Day trips from London #10 - Stratford upon Avon

The grand finale to the series and a special trip as I went there on the last weekend of my first on-site assignment. I wanted the place to be equally special and what else could compete with the birth place of the greatest writer in English.
It wasn't exactly an easy start - I had to go with the most stubborn person in our team and we never see eye to eye​ on anything. He tried his best to change the destination from the start of the day until we reached Marylebone station but I was determined to go to Stratford (when I decide to be stubborn, even the devil can't beat me buhahaha 😈).
It was almost noon by the time we reached Marylebone station. I made some inquiries about connecting trains, timings etc., and got the tickets. It took us almost 2 hours to reach Stratford.
Like everywhere we have been before, there are maps in the station indicating important places. As it was already quite late, I had to narrow it down to few places - Shakespeare's birth place, holy Trinity Church and Anne Hathaway's ​cottage.
We set out to start with the birth place. It is a small town and we managed to reach every where on foot.
This clock tower is like a beautiful center piece which we came across almost every time we walked from one place to another.

Close to the house of Shakespeare, there is this sculpture with famous quotes from his books.

Few blocks away, came the place which marked the beginning of the legand 😍😍.

There is a museum next to the house which we couldn't go to due to time crunch (I think the entry is free for the museum). As it was already way past the lunch time, we decided to start to our next stop and grab a quick bite on the way. But near by, there is this small milk shake place and I couldn't resist.
It is furnished with these milk can shaped seats(how cute are they?!) and the milkshake menu occupied an entire wall. There got so many options, I had to think for a while before opting for a biscuit flavor milkshake (couldn't remember the name of the biscuit but it was something I had in childhood 🤔).

 

The milkshake was quite rich and super yummy 😍.
After a quick lunch, we started walking to the Holy Trinity Church. This park is en route and just too good to pass by without sitting for a bit and another house entered my dream home list😁.

There is something related to Shakespeare almost every corner in this town. I wanted to check out the Susanne Hall's house, but had to rush before church closes😪.

Then came the final resting place of Shakespeare. Apparently he got baptized and married in this same church. While the church and it's grounds could be accessed free of charge, there is an entry fee (3£ I think) to visit the graves of Shakespeare and his family.



After spending some time in the church, we headed to explore the church grounds. As I climbed down the stairs from the church and walked across the grounds, I came across one of the most wonderful landscapes.
There is a stream full of swans and the bank is green as far as the eye can see😍.

 

There are few people boating in the stream and I followed the path to trace down the source of rowing boats.

There is a place nearby where we could rent a rowing boat for 10£ for half hour.
The boats were lined up and each one is named after a famous female character from Shakespeare's books (there is another place little further with boats named after male characters).
I wanted to take the boat with the name of my favorite character - Viola. But we only get the first one in the row and I got to ride in Helena 🙄.

 

What I liked the most is that the operation of boats is completely manual which means no pollution to the lovely stream (also because I wasn't the one rowing 😈). Even though I was only doing direction control, the ride up and down the stream is tiring - the views, however, are amazing 😍.

We went a bit far than originally intended and half hour got extended to an hour. It was late afternoon but, with winter approaching, the days started getting shorter.
After relaxing for a while and strolling across the bridges watching stalls being pulled up and dinner cruises getting ready, we started for the final stop for the day - Anne Hathaway's cottage.

 

There it is again - our landmark clock tower😀. Knowing I don't cross it again (at least on that day), I spent some time capturing it in photos 🙂.

Further down the path, we came across another monument - the statue of Shakespeare.

On the four sides of the statue, there are statues​ of four famous characters and each one is surrounded by different flowering plants indicating the nature of the characters.

I didn't realize how far away is the cottage located. We even crossed the railway station and walked almost 45 mins.
This part of the town is residential and there is no sign of any touristy ​things - probably because it was late in the evening and already dark.
After walking like forever, to the point of giving up, I started wondering if we already crossed the cottage without noticing.
Calculating how far we came from railway station and if we could go back in time for last train, we proceeded bit further reluctantly and there it is.

Needless to say, it was past the closing time and I couldn't go inside. However, we managed going to every planned sight (though most of them were viewed from outside) and few unplanned too.
We walked back to the station with some time to spare. With no cafes on the way or near the station, knowing I can't be sane for next couple of hours (with the most irritating person😧) deprived of caffeine, I set out in search of coffee.
As I walked alone in empty parking lot of automobile stores without any trace of fear, I wondered when I would have that sort of freedom again 😑.
After wandering for few minutes, I found a gas station where I could get some cold coffee packs and went back to the station just in time for the train.
It was a perfect good bye to my 8.5 month long term in England - one of the most memorable times​. Hopefully I will get another opportunity soon and will get to write another series of trips 🍻.