To the Country

October 14, 2018

Tuesday morning, October 9, we checked out of our apartment in London and drove to the Cotswolds.  The Cotswolds is an area of "unique scenic beauty," according to British maps, located northwest of London. In this case it is not hyperbole. Tim and Lynda have visited the Cotswolds several times and always marvel at the never ending stream of beautiful towns and villages. Many of the villages have used the same golden colored sandstone for the construction of all the buildings.  This part of England is reasonably hilly so there are also many opportunities for awe inspiring panoramic views. Our apartment is located in the village of Bretforton about 20 miles south of Stratford-upon-Avon. None of us have ever been to this village. The apartment was one of the nicest Airbnb apartments we have stayed in. So much nicer then the apartment in London. It is a three bedroom apartment spread over two floors with abundant space for us all to stretch out in. An added bonus: less then a five minute walk led us to The Fleece, a 300 year old pub that we discovered on our first evening served a wonderful meal. Tuesday was spent driving, unpacking and going to the pub.

The Fleece

Our first stop Wednesday morning was Stratford-upon-Avon, the birthplace of the great playwright, William Shakespeare. We began at the home where Shakespeare was born and raised. Houses of Shakespeare's era usually consisted of three rooms, a combination living room/kitchen, a bedroom for the children and a bedroom for the parents. Will's father, a glove maker, was reasonably well to do. A sign of wealth at that time was a large bed in front of the window of the parents bedroom that all could see as they walked by. The Shakespeare home had such a bed. Upon leaving the house we were greeted in the garden by the Shakespeare Out Loud Theatre Company, consisting of a man and a woman. They performed scenes from several different Shakespearean plays. The woman started by performing a scene from "A Mid-Summers Night Dream" that ended up with Jeff in a starring role as the Ass. No comments, please. He is our son and we love him. This was followed by the man performing the famous scene from "Hamlet" where Hamlet talks to the skull of Yorick. They then asked for a request from the small audience and were asked to perform the balcony scene from "Romeo and Juliet." We all enjoyed this bit of Shakespeare, with Cole and Kelsey particularly enjoying Jeff's stardom. We left Shakespeare's home and drove to Anne Hathaway's home, Anne, of course, being Will's wife. Her family was rich by Stratford standards; her father was a farmer and the owner of almost 100 acres of land. Anne's wealth allowed William to pursue his theatrical career.  Her house was similar to Shakespeare's house. We were pleased that both Cole and Kelsey appeared to enjoy the whole "Shakespeare thing."

Jeff Starring as The Ass

We left Stratford-upon-Avon and drove to Coventry specifically to visit the Coventry Cathedral. During most of the 20th century Coventry was a major manufacturing center, particularly the manufacturing of automobiles. The Detroit of England if you will. During World War II, like Detroit, the factories converted to the production of war materials making Coventry a prime target for German bombers. One of the casualties of this bombing was the Coventry Cathedral. All that survived were parts of the four outer walls. After the war a new Cathedral was built immediately adjacent to the ruins. The architect cleverly designed the entrance to the new Cathedral to be joined with one of the remaining bits of the old. The New Cathedral is a stunning contemporary edifice. We are sure when the Cathedral first opened many of the citizens of Coventry were appalled at the design. Of course, we absolutely love it. The visit was made more magical when the church organist began rehearsing for an upcoming service. An added, unplanned addition to the itinerary for the Crandall's was watching Tim and Lynda navigating the warren of streets in central Coventry. After the visit to the Cathedrals we returned to our apartment for a rousing game of UNO.

Bombed ruins of old Coventry Cathedral

New Coventry Cathedral seen behind wall of old Cathedral

Inside the new Coventry Cathedral

In 2002 we rented a cottage for six weeks in Stow-on-the-Wold, another lovely town in the Cotswolds. Thursday was spent driving to various places in the Cotswolds that we have previously visited that we thought were worth showing the Crandalls. Most of the places we went to today were of little historical importance but were unusual or unique in some way. The lone exception was the Rollrights Stones. This is a circle of stones dating from 1500 B.C. These stones are not as mammoth as those at Stonehenge, but, unlike Stonehenge, the kids were able to touch and climb on them.

