Stratford-upon-Avon

Stratford is a tourist town. Everywhere you walk it is littered with quotes from Shakespeare, forgivable because he was born and died here. It is in Warwickshire, a county that surrounds Coventry on three sides (Coventry is in the West Midlands country, together with Birmingham, and the Black Country to the west). Everywhere you drive in Warwickshire the signs proclaim that is Shakespeare's county. I remember enjoying myself the two times I traveled there in March/April. On my first visit I had a delightful turkey dinner at Mistress Quickly's cafe - yes, a character from Shakespeare. Our friends Tom and Lori joined me in Stratford when they visited from Brussels in April, and we all had such a wonderful time that it seemed a good idea to take Stella.

If we hadn't seen Romeo and Juliet a dozen times between us we might have stopped for the open air performance, but we kept walking. It was in a small little park not far from where the bard is buried, and it seemed a nice way to take in a show. Hamlet was running with David Tennant, the current Doctor Who, in the title role and Patrick Stewart as the ghost. If Patrick Stewart had a larger role I wouldn't have been able to pass it up. We enjoyed a nice stroll along the River Avon, but this was early and we hadn't adjusted to all the walking yet. A brief afternoon out, window shopping and strolling through parks and gardens was a tiresome experience.

We didn't bother to visit the Shakespeare birthplace. I had already been and we decided it might be a good place to take people if they come visit. We did however pick up a copy of "Shakespeare" by Bill Bryson, an excellent book that surveys all of the firm historical facts that we have about the man and his plays. It also discusses some of the many historical distortions that have cropped up in the centuries after his death. It is a good read.

The Olympics

Have been masterfully covered by the BBC for the past two weeks. We found the 'red button' on our remote. It offers six different choices of video for the Olympics. We've been able to watch the swimming events and Mr Phelps plethora of gold medals. Synchronised swimming, however, is a very horrific sport to watch, considering that the barbie doll grins and disembodied legs poking from the surface of the water send shivers down one's spine. Diving and the outdoor swimming, I believe 10 meters, made up for the creepy synchro.

The tennis finals were fun to watch, but Dinara Safina, the women's player we cheer for, had poor luck with the scheduling and played the gold medal match after finishing late the previous day. Rafa(el Nadal) won the gold medal match, but I only wish it had been against James Blake of the United States, who made it a very close match.

Other events of note were, of course, gymnastics. The British did quite well this year, and are hoping this carries over to 2012, when the games will be in London. I'm not certain we'll be here quite that long, but because I was a teenager for Atlanta 1996, it would be neat to see the games as an adult.

Henry V

While I am writing about Shakespeare I should mention a wonderful play that Stella and I saw, by the bard of course. We were flipping through the local paper and found an outdoor performance of Henry V being performed at Kenilworth Castle. This castle is an old ruined castle, beautiful, free from throngs of tourists, and well worth a visit. I had been there three times before, and have found new things each time. I believe their Elizabethan gardens open this Spring!

The play was staged by Heartbreak Productions, and they really did a fantastic job. With just a few actors playing the many parts and large family sized tent as a changing room they made a gripping and dramatic show. The director's interpretation was to set the play during the Falkland Island's war as opposed to the Battle of Agincourt, an early battle in the 100 years' war. The settings and costumes were all contemporary military uniforms, "Eye of the Tiger" was played at one point, and the sound effects during the battle were of bullets and bombs.

The play itself is a patriotic story, reflecting on what it means to be British. There are scenes dealing with the complexities of accents, with Welsh being the most difficult for me to understand. You have specific accents for Scotland, Ireland (6 counties in the north are still a part of the UK), Wales, London, Northern England, Southwestern England, etc. The play also mocks the French, another British pastime. (This is neighborly in many cases, my manager speaks nearly fluent French and enjoys taking a holiday there).

Seeing this play in the open air was wonderful, but being a military play, simple sunny skies wouldn't do for ambiance. This is England after all. We had our umbrellas with us, but this would be rude to those behind us. Instead we huddled in our very effective raincoats. It was wet, damp, and not quite miserable. That said, when Henry implores his soldiers, "Once more into the breach dear friends!", you feel a little closer to the breach than a warm dry theater. Do have a look at the website for Heartbreak Productions. They have video for the play here.

Home at Last

We moved out of the hotel on Saturday, and it was great. Our apartment is bigger than our last place has a gas range ("hob" here), an orange kitchen, super-retro light fixtures in the living room that are super-loud and super fluorescent when turned on, and tea-colored carpet.

Almost all properties, even rentals, are managed by estate agents. They take their time about getting you into a place, charge exorbitant fees, and possibly collude with other agents on pricing when several units in a single property are on the market. Even the best are a real treat.

But we made moved our stuff on Friday, bought linens on Saturday, and Saturday night I cooked my first meal in weeks in our new kitchen. The farm-raised pork at Tesco was oddly porous, but it'll do till we're better set up, and it lasted for two pretty tasty meals.

We went to Primark, the local discount housewares store, for linens, and the cashier, noting our accents, asked where we were from. We told her. "Oh, you're on holiday then?" We had to wonder: do visitors to Coventry typically pop in for cheap duvets?