Solihull

Our destination for today was the outskirts of Birmingham via Stratford-Upon-Avon, the birthplace of Shakespeare.

A motorway route to Stratford would have been about 20 minutes quicker, but we chose to take a more scenic route through the northern Cotswolds. A lovely morning in Oxford gradually turned to showers of rain for the rest of the day.
As the Cotswolds is one area we were not spending much time in at all, we travelled via a really beautiful little town (Burton-on -the-Water) and enjoyed morning tea by the banks of this quintessentially idyllic English village. It embodied everything you could imaging a small English country town should be. Beautiful historic buildings, open spaces and grassed area running down to a perfect little stream running through the centre of town.

After coffee and pastry from the Bakery, we headed off for Stratford through more rolling hills and greenery.

We toured the Birthplace of Shakespeare and then strolled through town a short distance to meet up with Stephen and Lindsey Whitehouse for lunch. It was lovely to see them again and we talked for a couple of hours over lunch. We had stayed so long that Daniel (their son, who attends school there - the same school that Shakespeare attended!) strolled down the street and we chatted briefly before we all had to part company.
The Whitehouses asked to pass on their love to all of you who might know them.

It was now late in the afternoon, but we still had 3 more sightseeing tasks before heading to our overnight accommodation near Birmingham.

Shakespeare’s ‘new place’, Anne Hathaway’s cottage and then a drive to Coventry to take a short look at the Cathedral that was bombed during World War 2 and stands as a grim reminder of what the British endured. So badly and repeatedly was Coventry bombed due to its industrial production, car and aircraft engines, munitions manufacture etc that it became one of Hitler’s prime targets. Today the bombed out shell of the Cathedral is an ongoing reminder of the ‘Coventry Blitz’.

A half hour drive from Coventry to our little apartment in Solihull saw us arriving at about 7pm. Not much dinner required after a large and excellent lunch with our friends.Read more