Europe on 5-10 Nervous Breakdowns a Day (37)
DAYS 42, 43 – THURSDAY & FRIDAY, JUNE 6, 7, 1974 – “SHAKESPEARE FOR A DOLLAR, ALEX.”
Alan insisted on taking us around Thursday morning. Birmingham is an industrial city, the second largest city in Great Britain—about two million people. There is little to see, but we bought some groceries (we discovered milk that has been zapped so thoroughly [irradiated] that it requires no refrigeration—perfect to keep in our motel room!).
It rained off and on all day, the first rain Birmingham had had in months. As much rain as we’ve had on our travels, we may need to hire out as rainmakers. Maybe it’s because the tired missionary shuffle is so much like an Indian rain dance.
Alan decided he would make our visit “a campaign.” For some reason, he labeled my sermons “Christianity in Australia.”
Thursday evening, I spoke on “The Challenge to Believe in the 20th Century.” Afterward, there was a question-and-answer session (which had also been news to me).
On Friday, the family went to Stratford-Upon-Avon using buses and trains.
We didn’t get there until about 1:30. When we got off the train, we followed the crowd, found the main road, and finally found the information center. It’s a small town so everything is within walking distance.
To Shakespeare’s birthplace.
The old buildings are wattle-and-daub. Heavy timbers formed the skeleton. Then the spaces were filled in with interwoven willow branches and finally covered with mud or clay. In more modern times, they have been plastered over.
To a park with a statue of Shakespeare and some of his characters. (In two of the pictures below, Angie is looking at Hamlet and rubbing the belly of Falstaff.)
Nearby was a theatre where “King John” was being performed. Other sites included where Shakespeare went to school and where he is buried.
We walked to Anne Hathaway’s cottage (where Shakespeare’s wife lived with her family before she married). It’s a couple of miles out of town.
The cottage was lived in up to sixty years ago. It has a thatched roof, but we saw several occupied houses with that kind of roof. (One thatched roof had a TV antenna—the old meets the new!)
My brother Coy and his wife Sharlotte would have loved this. They are the “theater” and “Shakespearian” people in our family.
We didn’t make it back to our motel room in Birmingham until 9:00. A long day, but we had been to Shakespeare-land!
