21st June 2011 - Who the 'F' is Shakespeare?

So, on to Stratford-Upon-Avon! Cloudy and windy and few boats about. Uneventful cruising all the way to Stratford, can't think of anything to say, so here's the view from Welford Lock:

And here's us moored on the river at Stratford:

It's very pretty and quite busy with trip boats and rowing boats, I even saw a punt go by. We took a walk around and the buildings, well the really old ones are quite something. But what is it with all this 'Shakespeare is once thought to have had a beer here' or 'Shakespeare is once thought to have taken a pee there' In my most humble opinion it's all total bollocks! Not only to kids at school who get put of him for life, he couldn't even talk or write proper! Yay verily etc etc, have you guessed I'm not impressed. Still the Bard aside (is there an sta missing here?) Stratford is quite a nice place if you can look past the japanese tourists taking pictures of each other in front of nearly everything, including the boat!

A pleasant evening, first we go to Cox's yard (I'm sure last time I was here (27 years ago!) it was actually a working boat yard!) which is a complex of pub, cafe etc to order drinks to discover that they finished serving food at 1800 - odd! So into Stratford to find a really nice bistro type place for a wonderful meal - Yum!

Today:     9 miles -     6 locks -      5 hours
So Far: 200 miles - 144 locks - 96.5 hours