Leamington Spa; Sunday, 15 August, 2010

An uneventful journey up to Leamington and then a much quicker walk than I was expecting from the station to the hotel meant that I was checked in and ready to go just a couple of minutes after midday, so I was able to catch the bus to Stratford an hour earlier than I was expecting.

When I visited Coventry at the start of the year I had brought an ‘all sights’ ticket from the Shakespeare birthplace trust which would give me unlimited access to all of the five sites for the whole year, for pretty much the same as paying individual entry fees at three sites, so at the time it appeared to be good value. Today it turned out to be even better value as it meant I could go back to the sites, and visit the one that was closed back in February, for free.

First stop, via the open-top tour bus was Mary Arden’s farm. Mary was Williams’ Grandmother. After having had a long look around the site I caught the bus back into town and went round to the Nash house where they were carrying out archaeological digs on the site of the house where Shakespeare died so there was much more to see than when I had been in February.

I had a bit of a wander around town and a refresh on the rest of the Shakespeare sites, though not being able to take much in as the sites were much busier in mid-August than they were in February!

Thankfully, I had checked on arrival the times of the buses back to Leamington so I had found out early that the last bus on a Sunday is just after half six, so made sure that I was back at the bus stop in time to catch the bus back.

By the time I had gotten back to Leamington everything had closed, which was a bit of a problem as I had been hoping to buy breakfast! I had a long wander around the town before grabbing a bit to eat and heading back to the hotel.