Day 8: Stratford Upon Avon and Nottingham

We arrived in Stratford Friday morning and immediately found our friend "The Fool". So, we do what comes naturally and strike our own foolish pose.

Some are more standard poses than others....
A main shopping street in Stratford. We arrived at a perfect time. By the time we left, this street was packed. I picked up a Tudor Rose Christmas tree ornament in a fun Christmas shop here.
The birthplace of William Shakespeare.
The Tudor style is just so cool.
An old church on our walk:

Ashley and Jake decided to go into the church where Shakespeare is buried to see his final resting place and snap some pictures. I opted to stay out in the gorgeous weather in the graveyard. The girls played hide and seek among the gravestones after handing out heart confetti they found to passersby.
I can't express what a beautiful day this was and what a neat, kind of laid back feeling the city put off. The sparkling River Avon was just a little past the edge of the graveyard.
Here's my Cole exploring. I bought The Graveyard Book to read on the plane and during any down time. This picture reminded me of it.
We then made our way to Nottingham! John and Ash were kind enough to include this in our stop because Jacob really wanted to see the home where his great grandmother was raised. This would be his Grandpa McCune's mother, who worked in the lace factories and whose father was a well established lace maker as well. We mentioned we'd be going to Nottingham to a few people who told us there isn't much there to see, but when you've got a connection, then there is plenty to see. Plus, I actually really enjoyed Nottingham. Maybe it's because I had low expectations, but I enjoyed our time spent there.

Here is the house:

We dropped our stuff off at the hotel and then went to find the Crime and Punishment museum --oooooooh. But it was closed. We were directed to a place where Jake could find more information on possible places to look for family history stuff. The people in Nottingham were incredibly friendly and clearly open to tourism. Ashley told me about a great store called Primark?, so when we saw one, we ran in and told the boys we'd meet up with them soon. Hooray for fun and cheap fashion! That would be where the little girls got their fabulous feather headbands. They were having so much fun trying on jewelry and hair accessories that after they tried these on, Ash swiped them up and bought them for the happy girls.
We bought some Nottingham lace from the tourism info place and then moved along. We made our way over to Nottingham castle, which is a modern castle with a few medieval stones still in place.
Robin Hood in the garden:
Since we were in no hurry, we got a little photo happy on the last night of our road trip. This was next to the castle:Right after, a big group of young men came up and had us take their picture doing the same pose.

And then the kids found THIS statue:

The girls were cracking me up with their loving on Robin Hood.

Ashley took several photos close up while getting the girls giggling, which I'm really happy to have.



On the way back to our hotel:

There was a grocery store close to our hotel, so we grabbed crackers, smoothies, cheese, meats, fruits and veggies, and decided to have a dinner party in our hotel room. The kids were more interested in bouncing around with each other than in in the food, but I loved that they had so much fun with one another.