7^th October 2013 – Oxford, Shakespeare, castles and a flaming trebuchet!

Up early again today for another drive out to the country. Our first stop was Oxford – it only took around 45 minutes to get to the outskirts from Windsor, but then another (and rather painful) 45 minutes to get to the centre and find parking! It was a cool, misty morning and the beautiful stone buildings in Oxford all looked quite mysterious.

We had a walk around and saw some of the well-known sites – the Radcliffe Camera, the Bridge of Sighs, various Oxford colleges and some interesting shops.

Before long, it was time to get back in the car and deal with the Oxford traffic again as we headed north to Stratford-on-Avon. We drove through the Cotswolds, past some almost impossibly quaint and attractive villages.

In to Stratford, where even the chain stores and coffee shops are in half-timbered houses.

We saw Shakespeare’s birthplace. Before you go in, you walk through a visitors’ centre with short films about Shakespeare, his plays and his personal life. The house itself is fascinating, with lots of rooms to explore, up narrow staircases and through low doorways.

There are 2 other “Shakespeare properties” to explore in Stratford (as well as a few others in the country nearby, which will have to wait for another time). The first is Nash’s house, which belonged to Shakespeare’s grand-daughter’s husband. It’s quite a grand house and has an exhibition about some of the best-loved Shakespeare characters (complete with dress-ups for kids). Next door was the house where Shakespeare lived after moving back from London, and where he died. The house no longer exists and there is now an Elizabethan style garden.

The final property is Halls Croft, the 400-year-old house owned by Shakespeare’s daughter. Another magnificent old house, as Susannah Shakespeare married a wealthy doctor, John Hall.

We bought some lunch then headed up to Kenilworth, home of a magnificent castle founded in the 12^th Century but significantly remodelled by Robert Dudley, Earl of Leicester, a favourite of Queen Elizabeth the 1^st, for her visits in the 16^th Century.  This is a magnificent building, now mostly ruined but great fun to climb all over.

There is also an Elizabethan garden and a well-preserved gate house which was used as a home until well into the 20^th Century.

One more stop for the day – another castle, a bit silly in some ways but lots of fun. Warwick Castle was built in 1068 and has been added to many times over the years. This means that there are Norman parts, Mediaeval parts, Victorian parts... there is a lot to see and do.

We arrived after 3pm and we weren’t sure if we’d be able to see much between then & closing time, but we managed to fit a lot in. The tickets are a lot cheaper then, too. It’s owned by the same company that runs Madam Tussauds, the waxwork place, so it’s full of wax figures and other gimmicky tourist stuff.

The best thing we saw was the trebuchet – this is a modern machine based on Mediaeval siege weapons. No idea how authentic it really is, but it’s very cool. They load it up with a flaming projectile and hurl it across a field. The one we saw went off the edge of the dirt area and onto a grassy patch beyond, but it didn’t do any harm. Absolutely amazing to watch, though!

So yet another very busy day – we seem to be making quite a habit of this!