DAY 296

Wednesday 2 May 2012

Steve, Sylvia and Dian

The whispered tip from the camping caravan guy turned out to be a great one. We awoke to the sound of the surf right across the street and clean, OPEN restrooms. Our new neighbors, Sylvia and Steve came over for an impromptu harmonizing on “Scarborough Fair” and with a VaVa CD as a parting gift to this genuinely cool couple, we drove off. The arcade/Coney island feel of Scarborough was appreciated and we took pictures under the sign (though there was no Fair that day).

Farm and town signs with unusual names were written down for future use. These included: Potter Brompton, Scagglethorpe, Kirby Misperton, Flaxby Coneythorpe, Wilfred, Muckles and Foolifoot. We listened to radio stations with good (finally) music for our taste including David Bowie and Jet. We witnessed a fender bender in the parking lot below York cathedral so decided not to brave the parking scene there. Further along in Harrogate we stopped for lunch in a residential area with beautiful mansions. The town had a lovely large green park at its entrance but again too many NO PARKING signs.

Whilst Dian was in the back looking over the maps she discovered that Shakespeare’s birthplace was pretty much on the route we were taking to Glastonbury. The group consensus was unanimous and we programmed James (our GPS) for the slight detour.

Stratford-upon-Avon was well worth the hour we spent there. Being late in the day we parked at a bus (called coach) parking lot and went to the home that has been preserved where William Shakespear (no “e” on some documents) was born and raised. In the gift store we bought some Shakespeare related items and as we looked out into the garden we saw two thespians practicing their roles. Since we had opted out of taking the tour we approached them with that piece of information but said it would be great if we could get a photo of them decked out in costumes. They not only complied but asked if we would fancy a short excerpt from one of Shakespeare’s plays! Since Nicole had been in "A Midsummer Night’s Dream" we asked for that and before you knew it a scene in Shakespeare’s backyard was being performed for us. It surely couldn’t get much better than that! It did though as Marco and Charlotte gave each of us either a sprig of rosemary or a flower from the garden with a salutation in Shakespeare’s olde English.

Shakespeare's birthplace

Leaving the town at about 4:30 in the afternoon got us to our friends in Glastonbury by 8 with a short meal break of chicken noodle soup and grilled cheese sandwiches by some woods. It was raining lightly as we pulled into our old parking spot across from Ravi’s house. Soon Ina and Richard joined us from their house and we sat down to a feast of roast turkey, potatoes and peas. We caught them up on our adventures through Wales and Scotland but couldn’t persuade them to follow their original plan to visit there since the weather forecast was so bad. We called our cousin in Phoenix and had a good chat with him but missed reaching Grandmother,  Grandad and Aunt Monica. Later though, Charles was able to reach them and friend Joel.