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godblessyoublackemperor · 6 months ago

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stratford on avon travelogue aka benny's really good super nice day (part 1 of 2)

IIIIIII decided to go to stratford on avon today bc i've been meaning to go for a while and I've got this week off (birthday tomorrowwwww) - cham was gonna come too but had a bit too much work so it was just me, and I was slightly apprehensive about that but i actually had an incredible day and I'm going to tell you all about it RIGHT NOW

I left the house at noonish, its a roughly 45min drive from worcester and the drive was actually really nice, all relatively fast b roads/country lanes. I didn't really have a plan for the day other than just walk around, maybe see some shakespeare shit, otherwise just see my little lizard brain took me, so I just set the sat nav for "stratford on avon" and set off. When i got to the town outskirts i immediately saw signs for anne hathaway's cottage so i was like "yeah aight" and turned off, went down some cute semi-rural residential streets and arrived in a nice green leafy neighbourhood with a nearly deserted car park (no bank holiday today in the uk, we have it next monday). I noticed the minimum stay was 3 hrs so i was like hmmmmm and then when i got to the cottage it turns out you can buy a ticket that gets you into all three shakespeare places (anne's cottage, his birthplace, his new place) so I was like hmmmmmmmmmmm *a plan is forming*.

watch out 🐊

I wandered round the orchard/outsidey bits (a little sculpture/statue trail of shakepeare-y stuff) and did a very speedrun-y tour of the cottage itself - I wasn't super invested or bothered about Learning I just felt like being a tourist and it was honestly super fun to just be like no thanks i don't want any information :) i'll just walk around :)

falstaff's belley, also bees

it's nice she could afford such a cool place, she was good in interstellar

After maybe less than hour I emerged from ann hathaway's cottage and by that time the plan had cemented - I was going to go and see how many of shakespeare's three cribs I could see in a day. I didn't actually need to do this because the ticket is valid for a year but it felt like a fun little goal. I also noted there was a handy signposted route into the town centre so I opted to leave the car there and walk - I both did and didn't regret this decision later.

The walk into town was mostly along a long straight boring road but I did see a cool graveyard and a euphemistically named "SCULPTORS" workshop not far away. The walk in total was probably about 15-20 mins but it felt a bit longer, i eventually got bored and wandered off down a side road and finally got spat out of the sleepy residential streets just in front of Holy Trinity church:

(i didn't know that was what it was immediately, again fully did not plan or research anything beforehand, anyway it is apparently a Landmark so, great 👍)

From here it was a short walk along the river, and by that point i was falling slightly in love with the place already - the weather was just sunny enough, it wasn't too busy, people were boating on the river, there were swans and geese everywhere. After a few minutes I saw these and my original plan to visit some dead bloke's houses sort of got back burnered:

When I saw the boats for hire sign my little lizard brain immediately decided it wanted nothing more in the whole wide world than to go on a little boat on the river avon. I thought "yeah aight" and wondered off to find the actual hire point, these were just moored here and the wasn't anyone actually around to hire them out to me.

on the way i went past some big theatre place? i think it was something to with the dead bloke, idk i was thinking about boats.

a couple more minutes of boat focused wandering brought me to the boathouse (on the right^) which was deserted except for the staff who were all sitting on the veranda eating hula hoops. they seemed mildly surprised that i wanted to hire a boat, and explained that they only electric motorboats for hire that day. I had already seen the sign advertising the option between analogue and electric and i was like "yeah aight", so i paid the man and hopped aboard. I was given a brief how-to, and here i should maybe explain I have not been on any kind of boat in a very long time, my experience extends to heavily supervised rowing on a canal as a kid and one (1) time having a brief go at the wheel of a motorboat on a scottish loch when i was 13ish. None of this really swayed or discouraged me however, so consumed was i with the lizard brain instruction to Go on A Boat. I gamely took in the safety briefing which amounted to lever forward go faster, lever back go slower/reverse, turn to wheel to steer, dont fall in (I'll try not to, i responded cheerily, like a real adult), and I was on my way.

aboard the good ship "number 27"

it took me a couple of minutes to get the hang of the steering, but its top speed wasn't too fast and it actually handled really nicely and responsively so the learning curve wasn't too steep, and pretty soon I was whirring happly along

On the return leg I was just working out how to correct after my big u turn (i only had the boat for 30 mins and was only allowed on a short section of the river) when i spotted something odd and brown on the near side of the riverbank and i was like, is that a fucking otter, and lads IT WAS AN OTTER

i look really unexcited here bc i'm trying operate a phone camera at the same time as controlling an unfamiliar vehicle, and trying not to plough said vehicle into said otter. the otter looks really unexcited here bc im just a twat in a boat and it sees those all the time.

The rest of my journey was uneventful but very pleasant, once i got the hang it was a very relaxing and centering activity and i will definitely be back. I brought the boat back right side up and with me still dry and in it, which the dudes at the boat hire seemed pretty happy about, and they were even happier when i showed them the video of the otter.

From here I sort of just wandered around a bit more? By now it was approaching 4 o'clock and S on A is apparently one of those towns where everything shuts down from like 4 to 5, so it was pretty quiet. I wandered up the high street, wandered into a hi fi store, gawked at some turntables, wandered into a weird little "vintage store", took a picture of a tuba, left, wandered around a bit more, and then walked past a japanese restaurant and stopped and was like hmmmmmmmm.

bonus toilet selfie bc i was feeling myself this day.

It wasn't opening until 5 but i now had a plan formed (completely forgotten about the dead guy's digs by now). I wandered back towards the river, found a gelato place, got gelato (elderflower, battenberg and salted caramel, don't question me), and went and ate the gelato with my legs dangling off the steps by the river OH NO I HIT THE IMAGE LIMIT OK PART 1 OF 2 I GUESS

#me #stratford on avon #adventures #in which i go on a BOAT and see an OTTER #and wander ABOUT

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