Monday 15th August

A day off in Stratford :-) We started by taking Mary H almost to the top of the navigable part of the river. Tomorrow we will turn onto the Stratford Canal so we thought it would be nice to go as far as we could along the Avon. After tying Mary H alongside Cecilia we walked into the town and bought a baguette from the Baguette Barge! The Stratford waterfront is dominated by the Royal Shakespeare Company and it’s newly rebuilt theatre which the Queen opened on March 4th 2011. The original theatre which was opened on April 23rd (Shakespeare’s birthday) 1932 was not the most attractive of buildings - it certainly looks better now but from the river still looks rather ugly. Part of the new building is a 36 metre high tower which provides circulation and excellent views across Stratford-upon-Avon and the surrounding area from its 32 metre high viewing platform. I should mention that the very first theatre was opened in 1879 and was ncorporated into the 1932 theatre. Next it was an ice-cream from the ice-cream boat and a venture up into town. We then wandered back to the boats and had a quiet afternoon. It was Penny’s turn to cook but Jim took pity on her snuffling and sneezing so he did it.