All the world's a stage

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Geo: 52.1919, -1.70713

2:00-3:00

Drove on to Stratford Upon Avon

We drove past the hotel and into the old town section to take the tour of Shakespeare's birthplace. There was a film presentation that I and a handful watched. Then we toured the 5-6 rooms and gardens. The rooms were very small and I even had to bend to get through some of the archways. They had on display a photocopy of the original windows where people as far back as the 1820's had etched words or their names into the glass. In the first sign-in book for visitors of 1812, the first 2 signers were from America! Then we were on our own to get back to the hotel which wasn't a bad walk. I walked around town taking pictures of the different buildings that struck my fancy. I did want to try my hand at an archaeological dig that was occurring at Shakespeare's death place, but they price was too high. I headed back into town passing a metal memorial of swans. This led you to the old bridge that was used for traffic until they built a new one recently. It passed over the River Avon and the Stratford canal and locks. Many swans and geese were swimming in the river. I stopped at a café on the green next to the hotel and had a bottle of water and a slice of carrot cake. I worked on my blog for a while and then decided to head up to the room to claim a bed in the room that I would be sharing with Cherry, from Australia. However, I discovered that she got there before me and had claimed most of the space except for a luggage stand and a small night stand next to my bed and had the TV blaring on the World Cup. After chatting a bit about particulars of the room, letting her know that I snore. She let me know that she does laundry in the bathroom every night since she has only brought a small amount of clothes (only 4 pairs of undies!). She has just come off a 2 week tour of Europe and that's all she brought!! Ick! So basically I will be seeing her clothes hanging up in the room every night! I checked with the tour guide about getting my own room. It would be pro-rated based on the number of days left on the trip. I figure about $100 additionally each night starting tomorrow. I am going to see how this works out and then decide. Maybe when we get to Scotland and the rooms get smaller and smaller, will I change my room accommodations. In a way I don't want to be the one to change because I have to pay the extra cost, but she will get the rest of the room space for free. There are 2 other women who are single and sharing a room, maybe I should speak with them, but they seamed to be getting along okay. I went down to the hotel's bar to work on my blog while she took a shower. The tour group met at 6:30 for a free drink and a meet and greet. The tour guide spoke and made a toast. Soon we went into eat. It was very fancy. We sat in a large rectangular grouping. For the appetizer I had lentil and potato soup (not bad), some type of beef flank and fries for the main course (very good especially with ketchup!) and for desert lemon tart with raspberry sorbet (too tart!). I sat next to the two women from Canada (very social and friendly pair of sisters) and a couple from Southern Australia (very friendly). I wouldn't mind sharing rooms with the Canadians. After desert I let Cherry know that I was heading up to clean up and work on the internet. I asked permission to move her things off the desk so that I could used the internet. She had no problem. She gave me about 20 minutes before coming into the room. I used the tv stand to put many of my things out where I could find them. She wanted to go to bed about 10, but I was still using the computer so she and I agreed that she should take the bed nearest the wall and away from the desk light. I don't know if she is asleep yet. I am trying to keep it quiet with my typing.

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