Having enjoyed works Christmas meals and Stockport family Christmas meals it was time for us to head south to spend Christmas with my brother Chris in Bournemouth …or Boscombe to be precise. When taking long journeys we usually break up the journey and stop off somewhere for a few hours to do a bit of sightseeing on the bikes or by foot. For our journey south this Christmas we decided to stop off at Stratford-Upon-Avon. We had originally planned a cycle ride, however the journey down the motorway had been through a mist of car spray, so we decided upon a walk around the town instead.

We used Swan’s Nest Lane car park and walked over Tramway Bridge. The effect of the recent heavy rainfall was immediately apparent as we looked over at the Royal Shakespeare Company‘s Swan Theatre.

It was certainly a good time to be a swan or a duck!

Since this was a brief visit we quickly moved on to take a quick look at the various tourist attractions Stratford-Upon-Avon has to offer. And there are plenty of them! We started with the Bancroft Gardens.

Next up was Nash’s House, the last home of William Shakespeare until his death in 1616.

We continued on to Henley Street where Shakespeare was born in 1564.

We moved on to Hall’s Croft, which was the home of Shakespeare‘s eldest daughter, Susanna, and her famous husband of the time Dr John Hall.

Since there is a cafe at Hall’s Croft we took the opportunity for a liquid refreshment before moving on to Holy Trinity Church, the final resting place of Shakespeare.

We headed back along the River Avon.

We finished off with a visit to the Gower memorial.

It was a brief visit, and there were many other places-to-visit we just didn’t have the time to see (Anne Hathaway’s cottage for instance). However even this brief glimpse was enjoyable. It is certainly somewhere we would like to return to and spend some more time.

And then it was on to Bournemouth …