bit of history about the bridge on the Institute of Civil Engineers website - it was completed in 1966 replacing the Aust car ferry which could only take 19 vehicles at a time. By the mid 1990's it was carrying over 20,000 vehicles a day hence why a second bridge was needed. The Second Severn Crossing (officially known as the Prince of Wales Bridge) opened in 1996 but sadly there's no public footpaths across that one!

 

 

A Photo Every Hour - Saturday 17th April 2021

Last Saturday, the 17th was the date set for April's photo an hour. It was a lovely sunny day and we spent most of it in the garden, with the radio on for a bit at 3pm to listen to the Duke of Edinburgh's funeral. 

Here's what the day looked like...

This month, 7 lovely people joined in:

Bev from Confuzzledom on Instagram

Sarah from Sarah Rooftops on Instagram

Christine from Christine Lucas on Instagram

Susie from Second Hand Susie on Instagram

Josie on Instagram

Hazel from World of Joy on Instagram

Jane from Is That You Darling on Instagram

And myself on Instagram and this blog post :-) 

May's Photo an Hour date is Saturday 22nd - see you there!

 

 

Our Easter Holiday at Home

I don't really like the word 'staycation'. According to Merriam-Webster the word dates back to the 1940's but I'm sure it always used to mean a holiday spent at home. Nowdays it seems like far too many people, the media, politicians, etc use it as a catch-all for simply having a holiday in the UK. Even the various dictionaries online, Oxford, Cambridge, Collins, all have one definition as holidaying in your own country. Surely if you're leaving your home to go on holiday, regardless of the destination, whether it's Greece or Grimsby, it's still *an actual holiday*. Not a staycation. I don't know, perhaps I'm just remembering wrong. 

Anyway we actually did have a traditional 'staycation' over the Easter holidays - or a 'holiday at home' which I think is a much nicer phrase. 

Normally we'd be in Wales over Easter at a place we've visited every year since 1987. I was only 4 when we first went and the owners of the site we stay at have seen me and my brother grow up, right through to the next generation - Lily- coming along on holiday too. We stay in 2 holiday cottages now though rather than share one with my parents. 

Last year it just felt a bit strange staying home. We weren't yet a month into the first lockdown and we had great weather so just played outside and rebuilt the garden and veg patch. This year for Easter, with the 'stay at home' restrictions lifted, we were able to have some day trips. And although the guidance says 'minimise travel' there's nothing in England's COVID legislation restricting (domestic) travel so we were free to travel wherever we liked for whatever reason, provided we didn't break the 'gathering' bit of the legislation (as an aside, if you're on Twitter, Adam Wagner is an excellent person to follow, he's a human rights barrister who's been keeping track of the changes to COVID legislation since March 2020 (I think over 70 changes so far). He's also brilliant at answering people's questions about law and guidance and explains things in a really easy-to-understand way).

For our holiday at home, we ended up with rather good weather for the whole week really, a bit cold perhaps but at least it wasn't raining. 

We did day trips to:

- Clevedon and Portishead, doing a 2.5 mile walk around the woods in Portishead finishing off with a playground, ice cream and fish & chips.

- the New Forest to see the ponies and tall trees and Southampton to see the huge cruise ships (of course we found a playground there too).

- Teignmouth to meet Andrew's sister, doing a 2.5 mile history walk around the town centre and harbour. We had ice cream, strolled along the prom, visited the playground and had fish & chips for dinner. 

And took picnics:

- to Chew Valley Lake to see the ducks and buy an ice cream. 

- on a 5 mile walk around the local area, crossing fields, going through woods and finding secret footpaths. 

- to Westbury White Horse to see the grandparents where we had ice cream, found geocaches and did a 3.5 mile walk around the hill fort. 

- to Burnham on Sea beach for sandcastle-building and more chips!

- on a 4 mile walk around the local area, following the old railway lines around the area. 

We also had a family Easter lunch outside in the sun complete with Easter egg hunt and a (rather chilly) picnic in the garden later in the week. 

I've written on here before about geocaching (back in 2017); it's quite an interesting and fun thing to do, especially when you're out and about in different places. We found quite a few geocaches while we were out on our day trips. 

I also found an app called ViewRanger which lets you plan walks and see walks other people have created. I'm sure it's one everyone already knows about and I'm late to the party but still, it's quite good. I think the app's possibly going to be retired at some point in the future but it seems to work well at the moment. We used some trails other people had created and also made some of our own. The trail we did in Teignmouth was rather good as it was created by the Royal Geographical Society and had lots of information about the history of the town that you could read or listen to as you followed the route. Anyway, it's an app I'd recommend. 

What did you get up to at Easter?