Shakespeare and more

Shylock should have appealed his case. At least, that is the consensus of the five of us after watching The Merchant of Venice yesterday. We took the bus to Stratford upon Avon and watched the matinee performance of the Royal Shakespeare Company. The performance was excellent, as you would expect, with fairly minimal staging. The costumes were contemporary, there was very little in the way of stage sets, which drew attention to the acting and the play itself. And that was great. Stratford upon Avon itself is a town devoted to the Shakespeare industry—his church and burial site, houses that he owned or that were owned by relatives, and lots of Shakespeare themed stuff. Even the row boats on the Avon were named for women in his plays. (See photo below)

River Avon

We continued to be impressed by the love of flowers here, and Stratford really showed that—lots of gardens, well-tended flower baskets everywhere.

Stratford upon Avon

The bus trip (or trips since we changed in the tiny village of Chipping Norton) was also interesting. (Deb asked, “What kind of a name is Chipping Norton?” before being reminded that three of us came from a town called Punxsutawney.) These large buses would roll along narrow rows with trees immediately next to and over the road. The buses often helped to prune the trees, scraping off any leaves and branches that had grown too close. We passed cottages with thatched roofs, over little rivers, and past more fields of sheep. The day had periods of hard rain followed by times of bright sun, which made for a spectacular rainbow on the way back. It was one of the most intensely colored rainbows we can recall, highlighted by the dark clouds behind it.

Shakespeare's church between raindrops

Happy Independence Day! It is not a holiday here—as Steve Martin said about the French, it is like this is a completely different country—so we are planning to spend it in Oxford--in museums, gardens, and possibly punting. Phil has some work to do so he headed out the door early before joining us. (He has been working and has written two work-related blogs that were axed by the editor-in-chief as not being of general interest.) (***Note from Deb: Philip wants his colleagues to know he is working very hard…)

We will try to keep up our blog over the next few days as we travel around some. We hear that we are getting a lot of hits, and we appreciate the e-mails—but not enough comments! Be sure to leave your comments. One of our favorites so far, in case you are not reading them, was Andy commenting that we should all yell “Norm” when we entered a Norman church. We have not done that yet. We are trying to be on our good behavior.