The cart-wheeling Dame
Or
Our Trip to Stratford from 14 to 19 December 2006
After having looked forward to this trip since September, it was finally time to go to the airport and fly over to London. We stayed in London for one night, going to the movies and watching Casino Royale– again.
Which is a really great movie and Judi’s one-liners are just priceless… I astonished eye doctors all over the world by not being able to read anything on screen except Judi’s name :P.
Friday morning we boarded the train to Stratford.
Michaela
me and Lies
None of us (
in fact, one of us had been there before :P – but not remembering :-P) having been there before, we were quite curious. After about 2 hours we finally arrived there. Our cottage turned out to be a very nice house with three bedrooms in total, kitchen, living room, a rather large bathroom and 4 tv sets. Not that we needed those but anyway.
As it was only a couple of days after Judi’s birthday, we thought that we’d bring her some flowers. The florist was rather easy to find, and after leaving the lollipop there so it could be included in the flowers
the "lollipopped" flowers
– yes, we are mad :-P – we went off to discover the town. And what a beautiful place Stratford is. One of the cutest places I’ve ever seen. I think the word “cute” got a bit over-used then as we ran through the streets, repeating “God, this is sooo cute.” over and over. *g* But it was really true.
Yeah, it was just sooo… well, cute, cottage being all purple and pretty, town being well, not purple, but very pretty. Didn’t remember much from last time I had been there (seeing how very young I was then… ok, so it was three years ago, shut up :P) and was really all aw.
Then it was already time to pick up the flowers and go back to the cottage to prepare. After all in the evening we had our first tickets for Merry Wives - The Musical. And well, three women having to use the bathroom, washing hair, applying makeup… you know the lot. Eventually we made it, and so we set off to the theatre. As we didn’t fancy keeping the flowers in the theatre, we gave them to staff at the stage door, including a birthday card for Judi.
The play was totally marvellous, I can only recommend everyone to go and see for themselves. The music is great, the cast just wonderful. Mistress Quickly cart-wheeled across the stage… or not. :-P It’s really highly enjoyable.
Judi (or rather Mistress Quickly) as Fairy Queen
Can just second that, it was squeeing from beginning to end… the tango and the Cartwheeling Dame had us in hysterics and “Honeysuckle Villain” proved that we’re actually a set of old-ish softies ;).
When we came out of the theatre it was raining, so we decided not to get any autographs then. There’d be two more performances for us anyway. So when Judi got out, we just said that we hoped that she’d enjoy the lollipop. Apparently it had amused her a great deal and she said that she’d try to defend it against her grandson. :-P And then she was already off.
Saturday went by rather quickly. We went to visit Shakespeare’s birthplace,
Shakespeare's Birthplace
found some nice shops with pictures of Judi from RSC performances and bought t-shirts with a quote from Merry Wives, saying “There’s money. Spend it, spend it; spend more.” Of course we totally loved those and couldn’t resist. *g*
our shiny shirts
Although we are responsible people and don’t spend much money at all ;). No hey, honestly, we were very nice with money! I swear! But the T-shirts were pink and cute and… yeah. Saturday, we also visited a butterfly farm, which was quite nice (except for certain people exploiting my rather silly snake-o-phobia ;) it was a rubber snake :P)… where butterflies confused us for taxis and were very pretty (and rather often dead as well, but shh).
In the evening we went to see Merry Wives again. Poor Judi looked rather tired afterwards but small wonder after two performances that day and a total of eight per week. That’s quite a lot. But she was gracious as always and gave lots of autographs. And – against what she said in Scenes from my Life about not driving her car – she did drive herself that evening. With the roof of the car open. Gave us quite the shivers but her colleague Haydn Gwynne (playing Mistress Page) felt the same. *g*
Was sooo funny, she was just signing my playbill and suddenly I hear sounds of astonishment and there Judi went… not driving that car herself, yeah yeah. Shakes head ;). She also might or might not have stolen a hamster that belongs to us. We are not entirely sure yet. This comment should be ignored, but it needed to be said :P.
Sunday was Judi’s day off, and so for once we didn’t have to rush back to the house in the afternoon to get changed and everything. So we slept in and then went off to visit Anne Hathaway’s cottage (aka Shakespeare’s wife)
Anne Hathaway's Cottage
which was rather interesting. It’s really nice that there are usually people who give explanations to all the exhibits and living conditions in those times.
The afternoon was filled with another stroll around Stratford. I simply love the fact that shops are open in England even on Sundays. Quite a luxury which Germany hasn’t discovered (yet). So both Lies and I went to buy a kilt, Michaela had done so the previous day.
We spontaneously morphed into Scots… arrr!
Evening came quite soon, and after some dinner we decided to watch Driving Lessons (the new Julie Walters movie) on tv. Was a nice surprise that it was on in the first place.
I believe this is also the night when we asked each other legendary Trivial Pursuit questions… Bob Marley spontaneously popped up in “A Christmas Carol” and offered a whole new explanation to the fact that Scrooge was seeing ghosts. (Yeah, as I read it too quickly and misread Jacob Marlow for Bob Marley… *headdesk*)
Monday came all too soon, and as it would be our last day in Stratford, we were a bit sad about that. We decided to visit Hall’s Croft, another one of the Shakespeare Houses (used to belong to his son-in-law)
Hall's Croft
and have another stroll around Stratford to do some more shopping (yeah, sorry *g*) before we were off to our last performance of Merry Wives. It was a great evening, just as the previous times. Afterwards we got another autograph and pictures with Judi and her brother Jeffrey (who’s a totally sweet guy, btw)
Judi, me and Lies
Jeffrey, me and Lies
and sang “We wish you a merry Christmas” for Judi which seemed to amuse her quite a lot.
She was really well-rested again on this day and was very nice and looked rather smiley and happy when we sang for her. She drove (yet again) with the roof down. (though not herself, this time) Shakes head! Her brother is, indeed, adorable and needs to be adopted as a grandfather. Yes.
Tuesday meant that we had to leave for home again but I’m quite sure that Stratford won’t have seen the last of us. It’s way too beautiful not to return there, perhaps in summer.
In the meantime: If you have the time and opportunity to see Merry Wives, please do. Though Judi plays Mistress Quickly who doesn’t have such a large part in the original play, the RSC has adapted the play a bit and enlarged the part for Judi. It’s really worthwhile seeing it. For more information and tickets click here: Merry Wives - The Musical
Thanks to Lies and Michaela for a great time – and to Judi, of course.
I can just return that. It was a wonderful time and I miss both of you – and Judi ;).
Merry Christmas to everyone and happy new year!
For the colour coding - I wrote the green parts, blue comments by Lies. :-P And please don't repost or reproduce any of the pics!
Relevant links:
Stratford-upon-Avon: Birthplace of Shakespeare