Friday morning we reluctantly left our beautiful apartment in Bretforton and headed to our final destination, our Airbnb apartment located just outside of Guildford, southwest of London.  In 1986-87 we lived in Guildford while Tim was on sabbatical at the University of Surrey. Our long drive on Friday took us first to Avebury where there is a large circle of stones like Stonehenge and the Rollrights. When we say large, we mean a whole village is pretty much inside this large circle of stones. Like the Rollrights, the kids could climb on these stones. Unfortunately, the weather was lousy so we spent little time visiting this site. Stonehenge was about 15 miles from Avebury. By the time we got to Stonehenge, it had stopped raining but was still very blustery and cold. To see Stonehenge in person never fails to impress. We first saw these monoliths in 1986. Back then you could actually walk among the rocks and touch them.  Now, the closest you can get to them is about 50 feet. What makes this site so intriguing is the fact that there is no explanation for how these 30 ton stones were placed the way they were thousands of years ago. Stonehenge was pretty much the highlight of the day for all of us. On our way to our apartment we drove into Guildford and showed Heather, Cole and Kelsey where we lived in 1986-87, and where Jeff went to school. It was fun watching Jeff revisit an important part of his childhood and talk about it with his family. His family had lots of questions that we assured them we would answer on Saturday. We were all tired from the long drive and anxious to check into our apartment. This apartment was equally as large and comfortable as the apartment in Bretforton, but did not have the same cozy, homey feel to it. On the other hand, it did have a clothes dryer which is highly unusual in an English home. Heather was ecstatic. Our laundry in Bretforton had to be put on drying racks to dry.

Late Saturday morning we drove back into Guildford and spent several hours exploring the central shopping area. We watched Jeff with a mix of wonder, pride and love as he so obviously enjoyed being back in Guildford. His comment was "I can't seem to get this stupid grin off my face."  We couldn't help but remember his tears when we first arrived in Guildford, questioning why we had taken him away from his friends in Mason, to eleven months later asking Lynda why Tim and Jil couldn't return to Mason while they stayed in Guildford. While enjoying lunch, Jeff decided he wanted to walk back to Onslow Village where our house from 86-87 was located. Cole and Kelsey wanted to join him. We agreed to meet him by the village shops near where we lived. We again walked by 12 Manor Way, our home, and spent some time on the recreation ground where Jeff had spent much time as a kid. What a special day for all of us.

This morning, Sunday, we awoke to another lousy weather day. The plan was to go to Hampton Court Palace and then on to Windsor to see Windsor Castle. Hampton Court is famous as the home of King Henry VIII, although succeeding monarchs also inhabited the Castle. Of particular interest and our first destination at Hampton Court was the Maze. This maze is similar to the corn mazes we see in Michigan in the fall except this one is 300 years old and is an evergreen hedge that stands 10 feet tall. It was the first puzzle maze created in England. There are now many more of these kind of mazes in England, many more difficult then Hampton Courts, but none of them were the first maze. We were fortunate that it wasn't raining when we entered the Maze. We were the only ones in it and we had great fun entering and then trying to find our way out. We had paired up entering the Maze and the air was alight with laughter as we all worked to solve the puzzle of escaping the Maze. After all had successfully escaped we entered the Castle, and climbed a set of steps that led to Henry VIII's apartments. As you can imagine, the many rooms of his apartments were opulent. The adults enjoyed the historical facts that we learned on our tour while Cole and Kelsey enjoyed the two rooms where there were games from the 16th century that they could play.

Outside Hampton Court

Playing 16th Century Games - No Batteries Required!

We left Hampton Court, headed for Windsor which should have been about a 30 minute trip.  Between using a GPS in our Ford minivan, which is not very good, and Lynda trying to follow on maps that were equally poor, we got terribly lost, taking almost an hour to get to Windsor. By the time we got to Windsor Castle we were all so tired and Lynda and Tim so frustrated that we all looked at the Castle and said, "There it is," and were ready to return to our apartment. We do have something of interest for you, our loyal blog readers. We stopped for dessert in Windsor. As we left the restaurant, Tim and Lynda talked with the owner and found out that for the businesses in Windsor, this weekend's wedding of Prince Andrew's daughter, Eugenia, had little affect on their business while Harry and Megan's wedding was a veritable circus. All right. How many of you knew there was another royal wedding at Windsor Castle this weekend?

It is Sunday night, we are back in the apartment, we are pretty much all packed, ready to head to Heathrow tomorrow morning for our flight home. The last three and half weeks have flown by for us and the last ten days with Jeff, Heather, Cole and Kelsey have been a joy. We are yet again reminded how blessed we are with two wonderful children, equally wonderful son and daughter in laws, and four fantastic grandchildren.

Our next trip is in January. We are going to celebrate our 50th anniversary by taking Jilayne and Jeffry and their spouses, sans grandchildren(!), on a Caribbean cruise highlighted by two days in Havana, Cuba. Thanks to all of you that followed along. See you in January.