STRATFORD-UPON-AVON, WARWICK CASTLE AND THE SPA

Happy Easter everyone! We spent Friday and Saturday of our long weekend visiting Stratford-Upon-Avon and Warwick Castle. We've put up lots of pictures for you to look at. Stratford is a very pretty city! We rented a car for the weekend so we can now officially say that we've driven on the wrong side of the road and did not cause any accidents! Driving on the left definitely takes some getting used to, but we managed to go the correct way around all the roundabouts.

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We began our day on Friday driving along the winding roads to Stratford-upon-Avon. On Friday we visited 5 houses that belonged to the Shakespeare family. The first place we visited was Shakespeare's Birthplace and we walked on the home's original stone floor. The second house we visited was Nash's House. This house was owned by Thomas Nash, husband of Shakespeare's granddaughter Elizabeth. Elizabeth was Shakepeare's last direct descendant. Nash's House adjoins the site of New Place, Shakespeare's home for the last 18 years of his life. Unfortunately New Place was destroyed in the 18th century and all that remains are gardens in its place. Next was Hall's Croft. This is where John Hall, a physician, lived with his wife Susanna, Shakepeare's eldest daughter. The final two houses we visited were located just outside Stratford. Anne Hathaway's Cottage was the home of Shakespeare's wife before they married in 1582, when she was 26 and he was 18. Anne was three months pregnant at the time of proposal. Lastly we visited Mary Arden's House, the home of Shakespeare's mother prior to her marriage to John Shakespeare in 1557.

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Saturday morning we ventured back to Stratford to visit Holy Trinity Church, the burial site of William Shakespeare, Anne Hathaway, Thomas Nash, John Hall, and Susanna Hall. In the afternoon, we made the short 20 minute drive to Warwick to visit Warwick Castle, one of the oldest castles in England dating back to the 10th century. We were entertained with various medieval shows such as archery and battle simulation. We climbed 500 stairs the top of one of the castle's towers. We also went into the dungeon where prisoners were kept, and visited the Chapel, Great Hall, and State rooms where centuries of nobility have been entertained.

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We spent the remainder of the weekend at Whittlebury Hall, a spa 45 minutes North of Aylesbury. Here we enjoyed the various luxuries of the spa including 3 course meals and breakfast buffets. Both nights we treated ourselves to a bottle of wine with dinner. On Sunday we relaxed in the spa's unique heat and ice experience. Spa treatments included a hydrotherapy pool with 6 different water jet pods to accomodate various levels of stress. There was also a sauna, salt steam bath, crystal steam bath, foot baths, warm benches, tepidarium (warm stone beds), caldarium (cool sauna), ice cave, and various hot and cold showers. We were in the spa for two hours and came out feeling very relaxed. We were fortunate enough to be able to treat ourselves to massages (Bri had a Swedish massage, and Will had a deep tissue massage). We felt so relaxed after our time in the spa, we did not feel like going out for lunch so we ordered room service. We also spent some time enjoying a relaxing dip in the pool and jacuzzi. In our 'spare time' on Sunday evening, we booked our two week holiday to Italy from April 5th to April 18th. We have booked another car and we will be driving from Rome, to Florence, to Pisa, to Verona, and finally to Venice. We are looking forward to another adventure!

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Overall our weekend was very relaxing and we are finding it hard to look forward to work on Tuesday. Luckily our trip to Italy starts in less than two weeks! We hope all of you had a lovely Easter.

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