Stratford-Upon-Avon

We love Stratford-Upon-Avon, known as Shakespeare's birth place it is quintessentially British, packed with history and a great place to spend the day.

With our friend Lisa in tow we decided to make the most of the lovely weather and head there on Saturday. It's a half an hour drive from home and as a tourist place it has plenty of parking - even if it is pricey!

Highlights (in our opinion) are:

• Taking a canal boat into the surrounding countryside - just beautiful
• Wandering the streets and admiring the old buildings - including Shakespeare house
• Hanging out by the canals admiring the view and the sculptures 
• Popping into the all year Christmas shop
• Making a pit-stop in the fudge store, or cheese store or any store allowing you samples
• Chilling out in a pub by the canals

You can check out what their tourist board recommends here: http://www.visitstratforduponavon.co.uk/

We did most of these on Saturday and were lucky enough to time it for Shakespeare's birthday celebrations so there were street performances, Morris dancers, Irish dancers (not sure of the link to Shakespeare but I love Irish music so it was fine with me), bands playing and a street market. It didn't leave much time for exploring the shops!

With Bisbee in tow we had also scoped out a dog friendly pub - the Dirty Duck - it had a great menu and views overlooking the canals, it was the perfect spot to chill out, catch up and enjoy a fruit cider. How very British :)

Bisbee would like the steak please!

There is something so relaxing about having the time to hang out with great people in great places - while it would have been nice to sit at home by heading out we had an unexpectedly fun day.

Outside Shakespeare House!

A personal highlight was poor Bisbee being passed around a hen party for pictures - well she was modelling her baby grow and looked super cute (even if we say so)! Although L did feel the need to inform anyone who looked over that the only reason she was wearing a baby grow was because she had just had an operation.

It is so nice having our old Bisbee back, after 3 days of moping around and being diagnosed as a 'drama queen' by the vet it was great to see her back to her energetic self - she even resumed the position of guard dog protecting L from the sun of all things! This is what our Sunday looked like:

We hope you had a fun weekend!