July 20

Breakfast was just as wonderful today as it was yesterday.  The Traditional English breakfast really sets us up well for a day of walking!

Below is an interesting tree from the churchyard of Holy Trinity Church.  This is the church where Shakespeare is buried.

The next two pics are other grand tombs within the Church - I don't know whose they are.

This is the beautiful stained-glass window in the Church.

This is the pulpit within the Church - it is a very pretty set up.

Here is a view of the crowd around Shakespeare's gravesite.  There were several tour groups from different countries - I overheard a group from Brazil.  The only irritating part was the number of people handing off cameras and smiling for pictures in front of the grave.  Really?  Who does that?

This is as close as I could get to the grave.  They used to let people actually do rubbings of the engraving, but they don't anymore.  This was a special place, and I felt overwhelmed by the importance of it.

This is a bust of Shakespeare that was added to the gravesite shortly after he died.  It is really hard to get a good picture of it - mine is a little blurry, but Karen took several pictures and some of them seemed to come out better.

There was another set up at the front of the grave - William's wife and other family members were buried near him.

This is the best picture I could get of Holy Trinity Church.  I really liked this church!

After church, we wandered off to Hall's Croft, where Shakespeare's daughter, Susanna, lived with her husband, John Hall, who was a renowned doctor.  He had a statue of the Bard in the hall.

Upstairs on display were several costumes from RSC (the 50 years in 50 objects display).  There were lots of items on display in all of the Shakespeare Houses.

Here is another unusual twisted tree in the garden behind Hall's Croft and a view of the back of the building.

The digging sites represent where Shakespeare's final home used to be - "New Place."  It was destroyed by a previous owner and is being excavated for artifacts about his life.

The gardens behind "New Place" were extraordinary!  They were the most beautiful of any of the Shakespeare houses in Stratford.

Lots of restaurants/ pubs named after Shakespeare's characters and plays.  This is one example!

I love cows!  Did I mention I love cows?!

Here is a view of Holy Trinity from the bridge that will lead us back to Moss Cottage!  This picture turned out better than I thought it would :)

We had dinner at The Dirty Duck before seeing The Merchant of Venice at RSC.  It was a wonderful interpretation - set in a casino and all of the actors had American accents, including Patrick Stewart who played Shylock!!!  Elvis was fantastic!! :)