Oxford, Cotswald, Stratford -Upon-Avon

Dear Members,

This is that last segment of our trip.

Below is a picture of one of the colleges in Oxford.




We saw Trinity College and Christ Church. For those of you that are Harry Potter fans this was the location of the dining hall at Hogwarts, plus a staircase in the same college is used in the film.

Lewis Caroll's father was a professor at Christ Church and there are elements of the college that inspired his stories. As an homage to him there is an Alice In Wonderland Window in the dining hall. You may be able to Google it; our pictures did not turn out.



We stopped at the village of Burford. It is in the Cotswolds. The Cotswalds is not a county, but a group of counties that are involved in the wool trade. We spent a week in the Gloucestershire Cotswolds. Burford is in the Oxfordshire Cotswolds. Each area also has it's own type of architecture due to the kind of rock/stone in the area. So as you drive through you will notice what area you are in by the color of shape of the stone on the buildings.

Burford was lovely. We had lunch here.


Then we did some browsing at a local shop and noticed a nice selection of Weight Watcher Products. Here are some sauces. The English love their "curries" so it's not surprising to find different Indian Sauces in the supermarket.



We also found some great cookies made for Weight Watchers by Walkers, the maker of the famous shortbread. These are white chocolate raspberry cookies. They are 1 and 1/2 points for 2 cookies!!



As we were leaving the village we had to take this picture. It's a perfect example of the beauty of this place.



On to Anne Hathaway's Cottage and Shakespeare's birthplace at Straford - Upon - Avon.

Anne's family's cottage has been perserved for many years and the gardens developed and maintained. It was so wonderful as they planted many types of sweet peas along the paths even those dating back to the 1600's. It smelled wonderful.




Shakespeare visited this cottage when he was wooing Anne. They did not live here.



Beautiful day



In London we walked the Millenium Bridge from St. Pauls Cathedral to Southwark where the reproduction of The Globe Theatre was built in 1993. It took 50 years to build.

It was built about 2 miles from the original spot. Currently the original location has another protected building on it so there is no way for them to excavate it. Next door to that location they did find the reminance of The Rose Theatre, which preceeded The Globe. Archeologists are currently working on the site.




The entire structure is put together with wooden pegs/dowels. There were no nails used in building this theatre. The stage is painted to represent heaven and hell and is similar to a Greek Stage, so that good/holy characters come down to the stage from above and may enter Hell through the floor. The audience was seated based on class. The lowest class (the groundlings) stood for hours on the bottom floor up against the stage. There could be at least 1000 people down there, then each floor represented higher classes. The highest class or royalty would sit behind the stage. It may not seem exciting to us, but they wanted to be seen by the public just as you were viewing the actors. We were told that they often interrupted the play and spoke with the actors and musicians just to get attention. There would be food and drink served at the shows that would last for hours (especially with all the interruptions) and there would hardly be any set dressing. The plays were speaking plays not action, so that is why Shakespeare's text was so rich. He wasn't putting on action blockbusters, but more like readings.

The film Shakespeare In Love does not accurately depict Shakespeare except for the fact that only men were allowed to be actors. It was considered extremely low class to be an actor and even worse for a woman. It would be worse than being a prostitute. Shakespeare was wealthy and successful, being a partner in this theatre and having a home in London and back in Stratford.



Today, we visited the Charles Dicken's Museum. (Charles Dickens was intregal in perserving William Shakespeare's birthplace in Stratford) The museum is located in a house that Charles and Catherine owned when they initally moved to London, before the Pickwick Papers really took off.

This is the first place we really were allowed to take photos inside. We have many, but only are showing you this one. The two paintings are of Charles and Catherine when they were first married and moved into this house. Both very happy. Heather says, "He was an amazing salvation for the Victorian poor, one of my favorite authors, but a real J*ck%ss of a husband and father."






It was about 90 degrees. I had Heather snap this picture of me in Charles and Catherine's back garden.



We left the museum and came back to the hotel for lunch and freshen up before seeing 39 Steps tonight in Piccadilly Circus.

At the High Street Kensington Underground Station there are creature comforts from: Marks & Spencer to Cornish Pasties to Boots Chemist.

The day before we leave, we just realized that Boots sells food!!!

And healthy choices, no less!!!

They have a line called "Shapers". They offer a multitude of food that is easily labeled for those of us that want to stay health conscious.

They use Traffic Light Nutrition. Meaning each item is labeled with Green dots indicating "go for it" foods, Yellow dots signifying " Enjoy Most of the Time" foods, and Red dots for "Indulge Now & Again" foods. This was so simple and easy. I hope the US comes up with the same system.

I will show you these products when I return, but here are some photographs.












By the way, they all tasted GREAT!!! We had a ginger ale that was to die for and that was only 15 calories for about 160z bottle!

This will be the last entry of my blog in England, as tomorrow we will be on the airplane coming home.

I will be seeing my At Work people at the City on Wednesday and WWU on Thursday. The rest of you I will see the start of next week - Monday and Tuesday.

I look forward to reconnecting with everyone and am anxious to see your progress while I've been gone.

Cheer-e-o from Merry Olde England!!!

Paula and Heather