The wake up call this morning was at 6:30am, but i was up and ready to go by 6am. i couldn't wait to get going. i love taking the coach tours. I just sit back and let somebody else handle all of the driving and organizing of the sites that we are going to see. We went down for breakfast at 7 and most of the group was already down in the lobby ready to go. I guess they are excited also.
After a quick continental breakfast, we boarded the coach and met our tour director Andrew Thomson, and the driver Tom (no last name, kinda like Madonna or Cher). We did role call to make sure we were all on the right tour, and we were off. The first stop for today was in Stratford-Upon-Avon, the birth place of William Shakespeare. He was born here, married here, raised his family here, wrote most of his plays here and died here. He actually was born and died on the same date, just different years. The drive was about 2 hours, so along the way Andrew was talking to us. We have Canadians, Americans, Australians, a couple from South Africa and a couple on their honeymoon from New Zealand. Quite a lot of diversity on this tour.
Arriving into Stratford, we got our first glimpse of what I imagined England to look like. Small little cottages with thatched roofs, narrow streets with children playing in them, it was very cool. The first sight was Anne Hathaway's house. Sharon said "I don't really like any of her movies, but I guess i will look at her house" Actually, Anne was the wife of William Shakespeare, not an actress. Just outside of her cottage, we took a group photo and then we had a couple of minutes to look around. Back on the bus we drove through the town and Andrew pointed out some of the sites. The bus dropped us off and we had 2 hours to explore on our own. We walked up a pedestrian street with shops and restaurants along both sides. It made me think of Harry Potter and the place were he went to buy his school books. On this street is Shakespeare's birth house. You can take guided tours for a fee, but we did not have enough time for that. So instead, we just touched the outside of the house and took some pictures. It is cool to think that that house has been around for such along time and I was touching it. For lunch we went to a traditional English shop and had Shepard's pie. It was very good. Before we knew it, time was up and we had to be back on the bus. Stratford is a awesome little village, and I highly recommend it.
The next stop was York, which is a medieval walled city that was built in AD71. We had an included tour and then some free time on our own. We started the tour walking along the old walls of the city, and then made our way down the main street to the York Minster. it is main church in the city and the largest medieval structure in the United Kingdom. next we want to the "shambles' which used to be were all the butchers had there shops with all of the dead animals just hanging in the streets. The street is so narrow, that you can lean out of your window and touch the neighbors across the lane. After that we had free time to explore all of the small , narrow, windy streets. There was lots of people and we almost got lost a couple of times. York is a very cool city, but way to many people for my liking.
We then drove onto Leeds were we are staying the night. No sightseeing here though, just supper and bed. Tomorrow we are heading to the lake district, which should be beautiful.
Hopefully I will have some pictures for tomorrow
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment